I swore I would never stray. Not this old-fashioned guy.

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Unfaithful friends laughed. Surrender to temptation, they urged with a knowing wink. Once you try it you'll never go back.

Not me, I vowed. I'm the loyal, comfortable type. Why risk it all for some flashy young thing promising a little excitement?

But last weekend my resistance crumbled. I fell in love with an alluring Chinese stranger. Turns out the seduction could not have been better timed.

As I succumbed on a test drive to the charms of the Geely Starray plug-in hybrid car, Australia was passing a motoring milestone unimaginable a few years ago. Last month battery-powered electric vehicles outsold petrol cars for the first time.

Yes, a nation once religiously divided between devout Ford and Holden supporters, where zealous petrolheads regarded anything less powerful than a V8 as a lawnmower, has embraced the electric vehicle.

More than 27,000 fully electric cars were bought in August. Add hybrid car sales and more than half of new vehicle sales boasted some form of electric drive. Remarkably, the bestseller was not a monster truck but the Tesla model Y.

Something radical is happening and people like me, whose eyes usually glaze over when talk turns to cars, may explain why.

I've never opposed electric cars on ideological grounds. I'm agnostic. I regard passionate electric car enthusiasts as cultists who wear shirts made from sustainable bamboo and carry compost bins in the rear boot. I also sneer at friends - petrol engine traditionalists - who lower windows when passing a servo to inhale its fragrant fumes.

I just like to get where I'm going, which involves frequent road journeys between Melbourne and Sydney. The prospect of doing it in an electric car felt confronting, more a military expedition than a 900km trip to visit family.

Where are the charging stations? How long are the queues? How much mediocre, overpriced service station coffee would have to be consumed?

Range anxiety, they call it. But now the electric auto industry has devised a cure: hybrids that can truly go the distance. And as battery performance improves, this auto evolution feels more like a revolution.

It started when Japan convinced the world that decent cars didn't need to be American or European. South Korea then punctured the assumption that cheap cars had to be unreliable. Now China is destroying the idea that advanced cars have to be expensive.

The Geely Starray is a perfect example. Until I wandered past the dealership last weekend Geely sounded like something sticky you spread on toast. Then I climbed inside a test vehicle. Cameras everywhere, heated seats that also massage sore muscles, a huge but simple touchscreen and a soft but powerful ride that glided over potholes.

Two numbers were even more seductive. Cost: under $40,000 before on-road additions. Combined range: up to 1000km. I could drive between cities without the........

© Canberra Times