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The most fun car I ever drove was the original Tesla Roadster.
This was in 2011, when Elon Musk’s electric car company was courting the press rather than discrediting us, and they offered me a test drive. I took the car out to I-280—a beautiful, mostly deserted highway with neat curves that seemed like it was designed for Silicon Valley types to test out their fast cell phones—and was impressed by its responsive acceleration and ease of handling over 120 miles. Every hour. (Did I say 120? I meant 70. Yes.)
I’ve been quick in a few other sports cars — an 1980s-era Nissan Z and Fiat Spyder, a 1990s-era Porsche 911 — but the basic electric car (no gears!) made for a unique driving experience. , like an exceptionally strong and aerodynamic golf cart. I didn’t care much for the iPad-like controller on the dash, the door handles, or any of the other bells and whistles. I just loved the way she drove.
I’m not a car reporter like Kirsten, so my opportunities to drive new cars are few and far between. Since that Roadster experience, I’ve only driven two Teslas owned by friends briefly and have never tried another electric car. My own car was strictly gas powered.
So I was very excited when GM offered me the chance to live with an electric car, the new Chevy Equinox, for a full week before my on-stage interview with CEO Mary Barra at TechCrunch Disrupt on October 29.
They dropped it on my house in San Francisco on Monday. It’s very beautiful, as you can see in the photo above.
The first thing I wondered: How am I going to connect it? This has been one of the biggest mental barriers keeping me from going electric, and I’m still not sure of the answer. I think you need some sort of home inverter, and then ideally you need to upgrade the voltage to 220V so you can charge more overnight. To me, this sounds like an expensive call to an electrician.
Since I’ve only been driving the Equinox for a week, I figured I could get enough of a charge at one of the Shell charging stations outside the mall where I go to the gym every morning.
It had a range of about 300 miles when it was delivered, so there was no need to worry about that right away.
My son was out of school on Monday so I took him into the building for a burrito. Like most modern cars, the Equinox automatically unlocks when you approach it with the key. Unlike most other cars I’ve driven, it actually starts up without you having to press any buttons or do anything – just sit in the seat and start it.
GM has really embraced the “computer on wheels” aspect of modern vehicles, putting almost all the relevant controls in a wide, dashboard-mounted touchscreen.
Connecting my phone to Bluetooth was a bit confusing, until I noticed the “power” button on the top edge of the touchscreen — the screen is backlit for some basic controls, but to get full functionality you have to touch the button. (The car turns on automatically when you sit down but the touchscreen doesn’t work? Odd design choice.)
Overall, the control system was easy and fun to use. I liked the built-in Google Maps, which is more useful and intuitive than the built-in mapping system in my Toyota. But I couldn’t connect the Apple CarPlay system wirelessly to use Apple Maps, for example. this Apparently by design. It’s Google or the highway, friends.
Other quibbles: If there was a physical headlight button, I couldn’t find it, which meant I had to use the screen to turn the headlights off when I parked the car. (The default setting for the headlights is “auto,” so they will eventually turn off, but I’m old school and have been mentally trained to turn the lights off so I don’t use up battery power.) Also, when you turn the car off, you have to touch another control on screen manually. It’s easy to get used to – but if you accidentally press the brake with your foot while getting out of the car, it will come back on and you’ll have to manually turn it off from the screen again.
On the plus side, there’s an exceptionally cool anti-collision system that vibrates the driver’s seat on the side that matches where nearby objects are. The vibrations get stronger the closer you get. It may sound annoying, but I found it intuitive and natural, almost as if it tapped into the same part of the human brain that helps you avoid people when walking down a city street. It was less annoying than the triple thump my Toyota made every time I was about to hit something.
As far as leadership is concerned, she has great strength. I was able to quickly climb a steep hill near my house that normally requires the “Sport” mode for a gas-powered car to burn. Acceleration on the highway was instant and reminded me again of a Tesla – there’s something about the way a (good) electric car moves without changing gears that feels responsive and smooth. The suspension was firmer than I like, and the steering was a little looser, but that’s just personal preference. (No, I didn’t drive this car anywhere near 120 mph, but I felt like I could have!)
Then came Tuesday morning. Shipping time.
It wasn’t as simple as I had hoped. First, I had to find the port on the top side of the left front fender above the wheel. Then I had to scan the QR code, download the Shell app, connect it to my Apple Pay account, plug it in, and wait for confirmation. It made a nice beep when charging, and the blue light on the dash turned green.
It’s nowhere near as convenient as a gas station where you can just show up, pump and pay. However, the price was much better, costing only $0 all week. I think if these rates continue, I’ll save about $1,500 on gas per year. (We don’t drive much, and we live in a small town with mostly good public transportation).
My charging routine worked well until Friday morning. All the charging stations near the gym were occupied, so I drove further into the mall parking lot, pulled into an empty station, scanned the QR code, and… nothing. The Shell app couldn’t find the charger and instead kept directing me back to other stations, which it listed as “unoccupied” even though the kiosks were full.
I had a phone call with support — at 5:30 a.m., in the mall parking lot, which no one wants to do — and they couldn’t figure it out either. But I was told if I created an account, they might be able to charge me remotely. (No, thanks. I needed to get to the gym and start my day.) I finally found a charging station about a 7-minute walk from the gym entrance that was vacant and listed correctly on the app.
This is not a strike against GM. But relying on partners for such a vital function — especially for novice EV users who are wary of charging, as I was — is a risky strategy and reinforces how Tesla’s decision to build its own supercharging network was an expensive but necessary investment. It might be a good thing that the Equinox has an adapter that lets you use Tesla’s network.
Tesla’s core business has always been electric vehicles, and it has never had a backup strategy. It had to make the electric car experience better than any gas-powered car to survive. GM is embracing the future with electric vehicles, autonomous driving systems and groundbreaking software. But it still makes millions of gas vehicles each year, and it has to play in all aspects of the market.
One final side note, which may seem odd to car enthusiasts or people who review cars for a living, but I think may be more typical of the average car buyer’s experience: I don’t really want to spend a lot of time learning how to use a car.
The goal of a car is to get where you want to go quickly and efficiently, preferably with some fun along the way. As the industry aggressively embraces Tesla’s “computer on wheels” concept, I’d argue they’ve made cars a bit more complicated. Do we really need new ways to transition from parking to driving? Do we really need to learn a new control system for every brand of car we drive? Maybe I’ll show someThe old man shouts at the cloud“Mental, but sometimes I just want to drive my car along the coast and Feel the freedom of the road.
Equinox has shown me that GM is a credible player in the market, and one worth considering when I’m ready to take the plunge. But it also convinced me that I still wasn’t ready for an electric car.
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