Ingham’s W RLD

MOTORING editors have the sort of job most boys drool over. If a new Porsche comes on the market, they get to drive it – often in an exotic location. But I write about the Environment. So last weekend when I test drove a car, there was no trip to the Riviera. The car was delivered to my home. And it was electric. Yet I loved it.

I tried out the New Nissan Leaf, and electric cars have come a long way since I last tried one eight years ago.

That machine looked like the sort of car Noddy would drive. My son, Tom, 15 at the time, had no intention of being Big Ears.

Yet the new Leaf looks like a proper car. Last weekend Tom climbed in quite happily as I drove him to Gatwick, with ample room for his luggage.

Of course, the big criticism of electric cars is their range. But the new Leaf offers 168 miles on a full battery rising to 258 miles in urban conditions.

Charging the battery has also got easier. Nissan says there are more than 5,000 charging points across the UK, and rapid chargers take 40 to 60 minutes, costing between just 3p and 6p a mile.

So on Sunday morning I popped down to our local pub, plugged in the rapid charger and went off for a walk before returning to a purring car.

Admittedly, this would be trying on a long haul trip to Cornwall.

But the average daily car commute is 20 miles and most car journeys are shorter, so electric is fine for everyday trips.

LEAF innovations include the e-Pedal. You take your foot off the accelerator and the car brakes automatically with a conventional brake as back-up. There are also systems which keep you a safe distance from the car in front and let you park at the touch of a button.

And by driving electric, I was not adding to the smog that blights so many towns, though the car is only as green as the electricity you use.

The real test was on the road. I drove in towns, on country roads and on the motorway. What impressed me most was its acceleration. Saving the planet can co-exist with life in the fast lane.

So would I buy one? The new Leaf costs £25,190 including a £4,500 Government grant and the charging infrastructure is improving all the time. So next time I replace my car, it will be a contender.

And that is high praise indeed. BIRD TABLE regulars great tits are models of self-restraint, say experts at Sweden’s Lund University. Given food in a clear cylinder, 80 per cent resisted the temptation to peck at the plastic and instead worked out where the opening was, reports Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. This means they are almost as restrained as chimpanzees. GREAT tits can afford to be restrained as they are natural spies. They don’t hoard food for the winter but let other birds do it instead. They watch from afar as marsh and willow tits hide nuts and seeds – and then help themselves. Lund University Professor Anders Brodin said: “Great tits are very resourceful small birds.” CORAL reefs are nature’s climate change warning system. Warmer seas cause reefs to “bleach” into white skeletons. But a study by Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology suggests that coral may be getting more resilient. Researchers tell PeerJ, the Journal of Life & Environmental Sciences, that coral can survive warmer seas much better than in the 1970s. FARMERS are resorting to “medieval” siege tactics to stop crime, says insurer NFU Mutual. They are building earth ramparts, digging ditches and putting up stockade fences as well as using dogs, geese and llamas to protect flocks from rustlers, threaten intruders and raise the alarm.