Can electric vehicles really work up a decent head of steam?

The Government is currently pouring a noteworthy amount of energy, and money, into the development of infrastructure to support the widespread use of electrically-powered road vehicles, primarily to support its carbon dioxide emissions targets. But is the driving public ready to co-operate with this strategy by buying electric vehicles in significant quantities?

Rik Thomas

08 January 2010

Car maker BMW is using a prototype electric Mini ("the Mini E") in Government-funded trials of electric car use by the general public

The public sector is leading the way in introducing electric vehicles – pictured are two new units recently introduced into Dundee City Council’s waste management fleet

When BMW demonstrated its prototype electrically-powered Mini (the Mini E) to the press last October (to coincide with the launch of eight Government-funded trials of electric vehicle use by the public) the reviewers from the mainstream media were generally pretty positive about what they were seeing. “The all-electric Mini E bursts away from traffic lights [and] zooms about like a sports car,” a reviewer from The Times began. “It goes like the electric clappers. Moreover,...