SMART DRIVING

 Electric vehicles (EVS) are too quick for the city and too slow for the motorways.

Let me explain… I have had my EV for two years now and I feel you have to live with an electric vehicle to fully understand the pros and cons.

As you get instant torque from the electric motor, this makes for a very impressive, nippy vehicle in city environments, which can take other road users by surprise. This brings me onto another part of my thoughts about EV’S – looking 20 to 30 years in the future, all vehicles are going to have to have limiters fitted possibly to 40mph as soon as you hit a city boundary. I’m sure I read just recently that all cars from 2022 are to be fitted with limiters from standard, so this would sort out this problem for the future.

But on the motorway, you end up keeping your speed down to increase your range. I have probably the smallest EV you can buy, a smart forfour, which has a smaller capacity battery than the newer ones coming out now. My smart can still do 85mph on motorways (illegal anyway), but it eats power at this speed, so I tend to set the cruise control at 60mph.

This allows for better range and it’s probably what other EV drivers will do in the future – which you could argue will make for safer driving.

Speed is the biggest killer of range, followed very closely by using the heater. In third place is using the aircon, although this is not so bad.

When you do finally purchase an EV for the first time, you will probably do the same as me, having fun with the instant torque and zooming along on the motorway. And once you get over this, you will still love your EV.

Andrew Dunn