Just a couple of examples. Could I just jump in any EV and drive it 500 miles without having
And presumably, this would, of course, be 500 miles non-stop, 'cause everyone does that... right...?
Yes, you don't NEED a smart phone to drive an EV, but if you DO have a smart phone, it can get your EV to do lots of things that an ICE can't do at all - (like warming it up and de-icing it in time for departure on a cold day, or cooling it down on a hot day). However, for that authentic ICE experience, you can just forget the smart phone, if you really like scraping ice or burning your butt on a hot car seat.
Yes, you don't *need* apps. You can do a 500 mile trip without apps, but if you DO have apps, it sometimes gets you a bit of a discount on the charging costs, and it lets you use more of the small, really slow chargers, should you wish. All the powerful route chargers, however, will take contactless these days. (They have to, by law).
Is that something that happens to you a lot, then? You suddenly have to make a 500 mile trip and there's some reason why you don't want to take a means of paying for thing with you?
Well, OK, you don't need a *credit" card, but you would, at least need a debit card. But then, you'd need one of those to fill your ICE vehicle with fuel before your 500 mile trip too, so you could always use that one, I guess? Or are you one of these people who still carries a purse of cash round and pays or everything in cash?
(In which case, I guess that rules out any unattended petrol stations too...)
sat nav to find suitable charge points that actually work etc, etc
You don't need a sat nav, really. You'll find the charging points at all the service stations now. However, if your 500 mile trip takes you off the beaten track, you might find it useful to find some of the more out-of-the-way ones (but then, sat navs can also help you find out-of-the-way petrol stations too...)
Could an EV be repaired by a home mechanic - no.
Depending on what was wrong with it, yes, why not? Of course, there's a lot less
TO go wrong with one - no cam belt, no glow plugs, no injectors, no exhaust, no fuel pump, no alternator, no clutch, no oil filter, no spark plugs, no air filter, no fuel filter, no cat, no DPF, no AdBlue....
... but they do still have brake fluid and screenwash! They also have suspension and steering joints, wheel bearings, tyres, brake pads... (Not that you'd have to do brake pads very often...)
Of course, there aren't any jobs on an ICE that a home mechanic couldn't do, are there...?
Could an EV be repaired by any garage - no.
That really depends on whether the garages want to upskill and learn how to do it, or whether they just chuck the towel in because it's "too complicated". A few will survive, doing "classic" ICES, I guess. The advent of fuel injection caused a lot of elderly proprietors to just give up because they couldn't handle cars without carburetors. After that, it was on-board diagnostics. Ever since the motor car was invented, there have been those who have kept pace with the changes and survived, and there have been those who have fallen behind and gone out of business.
Can a badly damaged EV be repaired by any body shop - no.
Nor can they repair a badly damaged ICE. That's what Cat A and B write-offs are...
Can an EV be repaired with minor chassis/floor pan damage - often not.
Sometimes not. There are plenty that (through ignorance and fear) get written off when they shouldn't be, because bodyshops lack the necessary skills, and there is one particular brand that tries to make their cars in a way that is difficult to repair, but by and large, yes, they can do it.
Can you get an EV without complex touch screen and thousands of unnecessary functions - no.
Hard to get an ICE without a touchscreen these days! That's got nothing to do with whether it's an EV or not. As for the unnecessary functions, just don't use them if you don't want to.
An over complex ball ache.
To some, maybe.
As Douglas Adams famously said:
1. Anything that is
in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that’s
invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything
invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.