REGENERATION

A NEUTRON WALKS INTO A BAR AND ASKS for the day’s special. The bartender hands him a Rusty Nail. ‘How much?’ the neutron asks. The bartender replies, ‘For you, no charge!’

For whatever reason, I wanted to open my first electric car road test with a joke. It’s funny how much one needs to unlearn and relearn when they realize the world basically runs on oil and needs to move on. That, of course, requires a paradigm shift of epic proportions. As slowly as they may be accepted the world over, the electricity-powered car is here to stay. Where that electricity comes from is a different matter altogether: coal-fired thermal plants, hydro/solar/wind energy harnessed to its maximum potential wherever possible, and, of late, the hydrogen fuel cell built into the vehicle itself. However, what’s new is the way the car is used. Fuel-station trips are replaced with overnight charging, the thrum and growl of an engine is replaced by a whine that is imperceptible for most part.