Book — avoiding parking — trips on electric cars — useful! (8,6)
I believe the answer is:
tristram shandy
'book' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'avoiding parking trips on electric cars useful' is the wordplay.
'avoiding' indicates named letters should be taken away.
'parking' becomes 'p'.
'on' says to put letters next to each other.
'electric cars' becomes 'trams'.
'useful' becomes 'handy' (I've seen this before).
'trips' with 'p' taken away is 'tris'.
'tris'+'trams'+'handy'='TRISTRAM SHANDY'
(Other definitions for tristram shandy that I've seen before include "whimsical hero?" , "Book" , "novel" , "Laurence Sterne's 'Gentleman'" , "Gentleman booked" .)