Are electric cars unfairly discredited?

It may be my imagination but there seems to be concerted effort from the media to discredit electric cars. It would come as a surprise to me if the mighty oil companies didn’t have some slight concern about their proliferation. Could there be some connection, do you think?

I’d like to express how pleased I am with my Nissan Leaf. It really is a wonderful car. My wife and I are retired, so it suits our lifestyle down to a tee. We paid about £10,000 less than the advertised list price for ours and it had done about 3500 miles. I know, even this is over the odds for a petrol model of similar calibre, but to my way of thinking, the difference in price is me paying for my fuel in advance. Can that be a bad thing with trouble looming in the Middle East?

Asked on 8 April 2012 by BH, Wetherby

Answered by Honest John
If you don't ever go anywhere, electric cars make sense because you never have to start up an internal combustion engine and starting them up is when they are at their least efficient. But if you have to travel more than 100 miles, and maybe even no more than just 50 - 100 miles, an electric car is useless.

This road test puts the role of electric cars into sensible perspective: www.honestjohn.co.uk/road-tests/toyota/toyota-yari.../
Similar questions
Your column has correctly picked up on one of the fallacies of electric cars and you are the only writer that I can find that has told the truth about the disastrous effects on range that heating an electric...
I own a five-year-old Kia Venga petrol. The best I get from this car is 44mpg. So, with fuel prices increasing, I am looking to swap my car for something that's more efficient or electric. Can you suggest...
With the coming of electric vehicles, wouldn’t it be better to start referring to all vehicles economy as MP£ or Miles per Euro as standard rather than mpg? As an example, my Skoda Fabia Estate diesel...
Related models
An affordable mainstream electric car, practical and well-equipped, range extended to 155 miles with optional 30kWh battery from September 2015.
 

Value my car

Save £75 on Warranty using code HJ75

with MotorEasy

Get a warranty quote

Save 12% on GAP Insurance

Use HJ21 to save on an ALA policy

See offer