By Mike Atwal
29th August 2019

How much do you love driving… enough to drive a G-Whizz?



In London I saw the emissions zones, congestion zones, parking permits only zones and an increasing number of cameras creep in, and I just had enough, and chased fun driving roads and conditions in the Balkans. For a few years it was good, but it seems here too, that the anti-car, anti-driver campaign is kicking off.

Driving is my hobby. I love it, it is part of me, and I love commuting by car. Recently I have found myself on inconvenient buses and trains on occasions due to parking restrictions. I am not the only one, I know many fellow petrol heads who are having to give up the use of the car where ordinarily the car would be the first choice. Electric vehicles are increasingly threatening to be in favour, with the promise of free parking and permission to enter places the fossil fuelled cars simply will not be welcome. I am not sure how far away we are from the revolution taking off, but how does the petrol-head-who-loves-commuting-by-car society adapt?

We have been known to have more than one car in our possession on occasion, and what used to be our sensible but sexy daily might be forced into the category of weekend mistress, next to our other collectable cars. You will only be able to drive it for the sake of driving. Not commute in it. For example, I use my BMW 645ci to commute, and the 840ci is simply my holiday from the world once a week. It also steps in when the 6 breaks. A lot.

I want to carry on commuting by car, and thus I have a plan when the 6 is no longer welcome into the areas I must travel to. I will buy an electric car so I can easily get to work and earn the pennies to keep my mighty day by day less accepted on the roads BMW coupes under my wing. I am fully determined to keep on driving. No matter what.

Would I drive a G-Whizz? I don’t want to but I swear I will do it if I have to keep driving. I feel the demise of cars as I know and love them is happening in my lifetime, and I think many of us, including me, thought we are a long way away from the EV revolution. But I sense it is close.

I was saving for a Ford Capri project car. I swapped the pot for a bigger one. A BMW i8 it is!

What electric car would you opt for if you have to one day?