The battery shouldn't be going down that fast unless you're using turbo & headlights a lot. For hers, its only at ~80% after a week in-game. Plus if you sell the empty battery, it only costs 75 points for a new one, and the solar ATV module makes it a non-issue. Having the ability to upgrade the ATV and make it have new skills like air control is really fun because of how important it is for traversal.
Hers loves the new changes because being able to interact with the world in new ways is the fun of VotV. The added complexity was sorely missing from pre-0.9 and was the one thing the game was lacking in comparison to Signal Simulator.