What's the strangest reason you've heard for staying petrol?

The ritual angle makes me laugh becuase I had my own version of it. When my wife and I bought our e-Niro three years ago I told anyone who'd listen that I liked the smell of petrol forecourts and would miss them. Turns out the only thing I actually miss is the little squeegee for the windscreen, and I keep meaning to buy one for the garage. What I found is the routine doesn't disappear, it just moves. Instead of a Sunday morning queue at the pumps I do my charging overnight like charging a phone, and I honestly forget it's a thing I do. Our coast trips are around the same distance as your workmate's, and we've only ever needed a top-up at the services on the way home in winter when the range drops off a bit. There's a charger by the chip shop there now, so we've accidentally built a new ritual out of it. On the forgetting to plug in sister, I did that exactly once in three years and the car still had plenty left the next morning, so it's a low stakes thing to forget. I'd agree with you that most of these reasons mean 'not yet'. My brother in law spent two years telling me he'd never touch one, then his company car scheme changed and now he bangs on about regen braking like he invented it.

I reckon alot of these excuses are stand-ins for somethig else, usually money or timing. My brother spent two years telling me he coud never live with the range of an electric car, very dramatic about it whenever we saw each other. Turned out what he actually meant was that he was two years into a finance deal on his Audi and switching meant taking a hit on it. Once that deal ran out he went and ordered a ID.4 without telling anyone, no announcement, just turned up in it one Sunday.

So now I mostly leave people alone about it. My own shift happened by accident too, I hired a Polestar for a week when my old diesel was in the garage and by day three I'd stopped thinking about it entirely. Never went back. The one excuse I do take at face value is your point about people without a driveway. My mate in his terraced street with no off-street parking is genuinely stuck, and no amount of 'just try one' fixes that for him. That's a proper reason, not an excuse.

The rest of them, the rituals, the forgetting to plug in, the spontaneity, I just nod along now and wait. They come round when the deal on thier current car ends, or when a second-hand one drops into their budget, and not a day before. Chasing people about it just makes them dig in.

Totally with the point about excuses being stand-ins for something else. My neighbour spent a year saying she didn't want the hassle of charging, then one day admitted the real issue was her son parks in the driveway and she couldn't face the arguement about who gets the plug. Sorted itself out when he moved his van to the street and now she's the one lecturing people at the school gate about off-peak rates.

I do wonder how many 'never' people are really just waiting for the practical bit to click into place.

I was the excuse person myself for about a year. Kept telling people my parking spot was too far from the house to charge, wich was true in the sense that my garden hose reached and my charger cable didn't. In the end an electrician mate fitted a weatherproof outdoor socket by the gate and I bought a longer cable, and that was the whole problem gone in an afternoon. Funny thing is once that excuse died I had to admit the real one, which was that I just didn't understand the cars. Took a test drive in my mate's Leaf to sort that out. Curious what your workmate woud say if you actually offered him a lift in one.