I’m green-ish,ride my bike,eat organic,but I flatly refuse to buy an electric car

Driving into a hip country town this week,I saw yet another electric vehicle approaching. And instead of thinking – as any rational person should – “Good on you! Save that planet,dude!” – I felt an odd mix of annoyance and anxiety. I checked out the driver and his passenger – older,grey,the kind of healthy retirees they use to advertise cruises and independent living villages – and thought:“See? See what I mean?”

I’m green-ish. I vote Green;I do almost all my daily shopping by bike;I buy organic when I can;I offset flights,and this past year I’ve gone off red meat. We have a roof covered with solar panels,and I pay extra for green power in my workspace. My tiny share portfolio divested big miners years ago,and now includes a few moon-shot green ventures,to the detriment of my retirement plans.

Our car,purchased new 20 years ago,costs north of $100 to fill on a good day. And my husband,both green-ish and tech-loving,is champing at the bit to get rid of it and buy an electric vehicle (EV).

But I’m resisting – OK,flatly refusing – and my reaction to the increasing number of EVs tootling along our streets made me wonder why. (And to be clear:I feel annoyed by them even when they’renot Teslas.)

The answer isn’t pretty. I’m only sharing it because I know that what I feel,others will too,especially other women. It will reveal me as selfish,entitled and an environmental vandal.

I don’t have an electric car yet because I don’t want to. I don’t want to add range anxiety to the many calculations involved in every trip I make. I don’t want to spend hours waiting for a spot at an oversubscribed charging station. I don’t want to build my road trips around chargers – I’d rather choose where I stop along the way. I don’t want to have to hire a car,or catch the bus,to get to the snow. (EVs hate the cold.) I really,really don’t want to have to use a “run-flat” or tyre repair kit instead of changing a flat (few come with spares) – or worse,have to get towed if my wheel is ruined by one of our giant potholes. (Yes,some EVs have spares – mostly the ones costing $150,000-plus.)

There are cracks in my resistance – lower running costs,and the fabled,rocket-like acceleration of EVs (I come from a family of borderline petrol heads). But I also need to overcome deal-breakers,which,in my case,strangely enough,include the risk of my car not running when I need it to.

This masthead’s national affairs editor,James Massola,recentlydrove an EV from Sydney to Perth,and his account,full of broken chargers and rapidly dropping battery percentages,did not do much to change my mind.

But not wanting one doesn’t seem to be an acceptable reason. I feel intense pressure to just suck it up,for the good of the planet. And I know Ishould.But I’d argue that it’s not me who’s an enemy of the environment.

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When my first child was born,I did some research. Disposable nappies – for which new mothers are routinely shamed – are pollution,yes,but nothing on the scale of the big industrial polluters. Out of self-interest,I decided mother-shaming was just another manifestation of misogyny,signed up to a nappy recycling service,and disposed away.

Women – especially middle-aged women like me – are always asked to be the ones to give way,to put in more of themselves for the greater good. The whole change-your-expectations mantra of EV evangelists is absolutely ripe with that message. Meanwhile,the big emitters truck right on.

And users – as distinct from makers and technologists – are always being told it’s us who are doing it wrong. We told need to adapt,to let go,to learn new ways.

But users are also consumers. When we feel that what’s being asked of us (ride a bike to the slow,unreliable bus instead of driving;take our own recycling to the depot;venture into the Australian countryside with a kid and two dogs and no spare tyre and few refuelling options) is incompatible with the other demands of life (work,kids,family,sanity),we can either stretch ourselves a little thinner or just say:no.

Our 2003 Mazda,I’m told,is at least justifying the energy and resources put into its manufacture. And I guess I could buy more carbon credits.

But until EVs make my life easier instead of harder,I just can’t do it. And until the range is further than I’d drive in a morning when visiting family in the country,until I can be confident I won’t be stuck miles from nowhere with a busted wheel,I won’t.

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