An EV test drive reveals they’re not so radically different – except for the sense of future-proofing

A few weeks ago in western Sydney, I fanged around the Eastern Creek racetrack looking to kick the wheels of the electric car revolution.

A lot has been written on the viability of the electric car: the price, the availability, the range, the chargers. But this was solely about the driving experience, from the perspective of someone who has only ever driven petrol cars.

I tested six cars – from pure electric, to hydrogen fuel-cell, to petrol-hybrids. From the Tesla X SUV, to the fully electric SEA truck, to the one-person, three-wheel Toyota iRoad (which we will never speak of again).

As a driver, the first thing you notice is that there is no gearbox. Electric cars simply don’t have them. You shift from park to drive to reverse by pressing a button. And when driving, most models use a fixed-ratio gear. There is no clutch, no gearstick, no transmission.