The truth about electric cars

EVs have been easy to poke fun at over the years. Comedian Chris McCausland has a popular stand-up sketch about how Jaguar spent four years developing a space age noise for its electric i-Pace, only to silence it because people were looking skywards when they heard one coming towards them. And yet, despite their futuristic novelty, society has actually adjusted remarkably quickly to the advent of electric cars; they are fast becoming commonplace on British roads.

Last year the Government’s EHVS home charging point grant scheme, which ends on 21 March, helped fund almost 61,480 charging units, and last November just under 19 per cent of Britain’s new car market was taken by electric models.

These vehicles are no longer niche. But, for drivers wondering whether to make the switch from petrol to electric, questions still loom about their practicality once the novelty has worn off: range, lack of charge points and the price of battery replacement are just a few of the concerns, not to mention the reputation EVs have of being rather clinical when compared to the edginess of their petrol counterparts.