Anticipating the SRV

A decade ago, I had the pleasure of hosting David Scott in Scotland for a few days. We were looking back on his 1971 mission to the Moon when he got to fly the Lunar Module 'Falcon' onto the lunar surface, then spend three days at the stunningly beautiful site near Hadley Rille carrying out the most extraordinary example of field geology. To get about, Scott drove himself and his colleague, Jim Irwin, around the plains and up the hills in an amazing little car called the Lunar Roving Vehicle, or LRV. I co-wrote a book about it a few years ago.

At the time Scott came to visit Scotland, we got about the landscape north of Glasgow in what was then my first new car, a Toyota Yaris. My friends called it the 'Scottish Roving Vehicle' and the name stuck. This went to the extent of being given a present of the registration 'A15 SRV' by my wife on my 50th birthday and my cars have had this plate ever since.

Now that I'm actually going to get my own electric car and it's going to sport the SRV plate, it seems fitting that, apparently, both the SRV and the LRV had a similar range. For although the LRV was only used for 20 miles at most, it was good for 75 to 90 miles, just like a Leaf!

It's about six weeks since I ordered the car. Originally, I had thought that it would arrive rather quickly. However, holidays got in the way and so did a phonecall from Macklin Motors to say that the car would be delayed a month. I should expect it mid-August - on my birthday as it happens.

The people who were tasked with installing my home charger went very quiet. I had expected a quote from them because I was to use it to claim the cost back from the Scottish government. I phoned them and was given a date just after I get the car for an installer to visit. I'm still waiting for the quote.

Meanwhile, Macklin have the car and I'll pick it up in two days. I went to sign the finance papers and got a chance to see it. It has no plates and has still to get it 'Pre-Delivery Inspection' or PDI. Funnily enough, there's another Apollo-related acronym. I think of PDI as meaning Powered Descent Initiation, the moment astronauts fired up their engine to descent to the Moon. What am I like!

Before today, I had begun to fret that there might be a problem with the sale. I just couldn't believe what I bargain I was getting and I was fearing that a ploy might be found to make me pay more for the car. My son (who once worked as a trainee car salesman) went through the figures with me. They made perfect sense. There was no problem and I really am getting a very good deal, one that is no longer available.

The crux of it was that the car and battery are two separate finance deals. The original advert had said that the total monthly payment would be £119.99. However, a headline figure (which was out of kilter with similar deals for other models in the range) said £199.99. The difference was £80, which just happens to be the cost of the battery per month. I worried I had missed something. But when we worked it out, my monthly payment for the car would be only £39.99 and I'd pay £80 a month for the battery. Stunning.

Macklin had never done one of these 'Flex' deals before where the battery and car were separate finance deals. All previous customers had bought the battery outright. Thus, when I went to sign on the dotted line (actually on an electronic pad), they hit a glitch. The arrangement meant having two agreements with the same chassis number, and the computer wouldn't allow that. Oops. I've signed for the car and will sign for the battery when I pick the car up in two days - I hope.

As part of my continuing preparation, I ordered a charging cable last night. The car comes with a cable that allows me to charge it from a conventional 13-amp UK domestic outlet. That will keep me going until the external charger comes next week. But to charge the car on most chargers, I need a cable that goes from the Leaf's low-power socket (a J1772 or 'type-1') to a standard outlet (a 62196-2 or 'type 2'). This was ordered from a company called EV Connectors and I added a carry bag to keep it tidy.

They screwed up! When I ordered, I had noticed that the price they quoted on one part of their site didn't match the price on another. I ordered anyway, annoyed at how much more expensive the cable was than I had been led to believe. Then today, as I was away at Macklin, my wife took a call from EV Connectors. They were very sorry that something had gone wrong and I had inadvertently been charged VAT twice. It would be refunded. I think what happened was that their site had VAT-inclusive prices but that the site then put VAT on top of those prices.

Next step is to actually drive the car in the real world and see how I get on. Can't wait!