The hardest thing about my new car had nothing to do with it being electric

I keep my cars for a long time. This is more due to laziness and a desire to stay in my comfort zone than any instinct for thrift. Once I know where all its controls are located, the radio is set to my preferred station and my seat is far enough forward for my short legs, I am loath to change it.

Jane Caro behind the wheel of her new electric vehicle.

Since 1997, when I bought my first brand-new car, I have owned just four – and one of those was written off by a teenage daughter who had just learnt to drive. My last car was 13 years old and, after giving very good service, was becoming unreliable. Reluctantly, after the umpteenth visit to the mechanic, I decided it was time to upgrade.

Given it was 2023, as far as I was concerned there was only one choice: an electric car. Why would I buy a new car that was still using old technology? Especially as prices for EVs are coming down while the number of EV chargers in shopping centre car parks and other public areas is going up.

Yes, I had range anxiety. Yes, I worried about how easy and/or convenient it would be to charge my car. I also wondered how complicated an EV would be to drive. Given that every car I had ever owned featured not just an internal-combustion engine but a manual gearbox, my leap into the future of motoring was a big one.

As it turned out, the hardest things to get used to about my new car had nothing to do with the vehicle being electric. My BYD Atto is a dream to drive and, after a minor hiccup on a trip to Canberra a few days after I bought it, charging is a breeze and range anxiety a non-issue.

We have a power point in our carport. After a few days of my normal city driving, once the car’s charge is down to about 60 per cent, I simply plug it in and leave it overnight, just as I do with my phone. Next morning, both car and phone are fully charged.

The frantic beeping so unnerves me that I almost collide with the retaining wall while trying to avoid the leaf!

Rather, the things I have found hardest to get used to are ubiquitous in every new car. First, the reversing camera. I’ve never had one of those before and it’s taken me ages to get used to watching the yellow lines and not looking in my rear vision mirror.

The other, frankly, is all the goddamn beeping the car does, especially when I back down the driveway. Am I about to scratch my new car on the retaining wall? Or slam into another car coming down the road? Or, worse, into an unseen pedestrian approaching my driveway? No, I am not. Instead, I am in imminent danger of hitting a leaf or a stick or a flower head. The frantic beeping so unnerves me that I almost collide with the retaining wall while trying to avoid the leaf!

There are all sorts of warning beeps that go off in my EV. Mostly I have no idea what they’re about, so I ignore them, which rather defeats the purpose.

Of course, it isn’t just cars that scream at you these days. All machines now nag, with dishwashers, dryers, washing machines etc demanding to be unpacked immediately. Irons and microwaves sanctimoniously protest when you leave them on, or their doors open for too long. I’m not afraid that AI will destroy humanity by actively wishing us harm; I am afraid it will turn the world into one gigantic, endless, unidentifiable, unnecessary BEEEEP trying to keep us safe!

But back to my EV. Apart from the beeping, it’s wonderful. Reasonably priced – under $50k on-road – it’s incredibly cheap to run, has acceleration that leaves petrol cars in my dust, and a turning circle tighter than even the smallest petrol car I’ve owned. And there’s very little that can go wrong. It even upgrades its software automatically, just like a computer.

Apart from the lack of greenhouse emissions, the feature I think will most change the world is how quiet it is. Mine emits a hum up to a speed of 30 kilometres an hour for safety reasons (far less irritating than any beep) and then … silence. Imagine our world without traffic noise. Imagine the peace that lies ahead for us all. Imagine the calm and lessening of stress.

And without the sound of a revving engine when I accelerate, literally driving me along, my impatience diminishes and I feel a new sense of ease behind the wheel. Maybe the demise of the brrrum, brrrum, brrrum of the internal-combustion engine will lead to us all relaxing a bit more behind the wheel, easing off the accelerator – and the road rage.

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