BRIGHT SPARKS OF THE FUTURE
Electric technology is taking leaps and bounds on a daily basis, and Neil Lyndon believes these cars are an investment worth making
The technology behind electric cars is coming on in leaps and bounds
The electric car current is surging in Scotland. Every day seems to bring the announcement of a new electric or hybrid model from a major manufacturer along with a record being broken for range or the opening of a new extension in the electric charging network.
Late in 2019, BMW unveiled their new hybrid 3 Series at the same time as announcing plans for a high-performance i4 electric saloon with a range of almost 400 miles which will appear in 2021. Meanwhile, Volkswagen revealed plans to develop a new electric estate car concept under the name of ID Space Vizzion and Subaru introduced their new Forester E-Boxer. In autumn 2019, the Energy Saving Trust completed a circuit of the North Coast 500 route using electric and hybrid cars, just to prove that exercise could now be achieved. A representative for the Trust said the journey would have been impossible only a year ago.
At the same time, IONITY – a joint venture to build a pan-European high-power charging network – launched the first of its fastest chargers in Scotland, at Gretna.
The BP Chargemaster rapid charging network is now claimed to be ‘powering up to 1.5 million electric miles a week’ in the UK and is reliably stated by impartial users to be adequate for long journeys from one end of the British Isles to another.
Dotted around Scotland, Tesla now has more than 40 Superchargers which can deliver about 170 miles of range in 30 minutes; and they are rapidly expanding their network in anticipation of the arrival of their compact, lower-cost Model 3 next year.
This all adds up to a dramatically different picture from the scene in 2010 when my house became the first in Scotland to be fitted with a charging pod under the government’s scheme that made them effectively free. Pure electric cars were then a rarer sight than an osprey. People used to stop on the pavement to turn their heads in wonder as the Nissan Leaf, which I borrowed on extended loan that year, cruised by silently on the street. All the charging points which local authorities had installed in prime positions in civic car parks were permanently vacant and free to use; so you could count on unlimited free parking in the best spot in town.
Those days are over in every sense. While sales of new cars overall are in decline, electrics and hybrids are selling in ever-increasing numbers. In the year leading up to October 2019, according to the latest figures from the Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), the total in Scotland was 960, equivalent to 6.75% of the total market for cars in the country. That figure was up by a quarter over 2018 alone. According to research by What Car? a fully electric car would now make sense as a choice for almost one in five new car buyers, while more than 60% would benefit from choosing a plug-in (whereas petrol and diesel would be the best choice for only 12.5% and 4.8% respectively).
Meanwhile the free ride for pure electric cars and plug-in hybrids has also, decidedly, had its day. You will now pay around £1,000 for a charging pod. And, if you can find a vacant charging-point in a municipal car park, you will not only be lucky but you will have to pay both for the electricity and for the privilege of parking there.
Driven by government regulations designed to diminish emissions, and led in the first place by Nissan with their original Leaf (now replaced and vastly improved), every major manufacturer on earth
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A fully electric car would make sense as a choice for almost one in five new car buyers
now offers electric and/or hybrid models or has them in development. In less than a decade, unimaginable advances have been achieved in battery technology, providing startling increases in range. It is hard to remember now that my 2010 Leaf was barely capable of 80 miles before its battery was perilously close to flat; and, on a dark winter night, carrying four big men with the heater and the lights running, you couldn’t safely count on completing a round trip of 50 miles.
(By the same token, the original Toyota Prius hybrid, first sold here in 2000, was barely capable of 40mpg. In 2019, Volkswagen introduced a hybrid version of their large and luxurious Passat estate which comfortably returns more than 60mpg).
Today, the latest electric SUVs from Kia and Hyundai – being sold as E-Niro and Kona respectively – can achieve over 250 miles in the real world, not merely in the overheated imaginations of their makers. Range anxiety is melting away. At an average starting price of around £29,500, those Korean electrics are still far more expensive than conventional equivalents but they are eligible for the government’s Plug-in Car Grant of £3,500 and their running costs are tiny. A bog-standard electric Renault Zoe costs £25,000 and about 6p per mile to run whereas a conventionally-fuelled car might cost closer to 40p per mile. And with fewer moving parts and direct transmission the long-term maintenance costs of electric are miniscule compared with conventional cars.
For those reasons, long waiting lists are forming for models like the E-Niro and Kona. Supply cannot match demand. Manufacturers introducing new electric cars can be certain that eager buyers await. And there is a case for waiting. As one experienced observer put it, ‘electric cars are improving so fast that you can be certain a better one will be along tomorrow’.
There’s even quite a strong case for considering second-hand electric cars. Battery life has turned out to be far longer than was expected and numerous Leafs and Zoes are now running around with up to 500,000 on the clock. At the end of my six-month loan of the Leaf in 2010, Nissan offered it to me for sale at £13,500 – less than half its original purchase price. Despite that vertiginous initial depreciation, however, the self-same car would be worth about £7,000 today and is actually appreciating in value.