Tag: Driving

Storms are as unpredictable as, well, the weather. Driving safely is our best defence.

They come along, often out of the blue, and disrupt everything in their path. Transport becomes a nightmare, infrastructure gets damaged, garden flower arrangements are ruined and plans are put on hold.

In a joint effort between the UK and Irish Met Office, every storm to reach our shores now gets its own name. It’s a good idea, as it humanises the storms and means it’s easier to find out all the necessary information about each storm. (Some of us have even been lucky enough to have one named after us).

Last year, the UK experienced more than half a dozen storms. With the impact climate change is continuing to have, it’s clear that storms aren’t going anywhere any time soon. One is very likely brewing right now as we speak.

If you absolutely have to venture out and drive during a storm, let’s get you prepared with some essential tips so that you can arrive at your destination safe and sound.

Before You Leave

Cancel the journey altogether if you can

If you keep yourself out of harm’s way, then you should definitely do so. If the trip is something you can postpone like a trip to the supermarket, consider having a takeaway night and curling up in front of the fire rather than battling the elements. But if you have to head out, follow our tips to make sure you’re driving safely through the storm.

Make sure your phone is fully charged

Along with a charged car battery, phone battery is also very important. Invest in a portable charger if you haven’t already, and keep it in the car. Make sure it’s charged up and ready to go if your car breaks down during a storm and you need to get in touch with roadside assistance.

Make sure your headlights and wipers are working properly

This is a must-do all year round, but especially during a storm, give your headlights a quick check on a reflective surface (or persuade a loved one to tolerate the rain for a minute to check that they’re working) and give your wipers a quick test on all settings before you drive off, too.

Pay attention to weather reports

It may seem like a no-brainer, but the amount of people that set off in the car during a storm blindly hoping for the best is quite worrying at times. Plan your journey around the peak of the storm’s activity and consider postponing altogether if the unpleasant driving conditions outweigh your need to venture outdoors. Be sure to tune into local radio stations so you can get local weather updates along the way.

On The Road

Slow down!

It’s solid advice in any weather, but particularly when it’s stormy, be sure to reduce your speed. Between poor visibility, breezy conditions and loose debris flying around, you need to be extremely alert and that’s easier to do when you’re driving slowly and carefully.

Watch out for spot flooding on the roads

Sometimes floods can be deceiving, so it’s always best to avoid any large body of water on the roads, where possible. If your journey involves an area you know as a notorious hotspot for flooding, try to use an alternative route. Never assume that a flood is shallow – they can be very deceiving.

Watch out for fallen branches on the roads

Particularly on country roads, branches tend to go rogue during windy and stormy conditions. While we advise avoiding wooded areas during or after a storm, if you find yourself surrounded by trees, around every corner, there’s the potential for a fallen branch to be blocking the road. Always drive slowly in wooded areas during a storm (if you have to be there at all) and stay alert. Expect the unexpected.

Beware of black ice

Winter storms are often the worst of all as they bring wind, rain and freezing temperatures. Particularly during the chillier months, be mindful of black ice on the roads, and always defrost your car windows thoroughly before setting off anywhere. Visibility is key.

Beware of crosswinds on open roads

Particularly on motorways and open roads, crosswinds wreak havoc with cars. Drive smoothly and safely if you’re caught in a crosswind, reducing your speed and gripping the steering wheel tightly to keep the car under control.

Driving Tips

Keep both hands on the wheel

Steering the car in strong winds can be tricky, so it’s important that you’ve got as much control over the car as possible. You should always be driving safely with both hands firmly on the wheel, but especially during a storm, keep a firm grip so you’ve got the car under control.

Test your brakes after going through water

After going through a puddle, lightly tap your brakes to test them. This will also help to dry the brakes so they’re working as effectively as possible. If braking feels shaky or not quite right after going through a body of water, slow down and pull over if you don’t feel comfortable driving. Get in touch with your garage and explain the situation to get expert advice on whether it’s safe to drive or not. Brakes are important, so never risk it. A visit from roadside assistance is a small price to pay for peace of mind.

Drive with your dipped headlights on

Regardless of the time of day, you should be driving safely with your dipped headlights on during a storm. This will increase your visibility to other road users and hopefully inspire them to do the same. 

Turn on the AC to stop your windows fogging up

Driving in a storm is hard enough without trying to defog your windscreen during the journey. By keeping your air conditioning on low, it’ll provide a steady stream of air on the windscreen to prevent any obstruction to your vision.

Be patient with other drivers who may not be driving safely

Unfortunately, it’s a matter of fact that not all drivers have the same level of competence. Not every driver has a friendly car insurance provider giving them tips for driving safely in stormy weather conditions. Rather than getting frustrated, all you can do is be prepared and expect the unexpected. Be patient, slow down, give them space and anticipate their behaviour.

Parking Up

Park on higher ground if you can

Flooding and cars are a match made in hell. Where possible, park your car on higher ground to keep it out of harm’s way when there’s a threat of flooding about. Always prioritise safety and make sure all windows are fully closed before leaving the car. Nobody wants to wake up to a literal carpool. 

Avoid parking under trees and powerlines

Any tall structure has the potential to fall onto your car during a storm – even people! Be sure to inspect the area that you’re parking your car in to keep it from harm. If you’ve got a garage that’s being used for storage, consider clearing it out and treating the car to a night indoors.

If you break down, keep the bonnet closed

Breakdowns happen, and they’re never a party. If your car succumbs to a breakdown during a storm, it’s natural to investigate what’s going on under the bonnet. Just be sure to close it back up while you’re waiting for roadside assistance, as water can soak the electrics and make it harder to start the engine.

Not doing much mileage (regardless of the impending stormy weather)? Get a quote for pay-by-mile car insurance here.

‘Tis the season to spread tacky festive cheer, both at home and in the form of seasonal car decorations.

While decking the halls with boughs of holly is warmly welcomed, kitting out your motor with festive car decorations can present many challenges, such as maintaining the respect of your loved ones.

Just one wrong move and your reputation is in tatters. A misplaced sprig of holly on the passenger’s seat could result in heartache, both emotionally and quite literally for an unsuspecting passenger.

As a car insurance provider, we must stress that you decorate safely this (and every) year. Make sure you have full visibility while driving, everything attached to the car is properly secured, and you aren’t distracting other drivers with your festive cheer.

With that in mind, behold the definitive ranking of festive car decorations from worst to best. This should help if you’re still deciding which decoration is the right fit for you and your car.

8. Festive Air Freshener.

It’s a nice touch, but it’s worth remembering that an air freshener is a year-round venture. It’s unlikely that you’ll be stripping your car of its festive scent when the holidays end. You could be accused of doing the bare minimum with this decoration and while that may be applauded by the Grinches among us, the majority would suggest that you simply try a bit harder, or not at all. There is no middle ground when it comes to festive decorations. Contrary to the popular saying, less is not more in this instance.

Even if your ‘Snowman’s Kisses’ scented air freshener has a high rating on Amazon, it’s still not packing the festive punch it should. It’s like handing out apples and nuts to trick-or-treaters on Halloween. Sure, you’re participating, but barely. The air freshener is a blank canvas upon which you can paint your festive hopes and dreams. It’s a start, but it needs more. You can do better. In the words of Melania Trump: be best.

7. Festive Sticker.

Again, like the air freshener, it’s a start, but not quite enough to prove that you’re fully getting into the spirit of the silly season. It’s one step above the air freshener purely because it’s an external declaration of festive support. While other drivers and road users can experience the joy of this one, this seemingly selfless act isn’t fooling anyone. You’ve put that sticker where you can’t see it. We’re onto you, people-pleaser.

It’s also not particularly economically sound. Any festive decoration enthusiast worth their salt knows that stickers can’t be reused. This is a one-off. Come January 6th, you’ll be peeling that sucker off and disposing of it quicker than you can say ‘Die Hard is a Christmas Movie’. It’s a good effort, but it’s still a little weak. Everyone knows it, even the sticker manufacturer.

6. Decorative Tinsel.

It’s a controversial opinion, but many feel that tinsel should be banned, and it’s hard to disagree. It scatters everywhere, and its remnants will be found peppered throughout your car for months, right up until the arrival of next year’s holiday season. Tinsel has no place in a car. It barely has a place in the house, frankly. Slinging it around the headrests of the car won’t impress anyone.

Adding a Santa hat just edges this display into acceptability. It’s festive, there’s no arguing that, and proves to spectators that you are participating in holiday cheer, as opposed to just being a particularly flamboyant driver all year round. Good luck with the cleanup in the new year, though. No hoover manufacturer in the world has engineered a product robust enough to soak up every bit of tinsel, especially as a result of festive car decorations. Godspeed.

5. Mistletoe.

An item that’s usually reserved for the office pest, mistletoe in a car can lead to some questionable tensions between the driver and their passengers. While some may see it as a festive display of humour, others take these things very seriously and will insist upon closely following the rules of the mistletoe. It’s a liability of a decoration, so your bravery must be applauded.

Depending on the primary uses for your car, this could create some awkward and less-than-ideal situations. For example, if you’re an Uber driver, passengers may not be fully on board with the comedy, and hit you with a low rating. Don’t be deterred, as all good comedy is subjective.

4. Candy Canes.

Aesthetically, candy canes are playful and undeniably festive. But from a logical standpoint, they make little to no sense. At least antlers (further down the list, you’ll note) give the illusion that the car itself is a reindeer, transporting festive cheer across the land. But candy canes are not an appendage. Their placement atop a car roof is nonsensical. Traditionally, candy canes hang off trees and from the mouths of sugar-crazed children after a visit to Santa’s supermarket grotto.

Aerodynamically, they’re going to create drag when you’re driving. If they’re actually made from candy, they’ll disintegrate with the first few drops of winter rain. But when we put our grievances aside, actually, they do look quite nice. The red and white stripes are joyous, and sure to brighten up the roads on a dull afternoon. Fine, we must admit defeat. Candy canes look nice on a car.

3. Dashboard Tree.

It’s not a bad effort, actually. As long as the tree doesn’t obstruct your field of vision, it’s a nice addition to the dashboard. Certainly more visually pleasing than a satnav, or tax disc. While its purpose is solely to remind you (and other drivers) that the holidays are here, it can too bring with it a substantial nuisance, depending on the quality of its adhesive stickers.

Nothing can turn your festive cheer into festive rage quicker than one of those car decorations that won’t play ball. Dashboard trees unfortunately fall into this category, as they rarely last the test of time. Mere days into the festive period, the tree will find its way onto the passenger’s car mat, limp and lifeless as the day it was chopped from the woods. You’ll try, but you’ll never get it to stick back onto the dashboard. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

2. Antlers and Red Nose.

Probably the most popular festive car decoration worldwide, the antlers and red nose combination tick several boxes. They’re festive, easily identifiable and add an element of whimsy to the roads. Cars whizzing past can easily be mistaken for rudolph, Santa’s most bullied but also most favoured reindeer. The first sighting of a car adorned with antlers and a red nose marks the beginning of the holidays.

But why hasn’t this decoration been given the top spot? Well, the reasons are twofold. Firstly, have you ever seen a more pitiful sight than a car with one singular antler protruding from the window? Pathetic. A festive failure. Secondly, have you ever seen a car with a red nose on the grill, sans antlers, and wondered whether they were participating in Red Nose Day or had simply forgotten to remove their festive decoration? It’s confusing. In a world that is already quite perplexing, we don’t need the added quandary.

1. Festive Wreath.

It’s understated, it’s classy and it’s festive. The presence of a wreath on the front of a car brings joy to all who are lucky enough to witness it before it disappears through misadventure (theft or simply fell off, nobody ever really knows). It’s a selfless act to deck your car out with a wreath, as you’re allowing others to experience the magic while you instantly forget that you’ve even attached it to the grill.

Once you get over the hump of ensuring that it’s not covering the reg plate and still allowing the bonnet to cool sufficiently, it’s plain sailing. Minimal effort, maximum gain. This is the best festive car decoration. No better exists. Especially when you see one at the front of a giant and aggressive looking truck. Get yourself a car wreath today. You can even call it Car-Wreath-A-Franklin if you want to. That’s for free. Happy holidays!

Festive car decorations safety checklist

As a car insurance provider, we definitely don’t recommend that you attach anything to the outside of your car – but if you decide to do it anyway, please make sure that it’s properly secured.

• Always be sure that your field of vision through the front windscreen isn’t restricted, and that your dashboard is clear.
• Don’t fit anything to the front of the car over the adaptive cruise control and pre-crash safety systems. This is usually mounted behind the logo on the grill, but could be in a different location depending on your make of car, so check it out before you add anything.
• Don’t put anything in a place that could restrict opening the bonnet, or block any cameras.
• Any decoration to your car could technically be considered as a modification, so you should check with your car insurance provider if you’re not sure whether yours is.
• Anything that the police consider to be a distraction for fellow drivers (particularly fairy lights) could be illegal. And anything that could fall off your car might put other road users in harm’s way. Always be smart. Remember, the best festive cheer comes from within.

Is your festively-decorated car spending most of the holidays sitting in the driveway? Get a quote for pay-by-mile car insurance here.

‘Tis the season to take your foot off the pedal at work for a few minutes while you mindlessly scroll the internet, taking Christmas quizzes expertly made by a car insurance provider.

Well, allow us to provide you with precisely that distraction. We’ve put together a quiz that is guaranteed to let your mind wander for at least two minutes.

The whole idea is very simple, you just have to work out which car belongs to which Christmas movie. Fine, the use of ‘simple’ was a bit misleading there, it’s actually a little trickier than you’d think.

While we’re all for fairness here at By Miles, we also are quite fond of trying to make life easier for our members. By way of a hint, it’s an obvious one, but we advise taking in the entire scene rather than solely focusing on the car. Christmas movies are rarely remembered for their motors, so be patient and soak up the scenery before you make your decision.

Ten questions stand before you. Bragging rights earned by those with a score of 8 and above.

Take the quiz here.

Good luck!

 

Doing more movie watching than driving these days? Get a quote for pay-by-mile car insurance in less than a minute here.

Every September, the world celebrates Car Free Day, where cities around the world try to cut car journeys to reimagine what their streets could be used for. But if we really want to make a difference to the planet – why not pledge to make it happen more often?

According to a recent survey we carried out, close to 30 million UK drivers plan to continue cutting their mileage as lockdown eases, which is great news for the country’s efforts to lower its carbon emissions.

Lowering your emissions can seem like an intimidating thing to do at first, but once you know the basics (like cutting car journeys), it’s easy to put in place some small daily changes that can all add up. As a certain well-known supermarket so often reminds us, every little helps.

Something as simple as rethinking those shorter car journeys can make a huge difference to your pollution contributions. Most assume that longer distance drives are more harmful to the environment, but the opposite is true. It’s actually the shorter journeys of under a mile that are the most polluting.

Car emissions systems typically take around five minutes to warm up and activate, which means that cars are at their most polluting in that time. Research from Transport for London shows that over a third of car journeys in the capital cover fewer than two miles, and it’s likely that this problem stretches far beyond London. Clearly, something needs to change.

We’re suggesting that drivers pledge to leave the car at home one day a week, where possible. In the same way that a dog is for life and not just for Christmas, let’s use Car Free Day as inspiration to change our driving habits for the better by giving them some longevity. Ever heard of Meat Free Monday? It’s an initiative that encourages people to take one day off a week from eating meat, to help “slow climate change, conserve precious natural resources and improve their health by having at least one plant-based day each week”. We’d like drivers to start considering the same thing with their cars.

We’ve rounded up the top five short car journeys to skip if you’re feeling proactive about lowering your emissions. Obviously they won’t be useful for everyone, and we know it’s not as easy for some people to cut driving out of their routine as others, but we hope we can offer some inspiration. Plus, if you’ve got a pay-by-mile policy, you’ll be saving money (as well as the planet) by not driving, since you only pay for the miles you drive, and that sounds like a win-win to us!

1. Nipping to the supermarket for a few things.

For the weekly shop, usually the car is an unavoidable choice, but let’s talk about those midweek top-up shops where you’re just getting a few essentials. Where possible, why not leave the car behind and walk instead? You’ll be getting some exercise, cutting down on your carbon footprint and can rightly justify that pesky special offer packet of biscuits that always manages to find its way into your basket. Walking may add a little extra time onto your journey, but you can feel smug in your decision to help save the planet along the way.

If you want to go one step further, you could consider cutting down on the weekly car journeys to the supermarket every so often by making the move to online shopping if you haven’t already. Delivery trucks are doing several trips at once, and some even have hybrid vehicles that are slightly better for the environment than others. The deliveries are mostly plastic-free, with places like Morrisons actively banning all plastic bags and pledging to exclusively use recyclable packaging by 2025. Where they lead, others are likely to follow.

2. Reconsidering the school run or work commute once a week.

No, we’re not saying you should pull a sickie for the sake of the environment, that would be incredibly bad advice (although the proposition may give your boss a laugh). If it’s possible, especially given the current climate, you may also find it easier to negotiate a day when you can work from home and cut out the commute altogether.

If that’s not an option, figure out if you could go car-free one day a week by walking, cycling, scooting, using your wheelchair or local public transport. You’ll skip the traffic, save on car-related costs, avoid parking anxiety, reduce your emissions and feel that all-important high that comes with making a choice that benefits the world around you. This is easily a far more appealing decision during the summer months when the sun is shining, but with a quick consultation of the weather app, you can plan your week so that you arrive on time and bone dry.

Check with your employer if there’s a cycle to work scheme, see what public transport options are on offer, or plan the quickest route to walk using a reliable map app. You can even skip the gym that day if you’re walking or cycling, meaning a night sprawled on the couch watching the latest true crime documentary on Netflix will be fully deserved. It’s a good habit to get into and you can consider adding a second eco-friendly commute each week down the line if you’re feeling particularly committed to the cause. The planet, your wallet and your fitness will thank you for it.

3. Driving to visit nearby friends and family.

Sometimes a last-minute trip over to your friend’s place for a cuppa and a chat comes about at short notice and the easiest option is to jump in the car to make your way over without delay. But try to get into the habit of thinking about some other options before you pick up the keys. Is it within walking or wheelchairing distance? Could you dust off the bike that’s been sitting neglected in the shed for a while? Or is there a bus service that stops right outside their house? It may add a few minutes onto your journey, but if everyone did it, those emission reductions would all add up over time.

Maybe they live a little further away than those options allow for, but an Uber (other companies are available) is always an option too. They’ve got a good approach to sustainability, with things like ride sharing meaning you can spread the environmental impact over several people by jumping in the same car journeys together. A lot of their vehicles are hybrids too, so it’s likely that you could come closer to a carbon neutral trip than you would’ve made in your own car. Plus, it makes for a good talking point when you arrive at your friend’s house, right before you get into the latest juicy gossip update.

4. Driving to the gym.

Some days you’re just not feeling a trip to the gym, but just like death and taxes, eventually it has to be done (ideally not in that order). Why not incorporate a walk, or even a jog to the gym into your warmup routine? It may seem unappealing compared to the comfort of arriving by car, but you’ll cut down your workout time and carbon emissions at the same time. Lots of gyms have tight car parks, so you’ll save on parking costs and the stress of a car door potentially bashing into yours by some muscled-up gym-goer trying to squeeze into their motor.

If you’re feeling particularly eco-friendly on the day, why not skip the gym entirely and just go for a run around the local park instead? Gyms use a mammoth amount of electricity, as do the people in it, with one person producing up to 300 watts of energy during a workout. Until they figure out a way to harness that energy into real life uses (kind of like a hamster on a wheel powering a television), we have to take matters into our own hands and make small changes that will add up over time. Carbon-neutral gyms are becoming more popular, but until they’re everywhere, sometimes a DIY outdoor gym can offer a welcome change of scenery.

5. Going to the drive-thru on a lazy day.

It’s midday, you’ve had a big night out and you want nothing more than the comfort of an obscene amount of carbohydrates to claw you back from the brink. Naturally, your mind drifts to a place where you can get said carbs without ever having to leave the confines of your car. Of course: the drive-thru! You could guilt your significant other into driving you there so that you may rejoin the human race through the healing effects of chips and ice cream. Or, you could make a more eco-conscious choice.

It’s worth remembering that there is a service where you can get that exact food delivered to your door, without ever having to leave your bed for that matter. Deliveries are there for a reason, and a lazy day most definitely calls for them. Put your feet up, peruse the options on the various food delivery apps available in our great nation and allow someone else to do all the work. Many of these companies use bikes or mopeds for transport, making several deliveries along the way, so the carbon emissions are going to be significantly lower than a single short car drive, with your engine idling in the queue.

Whatever your choice of avoidable short-distance car journey, we hope you’ll join us in pledging to give up one trip a week for the sake of the environment.

We’ve seen the success of the plastic bag tax, where over 15 billion bags have been taken out of circulation since it was introduced in 2015. Let’s use these stats to encourage change on a larger scale. If everyone agrees to skip one short car journey a week, the benefits are countless.

How’s pay-by-mile helping?

If you’ve got a pay-by-mile policy, you only pay for the miles you drive, and not the miles you don’t. That means during days like Tuesday 22nd September 2020 (World Car Free Day), if you’re not driving your car, you won’t pay a penny for your insurance that day.

We’re asking thousands of our members to pledge that they won’t use their cars on Car Free Day in the hope that we can help raise awareness (and all contribute a little less pollution too).

You can hit one of the buttons to make the pledge too:

You don’t have to wait for a car-free day to curb the driving, though. If you’re feeling particularly environmentally friendly one day, remember that by not driving you’ll not only be saving the planet, but also your bank balance.

If you’re a By Miles member, you’ll save money by driving less. Our pay-by-mile car insurance policies only charge you for the miles you actually drive – so if your car stays at home, you’ll pay less for your car insurance. Not in the club yet? Don’t panic. You can get a quick quote in under a minute here.

Honda’s very first electric car has arrived, conveniently named the Honda e, and it’s worth your attention.

Here at By Miles, we’re very excited about the future of electric cars. Last year, we launched the world’s first connected car insurance policy, giving Tesla drivers the chance to try it first. We’re also quite passionate about helping drivers to become more mindful about lowering their emissions. Our policies are environmentally-friendly too, since when you drive less, you pay less, and they’re also electric-friendly, covering things other policies might not – like charging cables.

Team all that with the fact that Honda cars statistically tend to have some of the highest pass rates in MOT tests, and naturally we were very eager to see what their electric offering would look like.

It’s safe to say that Honda’s first entry into the world of EVs has caught our attention. With a futuristic look, Honda says this new model was inspired by city life and how we live our lives each day. The car is packed with high-tech new features, offering comfort and style, and most importantly, boasts zero carbon emissions.

If you’re thinking about going electric, this could be the car for you. What’s more, you can let us know if you’re interested in taking it for a test drive, should you fancy being one of the first people to get behind the wheel of the Honda e.

What’s going on inside the Honda e?

The Honda e has been designed to be completely electric from the ground up. Its power comes from a 35.5kWh lithium-ion battery, which drives the rear wheels using a brand new electric system that was specially developed for the car. It also features a special liquid-cooled battery which ensures that the car is working at optimum performance, whatever the conditions are like out there.

With a full charge, the car can go up to 137 miles, making it a reliable city motor for any driver. There’s a 50:50 weight distribution and a low centre of gravity, so the car feels great to drive, and it’s got a rear-mounted electric motor that powers the rear wheels, meaning you’ll always feel in control. This is a small but mighty city car that’s also pleasing to look at.

Any features I won’t have seen before?

‘Single Pedal Control’ allows you to drive using, as the name suggests, just one pedal. By pressing down to accelerate and easing off to brake, you can make your way through the city using minimal effort. The car also has Apple CarPlay integrated, meaning you can stick on a smooth jazz playlist with ease making your morning slightly more tolerable next time you’re in a traffic jam on the way into work.

Honda Parking Pilot will ensure that you’re making the most of the city’s parking options by squeezing you into those tricky spaces all by itself. The car also has a 4.3 metre turning radius, so those dreaded three-point turns may finally become a thing of the past.

The rearview mirror has dual function, so you can stick with the standard wide-angle view, or switch to camera mode, which has a crisp digital image, both during the day and at night. Honda has solved yet another problem by adding anti-dazzling technology too, so you’ll no longer have to squint if the car behind you hasn’t managed to figure out how to dim their headlights.

Perhaps the car’s most exciting addition, or lack of, is its approach to wing mirrors. No longer will you undergo the grave task of having to fold in your wing mirrors on a busy road. The Honda e has removed that obstacle altogether, and replaced the mirrors with cameras, which screen live images inside the car onto the sides of the dashboard. By leaving out the wing mirrors, narrow city streets can finally be a less stressful experience to drive down.

Let’s talk tech.

With the Honda e’s smartphone app, you can talk to the car, scheduling charge times, closing windows, locking and unlocking the car and even preheating the inside on a cold winter’s day. It’s the motoring equivalent of getting home to a nice toasty house with central heating after a long commute battling the elements.

Honda’s answer to Siri allows you to hold a natural conversation with the car, meaning you’re one step closer to your fantasies of becoming David Hasslehoff in Knight Rider. It’ll offer you relevant recommendations and actively learn about how you use the car. With this feature, things like finding the nearest charging point, the perfect Spotify playlist for your drive or even a good place for a pitstop sandwich becomes a doddle.

How’s the interior of the Honda e?

This is the kind of car you won’t want to sully with even so much as an empty water bottle rolling around the back seat. The dashboard stretches across the entire width of the car, made up of five displays that will keep you fully connected with relevant information while you’re driving. You can add personalisation to the display so it feels like your own space, too.

Apparently, the rear legroom is deceptively spacious for such a small car, but we’ll leave that up to the long-legged folks to decide. Most importantly, you can fold the back seats down flat for extra storage on those stressful IKEA trips, which is always a bonus.

You’ll be able to send directions to your car from your smartphone, meaning typing satnav commands into a tiny touchscreen will finally be a thing of the past. Thankfully, there’s a USB socket for every passenger, so the dreaded “What percent is your phone on? Can I just get a few minutes of charge?” questions can finally be put to bed.

How does the charging work?

The car’s charge point isn’t hard to find. It’s placed right in the centre of the bonnet, so you can reach it from either side of the car – a smart design choice. Its LED light shows clearly what stage of charging it’s at, and there’s a safety lock to stop the cable being removed while the car is getting some juice.

There’s even a rapid charge function that will get the car to 80% charge in 31 minutes. Using a public or home charger will get you to 100% in about four hours.

Now is probably a good time to remind you that every By Miles policy is electric-friendly, so things like charging cables and even leased electric car batteries are covered to give you peace of mind.

Are there any personalisation options?

If you want to make the car your own, then you can really make the car your own. The Honda e comes in five colours – Charge yellow, platinum white pearl, modern steel metallic, premium crystal blue metallic and crystal black pearl. They might sound like video game challenges, but they’re also a pretty special collection of colours.

You can also turn it into a more sporty experience by adding doorstep garnishes, side body trims, bumper mouldings, alloy wheels, under spoilers and more. It’s a blank canvas that you can project your hopes and dreams onto, if you so wish. Check the options in the brochure here.

Fancy taking the Honda e for a test drive?

We’ve teamed up with Honda in London to get you sorted with an early test drive of the new Honda e. If you’re a By Miles member and you’re based in or around London and the South East, we’ll even throw in £20 free miles credit* after you do the test drive. If you’re not on a By Miles policy, don’t panic, you can still register your interest for a test drive through us.

Register your interest here and your nearest garage will be in touch to sort out a time that suits.

The future is electric. Happy driving!

Whether you’re going electric or sticking with the classics, if you drive under 150 miles a week, get a quick quote for a pay-by-mile car insurance policy by clicking here. See if you could make a saving in under a minute.

*Free miles credit will only be offered if a test drive of a Honda e is completed at either Chiswick Honda or Wimbledon Park Honda, and only if your interest in the test drive is registered via the link we’ve provided in this blog.  Free miles credit is not transferable, refundable or convertible into cash. Read our terms at bymiles.co.uk/terms-of-business. By Miles Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) number 773046.