This Is Me While My Car Charges Itself

My EV is charging right now. I'm sitting in my garden, about to hit 'publish' on this blog. I'm not waiting at a charging station. I'm not surrounded by cement under fluorescent lights next to a fridge full of energy drinks. I’m listening to the birds with a cup of tea, and the car is quietly topping itself up.

And that’s my key point. We need to stop thinking about EV charging as if it's another version of refuelling.

As an EV driver for four years, I've noticed this is one of the biggest mindset shifts that hasn’t fully landed - the assumption that charging is a chore that takes time and needs to be minimised. Going to a petrol station: you have to drive there, stand there, wait there for your tank to fill up, and then pay and leave.

Although the reality is completely different, the mental model for most non-EV drivers is still the same. Charging is framed as a task. A pit stop. Something you detour for. Something that takes time and effort. Something you "do”. A reason not to buy an EV.ZZXC Petrol stations were built around that very specific limitation: you have to go somewhere to refuel. That's why they try to trap you with three litres of milk or a Pine Lime Splice.

You burn fuel, you run out, you make a special trip to top up again. It's the way the fossil-fuelled system works. Liquid fuels are centralised, dangerous to store in large volumes at home, and tightly controlled. So we built a whole ritual around them. EVs break that logic. I've been to a petrol station about four times in the last four years - to check my tyre pressue!

Stationary time is the EV superpower

The average car is parked for 95% of the time - either at home, work or while we're at the supermarket or pilates etc. And here's the truth, most EV charging happens during this time. Overnight at home. During the day at work. While you are at the gym. At the supermarket. At the cinema. Or on-street outside your house.

Charging is something that happens while you’re doing something else like I am at the moment. It's not a separate chore you have to plan your day around. This difference with fossil-fuelled cars isn't just a footnote. It is the entire upgrade. The real question isn't: “How fast can it charge?” It's: “How rarely do I need to think about charging at all?” Because for at least 95% of the time, I'm not even thinking about my EV while it tops itself up from the solar panels on the roof of my house.

Designing the entire EV ecosystem around the idea that it must replicate refuelling stops at petrol stations is fossil-fuel logic applied to a completely different technology. That's not to say that fast charging doesn't have its place. It's important for long-distance travel. I've done trips from Canberra to Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne. The fast chargers in regional towns ensured I made it to my destinations. And of course, some people still don't have the facilities to charge at home or work, yet!

But the goal isn't to switch from one inconvenience (going to a cemented stinky petrol station) to another (sitting at a rapid charger). The goal is to maximise uptime by charging when the car is stationary anyway. That's how EVs are easier than petrol cars, not merely different. They give us more time to be ourselves.

Electrification isn't about making everything the same

Electrification isn't about keeping our habits intact. It should, and can, be about making things better. A petrol car forces you into special trips and stops to refuel. An EV, lets you fuel up while you’re asleep, working, shopping, exercising, or sitting in your garden with a cuppa like I am now.

Once that mindset shift lands, the so-called “charging problem” starts looking a lot more like an old habit that many people haven't yet let go of. In the meantime, I'm in my garden and my EV is charging with free energy from the sun.

This is me now, as I post this blog. My EV is charging the garage as I sit in my garden.