Scott Barnes and his family are on a journey towards a zero emissions lifestyle. Their next step is potentially a giant step forward for the environment. And there’s consensus within the family that these new affordable electric vehicles ~ with their wheels firmly planted on the ground of economic and environmental sustainability ~ are pretty much out-of-this-world-cool!
Scott’s U-turn to electric transport
I never anticipated that the arrival of our new electric car would be so exciting. The pure electric Nissan Leaf really is a fun car. It’s unbelievably quiet, has great acceleration, a spacious interior and generous luggage area.
It was a real turning point for our family to make the switch from an expensive seven person people mover, with the capacity to tow a camper trailer, to a five person EV. But we’re looking forward to almost zero maintenance costs and a negligible fuel bill and we’re truly proud that we’ve made a real and practical commitment to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.
While a new car was a stretch for our family budget, a novated lease, negotiated with the wonderfully supportive folk at The Good Car Co has reduced the cost of borrowing money, and I’m confident we’ll be financially ahead compared to the cost of keeping our old car.
Navigating long distance travel + lots of benefits
From talking to other EV owners, we see no problem recharging for almost all our usual car trips, including driving to Sydney to visit family. When we want to get away with the camper trailer, we’ll hire an ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) vehicle and still be financially and environmentally better off than owning one.
We’re also looking into making our little EV available on a car-share platform so neighbours can rent it. This will help them reduce their transport emissions and give others the firsthand experience and joy of driving an electric vehicle.
I am so excited that by participating in the recent community bulk buy ~ which was a joint initiative of Geelong Sustainability and the Good Car Co ~ that we’re almost doubling the number of EVs in Geelong! Going forward, I hope we can continue to double each year, the number of EVs registered in Geelong. If we can then within 10 years, transport will not be contributing almost 20% of our region’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Scott’s 17 year old daughter Callie agrees completely
I have a very basic understanding of cars and how they work. So what I value in a car are the superficial elements such as comfort, style and overall cool factor. The Nissan Leaf all electric car has all these attributes and more. It’s a really comfortable and smooth ride and even though it’s a small car it doesn’t feel small, even when you’re sitting in the back seats, because the roof arches upward in your line of vision.
The Nissan Leaf ticks the style box with a great range of colours and combos. As for the Cool Factor - well, to start it’s 100% electric, so you feel like you’re driving a vehicle from ‘Back to the Future’. That’s cool already, but added to that it’s so smooth and silent, and can accelerate from standing still in a way no fuel guzzling car can, which just adds another element to this Nissan Leaf that is unbeatable.
Scott and his family are long standing GS members and we welcome their early adoption of emissions-free transport.