Electric cars? Maybe it’s time we plugged in

ARE we finally wising up to electric cars? The answer, tentatively, is yes. Last year, we bought 622 purely electric vehicles (as distinct from petrol/electric or diesel/electric hybrids), compared with 392 the previous year. That’s almost half of one per cent of the total market, which might not seem very impressive, but the curve is going the right way.

Part of this is down to the overall swing to greener living, but also because range is being extended all the time, with better batteries allowing for longer journeys without recharging.

So-called range anxiety always has been the barrier to entry: there’s no point saving money on petrol if you have to stop for coffee between Dublin and Galway and sit for 40 minutes to top up. Nowadays, the likes of the Renault Zoe or Nissan Leaf make that journey much easier. The Zoe has a range of around 300km, and the next-generation Leaf, with a 40kWh battery, around 240km.

Admittedly, you might start getting nervous around Merlin Park, but you should just about be able to limp the rest of the way.

One of the other problems is the lack of chargers. Even when you find one, there are so few in total there’s a very strong likelihood someone else is there before you, and the knock-on effect on schedules is unpredictable.

Friends in California who own a Tesla had to abandon plans to drive to the northern part of the state to watch last year’s eclipse because the queue for the Supercharger station was just too long.

I was driving a Zoe one week and wasn’t sure I’d make it to Dublin, so I stopped at the Coyne’s Cross Applegreen services in Co. Wicklow, only to find the charger out of order. That made for a fairly sweaty last half hour of driving, though I did actually make it.

Anyway, the Leaf has just been crowned World Green Car of the Year at the New York Auto Show, which should drive sales further. Prices start here at €26,290, net of the available grants, so it might be time to look again.