After 5 Years of Driving An EV Every Day, Driving Old ICE Cars Is Just Painful – CleanTechnica

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I had been driving an EV for about 5 years until a series of unfortunate events got me driving some old fossil-fueled (ICE) vehicles for the past 8 months. This is what happened….

On Christmas Eve, December 2024, at around 3pm, I was coming from the grocery store using my usual route. I got to a set of traffic lights, and as I was approaching the intersection, the traffic lights turned amber and then red. Obviously, I had slowed down as I approached the traffic lights, and came to a complete stop before the lights turned red. Traffic lights are more commonly known as “Robots” in Zimbabwe and South Africa. I guess that’s to do with the fact that there is no human manually directing traffic at the intersection, I am not sure. The name Robot may not be too far off, though, now that we are in the age of AI! Modern traffic lights make use of AI to improve the flow of traffic.

As I was waiting for the traffic lights to turn green and give me the go-ahead to proceed, something happened almost in a flash. I heard some very loud noises, followed by a chain reaction induced by hard impact that at the end of the events resembled billiard balls on the pool table. From standstill, the impact at the front of the car was so large that it pushed the car to hit another car behind me, and so on. Turns out, on the other side, one kombi (the popular name for a minibus taxi that usually ferries between 14 to 16 passengers) had hit a lorry that was turning at that intersection, pushing that lorry’s trajectory towards my Nissan LEAF. It all happened so fast, and when I got out, I noticed that the whole front of the LEAF was literally smashed, and because the LEAF had been pushed back and hit the car behind me that was also waiting for the traffic lights on our side, the back of the LEAF was also crushed. I had never been involved in a traffic accident before, and then there I was minding my own business waiting for the traffic lights to give me the go-ahead, only to find myself sandwiched between a large lorry and a Toyota SUV.

After all the processes and paperwork, the insurance company evaluated the vehicle after the accident (and a lengthy wait as the other parties involved took their sweet time to hand in all the required paperwork), and the final verdict was that the Nissan LEAF was a write-off. Two options were then presented to me. The two options were:

1. a like for like replacement,
2. a cash payment from the insurance company.

There are not many like-for-like Nissan LEAFs available on the market, so I opted for a cash payment and thought I would take the cash and just get another EV soon.

Unfortunately, or rather fortunately, in hindsight, when the cash payment was processed, I had a serious medical emergency and I ended up diverting all the money to medical bills, etc. So, after 5 years of driving an EV, I now didn’t have a car. Some friends and family offered their spare cars for me to use till I got a replacement. I appreciate them for helping me during this time. What I thought would be a short time before I replaced the EV has now turned out to be 8 months and counting! Because I don’t have the budget at the moment to get a new car, I have been making use of various old ICE vehicles. The experience is nothing short of pain, especially coming from driving a full BEV.

Let’s start with the lighthearted stuff. First up: driving an ICE without regen is wild now for me. With a BEV, when you let go of the accelerator, the car slows down, and having that for 5 years is now just the new normal for me. So, it’s really annoying driving these old ICE ones without regen! The first vehicle I used during this period was a diesel van. I used to buy $20 worth of diesel every day for my daily commute, which was a pain coming from just plugging in overnight, and the electricity over the years averaged at just 10 cents per kWh — so for a 24 kWh Nissan LEAF that’s just $2.40 a night! So, an almost 10× jump in fuel cost per day! The current electricity tariff here is about $0.26/kWh, which works out to $6.24, still a whole $13.76 cheaper per day! Because it was an old van, I was constantly topping up engine oils and coolant — things I had not done in 5 years. More pain! It was such a relief when I had to give back that van.

Next up, I got a Honda Fit from my family. It is also an old car, and coincidentally, when I got it, it decided to start acting up. This started with sensors not detecting the fuel levels correctly or something like that — so the car at times would think the tank was empty. Weird, I know. Other random issues would just pop up as well. Sorting that out, getting a new fuel pump and other fixes, cost well over $200! More pain! In the whole 5 years I had the Nissan LEAF, the only issues we had with it was when we hit a pothole (by the way, we have the worst potholes here), which damaged two tyres on one side. That was it. Just two tyre changes and overnight charging costs!

By the way, I am not trying to be ungrateful or anything, I know most people, especially here, do not have the opportunity to buy an EV and some people don’t even have access to reliable transport given the low levels of motorisation in general. I am just sharing my experiences with old ICE vehicles after 5 years of EV ownership. Of course, if I had the means at the moment, I could have gotten a new ICE vehicle in the meantime, and I probably would have had fewer problems to complain about over the past 5 months. What’s next? I hope to save up again to get a decent EV. I was so used to driving electric, and it just feels simpler now to drive EVs than ICEVs.