Although the G-Whizz city car and other similar variants have been on the road for a while, it was the Tesla Roadster fully-electric sportscar, launched in 2008, which really put this type of propulsion on the agenda and showed that, in fact, motoring can indeed be sexy and clean.
Since then, the race to bring electric to the masses has gathered even more pace, making the prospect of silent and guilt free-motoring ever-more real, but this has not gone without a helping hand from the continued economic instability in the oil producing regions. With the price of petrol and diesel currently edging towards the £1.50 per litre mark, motorists are becoming increasingly-less keen to reach for their wallets, and are having to think more and more about what methods of transport would yield lower running costs. This is consequently pointing a greater number of people in the direction of electric.
Whether it is motorbikes or cars, consumers are today already facing an increasing choice of zero-emission vehicles in the showroom, such as the recently-released Nissan Leaf (which won the 2011 European Car of the Year) and Mitsubishi i-Miev. However, this is all well and good, but to get ‘bums on seats’, the real challenge that automakers now face is reaching out beyond the population who simply feel guilty about damaging the environment and addressing the common phobias that are deterring motorists from shunning petrol power for something that doesn’t produce a hint of pollution.
What you would normally take for granted when driving a hybrid, petrol or diesel vehicle, could be translated by potential buyers as impracticalities or deterrents when it comes to electric: Users have to think about whether the range of the car will be enough to complete a journey on a single charge (the Nissan Leaf averages around 110 miles for example), where to charge it if away from home (especially for those with off-street parking), and speed of charging (which can be a few hours on a domestic plug socket).
Aside from the vehicle manufacturers themselves, and some of the best R&D wizards in the world, the Government is without a doubt a key driver (excuse the pun) in how fast the adoption of electric power actually happens, takes place and how easy it will be for motorists to give up what they have known for decades. Incentives have already been put in place in the UK both at a national and local level such as a £5,000 contribution towards the price of a new electric car. The London Assembly is equally doing their bit to encourage the Capital’s residents to go green by offering free parking, and an annual congestion charge of £10 in London as part of Boris Johnson’s pledge to make the City the electric car capital of Europe.
We are clearly living in memorable and exciting times, and it is difficult to deny that the shift to eco-friendly technology is quietly gathering momentum. However, in reality, there needs to be more noise if this revolution is going to take the country by storm rather than the electric vehicle being reserved merely as a ‘nice to have’, or as a second or third car for pottering around in.
Author: Simon Wittenberg.
