The future then is electric vehicles with zero exhaust emissions of CO2. We will, of course still be able to drive petrol and diesel cars, including hybrids although we may well need to learn to be frowned at by electric car drivers as we fill up with our fossil fuels. Others perhaps may even look longingly across to the pumps on the forecourt and remember fondly the days when they could fill up their tanks in five minutes and be on their way.

Electric vehicles will not be everyone’s cup of tea. They certainly have massive benefits in terms of CO2 emissions and cutting down greenhouse gases, which will help to slow down the process of global warming. However, not everything in the electric garden is rosy, there are downsides.

When compared to conventional petrol engined cars, electric variants are still considerably more expensive to buy;

Vauxhall Mokka   – petrol - £24,000            electric - £32,000

Mini                      - petrol - £23,000             electric - £33,700

Volkswagen Golf – petrol - £26,000   ID3 – electric - £34,000

The above examples are not what would normally be described as “high end” cars and would have in the past, appealed to a middle market buyer in petrol format. A 30-40% increase in price is not insignificant to a car buyer in that range of vehicle, so that would possibly be the first hurdle to overcome. “Can I afford an electric version of my car?”

The next question might be can I afford to sell my electric car. Electric vehicle technology is changing rapidly, especially battery technology, so how will your electric car fare in the second hand car market in four or five years’ time? Will it still be relevant or will it be old technology? Also worth noting is the fact that a very high percentage of electric vehicles on the road today have been leased, not bought, so how will that affect the second hand value of the car?

There are of course a few mitigating factors. Road tax on electric vehicles is free at present, although only till 2025, as the Treasury would not be able to afford to not have the revenue it enjoys at the moment from car tax. Insurance premiums tend to be higher with electric vehicles, because of the technology involved, we are told. The same technology however, allows the vehicle to have a built in tracker on board and while it carries some very large batteries everywhere it goes, it does not have its rear end filled with highly flammable liquid. Once the insurance world sees electric vehicles become the norm and are able to assess their risks more accurately, this may see premiums fall.

The argument we have all heard in the past is that while the vehicle itself may cost more to buy, we can offset the purchase cost by savings in its running cost. Twelve to eighteen months ago that may well be have been true, but Mr Putin changed all that when he invaded Ukraine. Gas and oil prices soared, followed quickly by electricity charges. This has changed the sales pitch from “electric vehicles are cheaper to run” to “electric vehicles can be cheaper to run, if”, and it’s the “if” that makes the difference.

Petrol or diesel prices do not vary all that much from forecourt to forecourt, although it is normally recognised that in general terms, motorway services tend not to be among the cheapest. Electric top-up costs, on the other hand, vary widely and this is where the “if” comes into play.

• If you use public charge points, you can pay the equivalent of 20p/mile
• If you charge at home with a charge box that could drop to as low as 8p/mile
• If you fill up with petrol your cost can range from 16p to 13p/mile.

These costs are given as a snapshot for the purposes of comparison and are not necessarily accurate today as prices fluctuate almost daily. They do, however show that it is untrue, as things stand at the moment, to say that electric vehicles are less expensive to run on a mile by mile basis. They can be and often are, particularly if you tend to travel short distances allowing you to charge mainly from a home charge point using a specific electric vehicle tariff.

Also worth bearing in mind is that electric vehicles regenerate their charge when they decelerate or the brakes are applied, which increases their range on a charge. This means that, unlike petrol or diesel fuelled vehicles, they are more economical for urban driving than on a motorway, where deceleration and braking is less frequent.

Battery range is also affected by cold weather. An electric vehicle will travel fewer miles per charge during cold winter weather than it would in summer and in some severe cases have been known to fail.

Bigger, more expensive electric vehicles tend to have larger batteries giving them much increased range in comparison to smaller lower priced vehicles, however, due to the much increased weight of the larger batteries, the smaller vehicle will travel further on an equivalent charge. 

Battery size also has an effect on charge times, which is why vehicle charge times are often quoted as a range rather than a specific time. There are a number of available charge speeds available from public charge points. The most popular are either Rapid chargers or Ultra Rapid chargers. The Rapid charger will recharge a vehicle in 20-60 minutes and the faster and more expensive Ultra Rapid charge point in 20-25 minutes. Most of the times quoted are for 80% charges as you will be unlikely to arrive at a charging station with no charge in your battery and once the battery is 80% charged, the charge rate will slow dramatically to help preserve the battery. Charge times can also be affected by cold weather.

It is always worth planning where you intend to charge on a long journey and allow a healthy safety margin in case of unforeseen problems. Highway maintenance can often close sections of motorway unexpectedly during late evenings or weekends, so check ahead.

Our motoring world is in the throes of major upheaval caused by the enforced change from fossil fuels to electric vehicles and inevitably, parts of the necessary infrastructure will develop more slowly than most of us would like. The major worry the majority of people identified in a poll was the perceived lack of charging facilities and they may be right, at the present time. However, there is a huge exercise being carried out across the country to install more public charge points, not just on motorways but in towns and cities and public car parks. But with time taken to recharge vehicles there will eventually need to be many more charging points available than there are petrol/diesel pumps at the moment, otherwise long queues will form, which some drivers may find off-putting.

Given that energy prices will eventually settle, car charging tariffs will fall and post 2030, the price of fossil fuels at the pumps can only be expected to rise and fuel pump numbers will begin to diminish in favour of charge points. The change to electric motoring will be an evolution rather than a revolution, but we need to remember that the evolution is not being fuelled by a need to cut motoring costs but the need to cut the emission of greenhouse gases which are causing global warming and ultimately killing our planet.