E-Mobility

The Vetter family tested an electric car: «We’ll miss the speedy acceleration»

What is it like to drive an electric car for the first time? How well does it fit into everyday life? And is the charging process straightforward? The Vetter family from the canton of Aargau put all this to the test.

Clyde – the AMAG electric car subscription

Silvia and Meinrad Vetter and their three children Silvan, Davina and Benjamin from Riniken (Aargau) were selected by AMAG and electric car, and spent two months getting to know Audi Q4 e-tron. “When we saw the call for applications, we knew immediately that we were going to apply,” says Silvia Vetter. “We have been looking into electromobility for a long time.”

That’s because their internal combustion engine car is getting old, and switching to an electric car is becoming more of a priority. “We constantly thought about the topic and asked ourselves lots of questions. What challenges would we face? How would we deal with them? And is charging going to be a problem?”, she says. The two-month test was the ideal opportunity to see how an electric car worked for them.

Their e-adventure started at the beginning of July when an employee from AMAG subscription provider Clyde delivered the Audi Q4 e-tron, which father Meinrad had chosen from Clyde’s extensive portfolio of electric vehicles, direct to the Vetters’ family home. One of Clyde’s services is to bring the car to the front door on request. “The handover was very pleasant and straightforward,” says Silvia. “We received useful information about the car without everything being explained to us in excessive detail. After all, we wanted to test the car thoroughly ourselves.”

For two months, the Vetter family had the opportunity to test the Audi Q4 e-tron as part of an electric car subscription from Clyde.

Nevertheless, the Clyde team was always available to answer any of their questions in the weeks that followed. Although, as it turned out, they only needed to ask a few: “We had one a question about registering the charging card, and another time we needed to know something about the returns process. We were helped quickly on both occasions.”

Quick integration into everyday driving

According to Silvia, the family got on very well with their new car straight away, setting off on their very first trip in an electric car on the day of the handover. And they were thrilled: “The first thing we noticed was that it was very comfortable to drive. The seats are more comfortable, and the car is quieter than our old ICEV. The ultra-fast acceleration is also great; the electric car provides a completely different, more dynamic driving experience.”

From then on, the Audi was used for all journeys that are part of the Vetters’ everyday family life: the commute to work, shopping, trips to the forest, walking the dog and visiting Silvia’s mother or Meinrad’s parents. The whole family – including the dog! – loved travelling in it right from the start, says Silvia. The electric car became such an integral part of their everyday lives that it very quickly ceased to be an issue that the vehicle they were now using was ‘different’.

Fabian Huber, Head of Marketing at Clyde, handed over the keys of the Audi Q4 e-tron to the Vetter family.

Silvia admits that the numerous options offered by the Q4 e-tron’s large, modern display initially proved to be a challenge for her. “I had to get the hang of it first. And I also had to be careful not to get too distracted while driving.”

A shift in thinking was needed when it came to charging

And what was charging the car like? Did their reservations prove to be true? “No,” says the mother of three. “But you have to think a little differently when it comes to charging. It’s not the same as just filling up the tank.” If you are reliant on public charging, you first have to figure out where the ‘quick and effective’ stations are, she explains – and hope that the charging point isn’t already being used by another driver. Their research returned reassuring results: “However, we quickly realised that there were many stations in our immediate vicinity,” she says. “And we never had to wait.”

Nevertheless, they feel it is also important to plan any charging stops in advance. The Vetters developed their own system here: at the beginning of each week, they discussed when they would need to charge the car and then always charged in the evening – so that they didn’t have to worry about it when they set off the next morning.

The charging process itself is then very simple, Silvia adds. Beforehand, she had imagined it would be more difficult. “I thought we’d first have to practice a few times with the charging card. And we’d heard horror stories about not being able to disconnect the cable after charging and then being unable to drive away. But none of that turned out to be true.”

Hassle-free holidays in an electric car

There were only a few instances where things didn’t go as smoothly as they would have liked. On the day they left for their holiday, for example, their schedule was disrupted because Silvia had to work later than usual the night before and was unable to charge the car in the evening, meaning they then had to do it before leaving for Germany. “That was a bit annoying, but otherwise the whole journey went without a hitch.”

That’s because father Meinrad had meticulously planned all their charging stops in advance for the 1,100-kilometre journey via Nuremberg and Berlin to their holiday destination on the island of Rügen. The family only deviated from this schedule once. “At one stage, the wind was so strong that we needed much more oomph”, says Vetter. “So we had to stop and charge the car there a bit earlier than planned.” They never found the waiting time at the service stations to be tedious, but instead took it as an opportunity to have a break for a meal or even to do some shopping.

Despite their mostly positive experiences, one thing is also clear to the Vetters after so much charging on the road: “When we do get our first electric car, we will definitely need our own charging station. Although we’ve now realised that it is indeed possible to charge while out and about, it would simply be too inconvenient for us in the long run.” And the family has already done the ‘groundwork’ for its own wallbox: a solar panel has been installed on the roof of their home in Riniken.

Ready to make the switch, but …

Despite all this, they won’t be switching to an electric car just yet. The Audi e-tron was returned to Clyde after the two-month trial, as the Vetters would first like to drive their old ICEV ‘into the ground’. But they are doing so with the certainty that they’ll be ready to make the switch to electromobility afterwards. “This has become absolutely clear to us over the past two months,” says Silvia. “Our next car will have a plug.”

Silvia Vetter and her husband Meinrad conclude that they are glad to have been given this great opportunity to extensively test an electric car. They already miss a few things that their petrol engine doesn’t have compared to the Audi Q4 e-tron. “For example, that it’s so quiet to drive and the comfortable seats,” says Silvia. And with a smile, she adds: “And, of course, the acceleration! In the Audi Q4 e-tron, it was always easy to pull out onto a road. In our old car, I have to think very carefully about whether it still has enough grunt!”