Electric vehicle driver deflated for want of a spare
This article first appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on 4 August 2022.
We were driving across the Harbour Bridge at the time, pleased that we were going to arrive early enough at our destination to have a leisurely cup of coffee, when our education about a serious flaw in our EV car began. That was thanks – or no thanks – to a car cutting in front of us so closely that it was only due to a miracle, and great reflexes, that the front of our car didn’t end up a crumpled heap.
But we had to swerve hard to the left, bumping into the concrete wall, and it was immediately clear that a wheel had been damaged. We limped around the corner on our rapidly flattening tyre, and called for roadside assist. The NRMA was, as usual, brilliant. But even its excellent mechanic could do nothing for us except arrange a tow truck. There was a hole in our tyre and we had no spare.
For the two years that we’d owned our beloved EV, fed with solar panels and a Powerwall, the standard procedure of the manufacturer not to provide a spare tyre for its EV cars (no room because of the battery, apparently) had not been a problem.
Now, however, it turned out to be a big one. According to our NRMA guy, the hole was way too big to be fixed by the little repair kit that was supposed to make up for the lack of a spare. So, the car had to be towed.
This was a Saturday night, did I mention? So, a taxi home, and we didn’t have access to the car until Monday. And when we finally got it towed to a tyre supplier, its mechanic told us that the lack of a spare was very common for EV cars. And furthermore, according to him the mini-repair kit was just rubbish.
What that all means is that what used to be a simple replacement of a flat tyre has become a time-consuming and costly deal in the sort of situation that we found ourselves in. Our solution was to order a spare tyre and wheel, that we’ll just have to store in the car somehow if we don’t want to be caught out again, especially if we go on road trips – which we’ve been looking forward to – to explore rural and remote highways and byways, where the lack of a spare tyre would be a disaster.
What this also means is that manufacturers of EVs need to put their skates on, and work out how they can include a spare tyre in these vehicles.
Anne Ring is a health sociologist and freelance writer.
Anne Ring © 2022