Shocking state of electric car charging stations

SIR – Michael Liebreich (Comment, August 23) makes an important point regarding the advantages of electric cars. However, it is a pity that Transport for London, of which he is a member, does not do more to encourage their use.

As the driver of an electric car, I am constantly frustrated by the lack of charging stations in central London and by the failure of some of the companies that own them to maintain them. If one parks on a non-working charger station one is given a parking ticket but there does not seem to be any penalty for the company that fails to repair it.

There also needs to be a single-pay charging system rather than several requiring different accounts.

Westminster certainly offers the greatest incentives to use electric cars, but other London boroughs are woefully behind, offering only modest incentives for residents to give up their (less expensive) petrol or diesel models.

London W1

SIR – Thérèse Coffey, the Environment Minister (Letters, August 24), tells us not to worry about pressure on the National Grid caused by the charging of vast numbers of electric cars. “Time of use” tariffs will encourage us to use off-peak power for such charging.

So there we have it at last – confirmation from the Government of the widely held suspicion that smart meters have little to do with telling us how much power is used in our homes, but everything to do with penalising us all for using electricity at an inconvenient time for the power companies.

Ketley, Shropshire

Shildon, Co Durham

SIR – I hope the questions in the “more challenging GCSE maths paper” were not all multiple choice questions with four possible solutions, as shown in your examples (report, August 25).

If they were, anyone who got less than 25 per cent would be advised not to play the National Lottery.

London SW14