Donna’s 2021 Fiat 500e la Prima Edition Cabriolet

We’ve now driven the car quite a bit further, including a trip to Dunedin. So, what do we think now? As I said before, acceleration, particularlyfrom a standing start, is impressive and it goes round corners pretty well, with good grip, not much lean and a rather firm ride. Having a lot of weight (i.e. the batteries)low downwill help with most ofthat.The500-oddkilometres to Dunedin and back was almost as far again as we had driven the car since taking delivery and was our first experience of a lengthy EV journey.

How did the trip in the 500e compare to the same trip in a petrol car?

Both Donna’s previous car (a 2006 Nissan March) and the 124 Abarth could easily do a return trip to Dunedin on a full tank of petrol. The 500e started with a “full tank” as we had charged the car to 100% before we left Riverton. The range readout told us this would take us 250kms, barely enough to get to Dunedin. Donnaresearched chargingpoints onthejourney (Gore – 95km, Balclutha – 160km and Milton – 180km) as we planned to stop once on the way, expecting that travelling at open road speeds and up and down the hills would reduce the range. This proved correct as by the time we got to Balclutha we had expended almost 200km of range. We called in at the charging point there, only to find it occupied. On to Milton, where we plugged in for 20 minutes, which took the battery from 21% to 67%, adding just over 100km of range while we walked around.We arrived atArmstrong’s with 45% battery, just over 100km, remaining.

When we picked the car up after the service (a fluids check and a general look over) Armstrong’s had charged the car to nearly 80%, which was a bonus. I’d booked us an overnight stayin Mosgiel at a B&B that advertised having achargingpoint. This turnedout to be just adomesticoutsidepower point and we hadn’t brought our home charging cable with us. Even if we had, it started raining soon after we arrived and we couldn’t have charged the car safely anyway, so we were very glad to haveArmstrong’s boost!

Our journey home the next day was basically the reverse of getting to Dunedin. We stopped for 30 minutes in Gore and had a snack in a café while the car charged from 20% to 74%, adding 140km of range this time, and we arrived home with 36% charge, about 90km.

I had taken the 124 Abarth to Armstrong’s for a service three days earlier. That journey took 3½ hours with one very short “comfort” stop and in the 500e it was 4 hours with the extra time accounted for by the charging time. Having said that, if I take Donna to Dunedin we usually have a coffee stop on the way, so no real difference in time. The most noticeable difference was the quietness. We could converse without the need to raise our voices!

What about the cost of the journey? The two electric top-ups cost $13.70 and$16.30for100km and144km giving figures of13.7c and11.3cperkm, respectively. Over the 3¼ years and nearly 9,000km of our ownership the March averaged 5.5L/100km, which at current fuel prices works out at about 13.8c per km so the 500e was cheaper, but only because we started with a full battery and got Armstrong’s “free” charge-up. Using charging point electricity for the whole journey the costs would have been similar.

As for servicing, the 500e cost $165 (just labour – no parts or fluids) and an equivalent service for the March at our local garage would cost about the same but that’s at an independent garage, not a main dealer. On the expected mileage the 500e will just need an annual service, the same as the March did. During our ownership of the March we spent just under $1500 on servicing but $1,000 of that was accounted for byfive new tyres (the old ones had plentyof tread but were veryold), a new battery, wiper blades and WoFs, all of which I would expect the 500e to need at about the same intervals.Yes,the500ealsohasa12voltbattery! It willalsoneedhydraulic fluid and coolant changes at similar intervals to the March, so for routine servicing it’s not that clear cut, particularly as the 124 Spider is still on its original clutch, brakes and exhaust after 6 years and 106,000km.

Where the 500e really scores is the short journeys it was bought for. Charging at home is effectively free, as we have solar panels, so it costs nothing to run for Donna’s use. (Electricity from the network is only 35c per kWh compared to 80c from the public chargers, so that would more than halve the “fuel” cost compared to the March.) The other bigadvantage is that the 500e loves short journeys around town whereas modern petrol cars hate being driven for very short distances and then being parked up.

How does the 500e stack up against the March? Are we saving money or the planet? Well, for Donna’s usage it makes no economic sense to have replaced the March with the 500e. Donna will probably do no more than

2,000km annually so even with her mileage being “free” and offsetting the full running costs of the March (22c per km) it will take about 160YEARS to recoup the additional cost of buying the 500e!

The good news is that the 500e is the most environmentally-friendly car according to Green NCAP. However, about 7.5 tonnes of CO2 were emitted during manufacture of our 500e and shipping it from Italy to the UK and then to NZ.According to Nissan, the March emitted 115g of C02 per km or about 0.23 tonnes over Donna’s estimated annual mileage. This means it willtakeonly30 yearsforthe500etobe“greener”thankeepingtheMarch!

It’s not just about economics, or saving the planet, though – the most important thing is that Donna loves “Bubble” and, as a very wise man once said, “Happy wife, happy life” and that is truly priceless!

David North

New Test for Seniors

This test will keep that dreaded disease that affects your memory at bay! New Senior's Exam, you only need 4 correct out of 10 questions to pass.

1) How long did the Hundred Years' War last?

2) Which country makes Panama hats?

3) From which animal do we get cat gut?

4) In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution?

5) What is a camel's hair brush made of?

6) The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animal?

7) What was King George VI's first name?

8) What colour is a purple finch?

9) Where are Chinese gooseberries from?

10) What is the colour of the black box in a commercial airplane?

Sent in by Bill Sheddan (Answers next month)

Then & Now????

Can anyone relate this very old 17th Century nursery rhyme to today's world? It apparently came about during the Black Plague.

"Ring around the Rosie. Apocket full of posies

Atishoo,Atishoo We all fall down."

The ring was the red rash in the form of a circle. Doctors believed that if pockets were filled with flowers, this would ward off the disease.

Atishoo was the sneezing that went with it.

Falling down was the death.

Another version sang “Ashes,Ashes”. This related to the many bodies that were cremated.

Ilooked up Mr Google for this information after one of our members began telling us the history.

Nancy Stronach

[See also: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20150610-the-dark-side-of-nurseryrhymes

The Editor]

From Gerry Kennedy

A mate told me to put horse manure on my strawberries. I tried it, but I have gone back to whipped cream.

A guy went to a fancy dress party dressed as an oven. His mate also turned up dressed as an oven.

“I thought you were dressing up as a parrot.”

“No, I said I was coming as a cooker too.”

Two little boys at a wedding. One asks, “How many wives can you have?”

“Sixteen”, the other says, “four richer, four poorer, four better, four worse.”

Reminders

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