It has become apparent that the much hyped electric vehicle did not meet expectations for 2011, with the government’s £5000 grant as a sweetener doing little to allay the fears of the car driving public.
Not only has the promised charging infrastructure yet to materialize but the few models available are still way above the price range of their petrol driven equivalents. 2011 saw only 1052 claims for the government funded grant, giving critics the ammunition they need to denigrate the Committee on Climate Changes targeted figures of 1.7 million electric vehicles on the UK’s roads by 2020.
But don’t despair things are looking up!
There are several new models due to be released in 2012 which represent almost all demographics of the car buying public and this time the problems of short range travel have been dispensed with.
The next generation of plug-in hybrids, that enable you to travel citywide using the all-electric option, can be switched to a petrol option for long distance journeys. There is still hope for the pure electric car and several models will be available, although they do tend to be a bit on the expensive side. The ‘Signature’ Model S from Tesla, due out in the middle of this year, should be capable of travelling 300 miles on just one charge for a price of £59k. The less expensive (£37k) Standard Model S will manage 160 miles which is still almost twice the distance current models are able to travel on just one charge.
With more and more companies involved in installing chargepoints, including Little Chef, Welcome Break and Waitrose a greener future for Britains roads is still a very real possibility.