Britain’s electric vehicle mandates don’t make sense

It is now four years since I bought my first electric car. At the time, I wished I hadn’t. The car, though solid, swift and fun, had the slight problem that it could explode at any time. 

In 2019, a tranche of electric cars were sold to ingenues such as myself, only to be recalled so that their batteries could be replaced with ones which might not spontaneously combust. Once replaced, it was fine, but my home needed an upgrade, too – every fuse in the house blew when I first tried to recharge the car and boil a kettle at the same time.

Being an EV pioneer (I was the first person in my French village to have one) came with hardship. Road trips were experiences of anxiety, despair and finally anger, as autoroute charging in France was primitive. You never knew when you would arrive at a charging station, or if you ever would.