GABE ETS-HOKIN HAS been picking up Bay Area Uber and Lyft passengers in electric vehicles since 2018, and he says he is never going back to petrol. “The day-to-day reality of driving an electric vehicle is like a gasoline car, except it’s quieter, more fun to drive, more comfortable, and passengers love it,” he says.
EVs, he explains, are an especially good fit for the stop-and-start of driving in dense cities because they use regenerative braking, which captures the energy used to slow to a stop and “reinvests” it in charging the battery. Instead of tracking down public chargers, he hooks his car up to the charger he’s installed at his house.