ELECTRIC VEHICLES — THE REALITY

Out of the millions of people around the UK who drive regularly, only a few thousand have actually driven a fully electric car, or “EV”. The reasons are easy to understand, although many people’s views are now out of date. I was, for many years, very sceptical about the ability of the EV to ever replace ICE cars (internal combustion engine).

I am sure most people will recall the damning report by the BBC, of someone attempting to drive from London to Edinburgh — which took 4 days. But since then there have been tremendous advancements in technology and savings from increasing scale of production. An EV then was likely to have had a range of roughly 70 to 80 miles. Now they are more likely to be approaching 200 miles with several approaching 300.

EVs are still very expensive options to buy, of course, and are only minimally affected by the government grant to reduce the capital cost. But the running costs are minimal, making their overall cost, over time, pretty close to an ICE car of the same specification and:

• Car tax is zero
• Insurance cost is relatively low
• Maintenance cost is very low — as there are far fewer moving parts to go wrong
• Fuel is around 2p per mile if you refuel at home, often free in many car parks, but can be more if using the high speed chargers now becoming more available

In addition the environment benefits enormously when moving from ICE to EV. Not just the effect on global warming, but also on a local…