Range anxiety is a deterrent

Range anxiety will slow down the adoption of electric cars, and will cause concern among those who have just got their ‰irst hybrid or electric car, as huge numbers will over the next few years.

They’re going to want a lot of reassurances, preferably backed up by charging facilities on every street corner.

Ford has teamed up with its German rivals to build ultra-fast charging stations across Europe. But even so that might not be enough to ease the worries of those going green for the ‰irst time.

Erik Fairbairn of electric car charging specialists POD Point urged: ‘Don’t map your old behaviour on to new technology.’ Most electric cars start the day fully charged – whereas petrol or diesel cars never start the day fully fuelled. Fairbairn’s research showed that people over-worry about the availability of en-route charging stations, then in practice rarely use them.