Electric cars: are they the future?

05/10/10

Is this, at last, the time to think seriously about buying an electric car? Could be, writes Ray Castle of motors.co.uk. A slew of exciting new models will appear in showrooms next year, while the promise of a £5000 Govt-backed grant towards buying remains in place, despite the onset of the harshest public spending cuts for decades.

If you’re an eco-conscious driver keen to do your bit for the environment then the idea of buying one is compelling. Unlike even the greenest petrol- or diesel-engined model, emissions from the car are zero. No all–electric car has an exhaust pipe because, of course, there’s no need.

The best designs should travel up to 100 miles on battery power, while the promise of rapid recharge stations at motorway service areas would make longer journeys possible. In theory, plugging in to one of these points would charge near-flat batteries up to 80% capacity within 30 minutes.

The cars are quiet and responsive to drive. All have automatic gearboxes and accelerate quickly up to 30mph and then on to the national limit of 70mph or beyond. They are near-silent in operation, so quiet that EC safety lawmakers are thinking of making it compulsory for their makers to make them noisy, better to safeguard pedestrians, cyclists and other road users.

Nissan’s Leaf (pictured, right) is the first of the new-generation electric cars to begin sale and will find its first owners in the UK next year. Anticipating legal requirements, the Leaf makes a slight turbine-like whine at speeds up to 30mph – after that wind rustle and tyre roar is enough to signal the car’s presence to other road users. The noise is entirely artificial and comes from a speaker fitted for the purpose.

Until now, buyer’s choice of electric models has been sparse and limited to small, often quirky city cars. These remain, but the choice is broadened so that in 2011 there’ll be the Leaf (which is the same size as a Volkswagen Golf). Peugeot and Mitsubishi are rolling out their jointly developed car, named iMiev (pictured, top) and Ion (according to make) which are supermini-sized.

Meanwhile, Toyota will begin sales of a version of its petrol-electric hybrid car, the Prius, which now recharges from the mains. But perhaps the most intriguing car of the bunch promises to be the Vauxhall Ampera (pictured, below). This will, like the Leaf, rely entirely on electricity stored in batteries for motive power.

But where it will be different is that also has a tiny petrol engine, there entirely to charge the batteries. This works as the car is used, so overcoming the range limitations that an electric car otherwise suffers.

Whichever you choose, charging is cheap – using typically less than £2-worth of electricity for a full cycle – and can be carried out using a regular 13-amp socket. It will take about eight hours to complete although, as mentioned earlier, using a high-capacity charger (which requires a special supply set-up) reduces the time to as little as 30 minutes.

Set against that is the cost of the cars: a Leaf will cost more than £28,000 while the iMiev/Ion, although smaller, costing about the same. Even with the £5000 grant, they remain significantly dearer to buy than conventional cars.
And while the cars don’t pollute, the same probably can’t be said of the power stations that produce the power they use. Critics claim that far from lessening pollution, electric cars simply shift its origin. The best bet, then for green-minded drivers is to use a power supplier which invests heavily in low- or no-carbon electricity production.

And then there’s the question of how long the batteries will last. Essentially, they’re similar to those you’d find powering your laptop or mobile phone. Car makers promise that they will be durable. Toyota says it has 10-year-old Priuses running happily on their original batteries, while Nissan guarantees those in the Leaf for five years. Against this are sceptics who predict that the batteries will lose capacity after only two years, while some used car experts predict that second-hand electric cars will become worthless after just five years.

Otherwise, servicing costs should be lower than diesel or petrol cars because electric motors require virtually no scheduled servicing, while the brakes and suspension components are similar. Insurance ratings for the new generation of cars haven’t been announced yet but it is likely that they’ll be a little higher than for regular cars because of their high purchase costs and the possibility of needing g specialist repairs.

Last, there’s the question of how easy it will be to recharge your car. Electric cars are best suited to city dwellers who make lots of short journeys. But, unless you’re lucky enough to have your own drive-way, getting the job done can be tricky.

London is busily installing kerb-side charging points, while cities across Britain are bidding to get in on the act, too, as are remote areas such as Cornwall. It is also envisaged that all motorway services will have high-capacity chargers which can give a quick boost, taking just half an hour. As yet, though, kerb-side points are scarce – and will remain so for some months.

One thing’s certain: electric cars are coming and more and more will find their way on to our roads. If you only ever use your car for short-ish trips, the benefits are clear. But prices will have to fall far before they’ll compete like-for-like with the best conventional eco-cars.

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