As The Courier’s Fight For Fairer Fuel petition breaks the 5000-name barrier, our motoring editor Jack McKeown looks at the growing demand for electric cars and explores whether they can ever replace the internal combustion engine.
Because a typical electric motor only has around five moving parts (as opposed to several hundred in a modern petrol or diesel engine) maintenance costs tend to be very low, consisting of replacement of wear-and-tear items such as tyres.
The only major cost is the battery pack, which degrades over time and must eventually be replaced at considerable cost.
This is one of the areas where manufacturers are fervently concentrating resources a breakthrough in battery technology would make an electric car an exponentially more attractive prospect.
And there’s another obvious drawback. If everyone were to switch over to electric cars, we wouldn’t have enough electricity to charge them all.
More power stations would have to be built, burning more fossil fuels or creating nuclear by-products. Wind power would not generate a steady enough supply to rely on.
However, if Scotland were able to capitalise on its coastal resources, it’s possible much more reliable tidal energy could supply our electricity needs during the day then charge our electric cars while we sleep at night.
That would be an attractive future, but because it sounds too good to be true it probably will be.
A more likely prospect is that by 2020 we’ll be driving a mixture of electric, hybrid and (cleaner) petrol and diesel cars. The fun will be in seeing which of these technologies proves the most popular.
My advice would be to carry on with the internal combustion engine for now early adopters always pay more but if economies of scale bring costs down and the government subsidy continues, electric propulsion might start to make economic sense within a couple of years.If you want to support the Courier’s call for a fuel duty regulator, click here to add your name to our petition.Electric cars are not new. Believe it or not, the first electric car was built by Scotsman Robert Anderson in the 1830s, and electricity remained the most popular form of automotive propulsion until improvements in the internal combustion engine were made in the early 20th century.
Since then, petroleum has been king and for most of the 20th century excluding a brief flirtation following the energy crises of the 1970s electric cars remained very much a forgotten technology. But now they’re making a comeback.
Why?
Concerns about global warming are a large factor. Electric cars emit no carbon dioxide and, provided the energy they’re charged with comes from green sources, they’re as close to a carbon-neutral form of transport as you can get this side of a bicycle.
However, most folk aren’t going to buy an expensive and unproven piece of technology simply out of a desire to be kind to the planet. It would be a lovely world if we were all that benevolent, but the reality is people have a lot of priorities to juggle.
So it’s a good thing, then, that electric cars have another ace up their sleeve running costs.
Once you’ve bought them, electric cars cost very little to run. They can charge while you sleep, taking advantage of lower night time electricity costs, and once fully juiced should then be good for around 100 miles.
This year will be the first in which mainstream manufacturers launch electric cars. Two of the biggest players are Mitsubishi, with its iMiev, and the Nissan Leaf both Focus-sized cars aimed at family buyers.
The Leaf was recently given a boost when it was crowned European Car of the Year for 2011.
Hot on their heels will be the Citroen C-Zero and Peugeot iOn. The UK Government is backing these vehicles heavily, offering a subsidy of £5000 or 25% of the car’s cost (whichever is smaller).
Additionally, because they have CO2 emissions of zero, these cars are exempt from road tax and the London congestion charge.
They’ve chosen a good time to strike, as petrol and diesel prices have reached wallet-bursting highs in recent months.
In light of this, The Courier began its Fight For Fairer Fuel campaign two weeks ago. We want to persuade the chancellor to fulfil his pre-election promise to establish a fuel regulator and it is a popular fight, with the number of signatures on our petition now well over the 5000 mark.
While we’re hopeful of success, the best we can hope for is preventing further rises it’s almost inconceivable fuel prices will significantly drop.
That’s where electric cars begin to seem more enticing.
At the lowest rates, it can cost as little as 0.3 pence per mile to run a Nissan Leaf, while even more expensive daytime tariffs result in costs of around 2p a mile. This compares with around 14p a mile to run a petrol car the size of a Ford Focus.
Continued…
Electric cars are not new. Believe it or not, the first electric car was built by Scotsman Robert Anderson in the 1830s, and electricity remained the most popular form of automotive propulsion until improvements in the internal combustion engine were made in the early 20th century.
Since then, petroleum has been king and for most of the 20th century excluding a brief flirtation following the energy crises of the 1970s electric cars remained very much a forgotten technology. But now they’re making a comeback.
Why?
Concerns about global warming are a large factor. Electric cars emit no carbon dioxide and, provided the energy they’re charged with comes from green sources, they’re as close to a carbon-neutral form of transport as you can get this side of a bicycle.
However, most folk aren’t going to buy an expensive and unproven piece of technology simply out of a desire to be kind to the planet. It would be a lovely world if we were all that benevolent, but the reality is people have a lot of priorities to juggle.
So it’s a good thing, then, that electric cars have another ace up their sleeve running costs.
Once you’ve bought them, electric cars cost very little to run. They can charge while you sleep, taking advantage of lower night time electricity costs, and once fully juiced should then be good for around 100 miles.
This year will be the first in which mainstream manufacturers launch electric cars. Two of the biggest players are Mitsubishi, with its iMiev, and the Nissan Leaf both Focus-sized cars aimed at family buyers.
The Leaf was recently given a boost when it was crowned European Car of the Year for 2011.
Hot on their heels will be the Citroen C-Zero and Peugeot iOn. The UK Government is backing these vehicles heavily, offering a subsidy of £5000 or 25% of the car’s cost (whichever is smaller).
Additionally, because they have CO2 emissions of zero, these cars are exempt from road tax and the London congestion charge.
They’ve chosen a good time to strike, as petrol and diesel prices have reached wallet-bursting highs in recent months.
In light of this, The Courier began its Fight For Fairer Fuel campaign two weeks ago. We want to persuade the chancellor to fulfil his pre-election promise to establish a fuel regulator and it is a popular fight, with the number of signatures on our petition now well over the 5000 mark.
While we’re hopeful of success, the best we can hope for is preventing further rises it’s almost inconceivable fuel prices will significantly drop.
That’s where electric cars begin to seem more enticing.
At the lowest rates, it can cost as little as 0.3 pence per mile to run a Nissan Leaf, while even more expensive daytime tariffs result in costs of around 2p a mile. This compares with around 14p a mile to run a petrol car the size of a Ford Focus.
Continued…