How to Make Your EV Part of a Zero-Waste Lifestyle

Electric cars are already naturally less polluting than petrol or diesel equivalents, which we call internal combustion engine cars, or ICE for short. Being able to charge them using clean energies like solar or wind is a huge part of it, but there are plenty of other things you can do to maintain your car for a zero-waste lifestyle with an EV:

Look after the tyres

Electric cars need different tyres to ICE cars because of the extra weight from the battery which powers the EV. As a result, they tend to be heavier and thus more expensive, meaning that, from a cost perspective, you’ll want to do all you can to keep them in top shape.

Worn down tyres can have a big impact on the car’s overall driving range as well, which could make it less efficient. So make sure to regularly check the pressure and keep an eye on the tread. If possible, you can also rotate the front and back tyres around every 6,000 to 8,000 miles to keep the wear even, avoiding the need to replace them and keeping your EV’s maintenance costs down in the process.

Look to eco-friendly alternatives

Many companies are starting to develop new cleaning products that are better for the environment, either by avoiding bad chemicals like phosphates, needing less water to use, or including biodegradable materials and packaging. Swapping out your old cleaning fluids for these eco-friendly alternatives can have a big impact on the sustainability of your car and lifestyle.

Examples include waterless washing products, interior detailing sprays made of natural chemicals that don’t contain grease, and pH-neutral wheel cleaners. Alternatively, you could clean the interior of your car using steam to dramatically reduce water usage.

Recycle, recycle, recycle!

Recycling is something we should all be doing, and it’s getting easier than ever to recycle a wide range of materials, from cardboard to soft plastics. You should always make sure that anything you get for your EV, like a cleaning product or eco-friendly car accessories like a charging cable or cable bag, comes in recyclable packaging, as every item recycled goes a long way to making the planet greener and healthier.

You could go even further and consider buying a second-hand EV instead, which will give you all the benefits of electric car driving without the (sometimes) hefty price tag in a greener way by giving a used EV a second lease of life.

Making the most of the energy in your EV is a great way to improve its efficiency and ensure that nothing gets wasted. This means taking the following electric vehicle sustainably tips to maximise your driving range:

• Plan your trips in advance, including using the best route to conserve charge and pre-planning charging stops so you don’t have to waste energy searching for them or driving far off your route to get to them
• EVs accelerate fast, but that doesn’t mean you should! Pulling away gently and not driving too fast will keep your energy consumption lower – although, you should of course make sure to stick to the speed limit.
• Maximise your usage of regenerative braking, as every use of your EV’s regen braking system will give a little bit of charge back to your battery and thus a little bit of extra range for your journey
• If you can, avoid using your car’s climate control system and infotainment where possible, and don’t charge your phone from it, as this can eat into your battery’s charge and the car’s range
• Check your EV before you set off, such as the tyre pressure, and get rid of anything inside it that you don’t need, as extra weight translates to more energy needed. There’s no point carrying anything you don’t need for your journey, so reduce your car waste where possible

Another bit part of making your electric car as zero-waste as possible is to be smart about when and how you charge. And there’s nothing smarter than smart charging, which at its core is all about optimising energy usage.

So what can you do to make your EV charging greener? For starters, when you charge can have a big impact. If you have a dedicated home charging system, you might be tempted to plug it in whenever it’s at home, usually just after you get back from work or the school run in the late afternoon/early evening.

The problem with this is, we’re all using energy at this time because we’re all home and awake, which means you’ll be charging your EV at a time of peak demand when we’re all cooking, watching TV, or running the washing machine. During these times when demand spikes, the energy grid sometimes needs to turn on extra fossil-fuel burning generators to cope with the demand.

However, if you plug in overnight, your EV will be charging at a time of naturally lower demand when you, and all of us, are asleep. This in turn makes the charging greener as the grid doesn’t need to boost its capacity to cope. Even better, you can pair this with an energy tariff designed for electric car drivers that offers cheaper energy rates overnight, saving you both money and carbon.

Another great thing about electric cars is their ability to be powered by energy generated from renewable sources. Whether you charge at home or in public, the energy you fill your car with will likely include some that has been produced by a green energy like wind, biomass or solar. But if you can charge at home, you can go the extra mile and install solar panels and use a solar-compatible charger to power your EV with (potentially entirely) zero-cost and zero-carbon solar energy.

As we’ve seen, electric cars complement an eco-conscious lifestyle perfectly. Their use of electricity as fuel, which can be generated using renewable and green energy sources, is less polluting than burning fossil fuels, so every mile you drive in an EV results in less carbon harming our planet. And there are plenty of ways of taking it further, like reducing car waste and recycling packaging, charging overnight when demand is lower, and using eco-friendly cleaning products that use fewer harmful chemicals.