After I put up my first blog post at evlife.staradvertiserblogs.com, I heard back from a six-month owner of a Mitsubishi i-MiEV, who said, "Enjoy your week with the Miev and smile as you drive knowing that you are not contributing to the air pollution on Oahu!"

At that moment I wasn’t smiling. What was to have liberated me from frequent treks to pay parking meters during my workday was taking up more time in a near-daily search for an open battery-charging station and more energy calculating how much power I needed to get through my day. All of us are accustomed to jumping in our cars and going, and not being able to do that became one more source of daily stress.

But on Friday, day five, when I was asked whether I was giving up the car that day, I said, "No, I’m going to be like the Hawaii News Now people and return it Sunday."

I have to say, the car had grown on me. The car is zippy and fun to drive. Its small size makes it easy to slip through spaces where other cars can’t fit. Free parking at metered spaces is a plus and makes you feel as if you’re getting away with something, so much so that you think you can get away with other things, like illegal U-turns. It feels like a toy rather than a "serious vehicle." Getting accustomed to the car was just a matter of learning its quirks, and I found, in just one week, it was changing my driving habits.

The main cause of stress in the beginning was a miles-to-go meter that, like an hourglass, counts down the miles until your battery charge is depleted. I left the Cutter/Mitsubishi dealership with 67 miles, but by the time I got to work, it was down to 30. Because the meter "predicts" future mileage based on your current driving modes, simply turning on the air conditioner immediately wiped out 10 miles.

Seeing that fluctuation was unnerving as I calculated the miles needed to get to and from appointments in town and, on Wednesday, to dinner in Kailua. At the lowest point on the drive back to town, the meter showed 12 miles remaining, but the beauty of this car is that going downhill and braking helps the battery recharge. By the time I got home, the meter was up to 19 miles.

OPPOSITE OF a gasoline-engine car, slow stop-and-go city traffic also helps preserve the car’s charge, so whereas I tend to be a typical Type A driver, fuming at every red light and impatient with passive-aggressive, power-tripping pedestrians who step onto the road without looking and plod as slowly as possible, now I sit back and think, "Go ahead, move at a glacial pace. You’re making my day!"

I already live pretty green, but by driving this car I was thinking even greener, calculating the cost of every action, of every trip, and consolidating trips whenever possible. By day three I had done the unthinkable on a sweltering day and turned off the air conditioning to preserve battery life, something few are willing to do. So retro. Really, there was a time no car had air conditioning.

The main challenge had been the hunt for open charging stations. There’s a lot of competition for the few stations, where you must typically plant your car four hours for a full charge at a 240-volt station. I learned the EV/hybrid crowd is still a small, helpful and courteous community who will call the next person waiting for a charge.

There are not nearly enough stations to serve all EV drivers. I considered going to Kahala Mall on Saturday but didn’t because I had no guarantee the charging station would be available.

During a workday, recharging is generally no problem, because I have eight hours to leave the car. On the weekends I’m not likely to linger in one place that long.

This should be no problem for car owners who can charge up their cars on their home electricity for 12 hours or install a faster-charging unit.

The idea of a charging station set up like a gas station may simply be old thinking, and what might need to happen is for batteries to become easy to remove and replace. After all, it’s much easier to move a battery than a car, but there are cost and other issues involved, so we are not likely to reach that goal until EV cars are ubiquitous.

For me the cost of the EV cars — the i-MiEV sells for $21,625 after a $7,500 federal rebate — is still a factor in whether I would own one. My current BMW Z4 cost $11,000, paid in cash, two years ago. My Chinese parents didn’t raise me to be a financial fool, and the cost difference between running an EV car and gasoline-engine car is negligible when you consider that any savings in gas will, in the long run, go toward buying a new battery.

But sometimes the greater good is more important than counting pennies, and driving an EV is definitely a feel-good act that will have an impact on the remaining time human beings have on this planet. And, as far as fossil fuels go, I think the miles-to-go meter is inching ever closer toward empty.