Electric vehicles are much better value

AS a driver of one of the million electric vehicles on the road in the UK, I can respond to the misconceptions in Mike Baker’s letter (April 8).

The sale of new EVs to private buyers slowed in January, no doubt due to the cost-of-living crisis, but, overall, sales of EVs in January actually increased by 21% as most new car sales are to businesses and they are switching to electric vehicle fleets to save money on fuel.

The same Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) figures show that used or secondhand EV car sales reached a record high in 2023, going up by 90.9%.

Electricity as a fuel is much cheaper than petrol or diesel, making the lifetime cost of an EV way lower than for petrol and diesel cars. We save £1,250 a year on fuel.

Electric cars have an eight to 10-year or 100,000 miles battery warranty. Our 10-year-old EV has driven 94,000 miles and is now outside its warranty but has lost just

10 miles of range – we fully expect the battery to outlast the car.

EVs can do 200 to 300 miles on a charge and a rapid charger can add 120 miles of range in just 20 minutes. Most EV drivers charge their car once or twice a week at home or at work. Breakdown services already have on-board batteries to recharge an EV at the side of the road. EVs have fewer moving parts so break down less often, and all RAC breakdown trucks can tow an EV using flatbed towing.

Hydrogen is not a straight swap for diesel and petrol. Hydrogenpowered cars run on electricity, just like EVs, but they generate power using a fuel cell that uses hydrogen to produce the electricity.

Electrolysis to make hydrogen requires six times more electricity than would be needed to run an electric car, making hydrogen impractical and expensive as a fuel for vehicles. There are only 300 hydrogen vehicles, including buses, on the road in the UK, and trucks, buses and trains are moving to electric rather than hydrogen.

Caroline Snow Stoke Gabriel, Devon