FUEL FOR THOUGHT

Where does the electricity that powers our EVS really come from? Paul Horrell and his trusty Megane Electric sidekick investigate

- PAUL HORRELL

ELECTRIC CARS RUN ON POWER THAT'S PRODUCED IN FOSSIL FUEL PLANTS, SO THEIR OVERALL CO₂ PER MILE IS HARDLY LOWER THAN PETROL CARS. IF WE DID HAVE A WIDESPREAD CONVERSION TO EVS, THE GRID WOULDN'T COPE ANYWAY. BESIDES, THE BATTERIES WON'T LAST, SO A CAR WILL NEED TWO OR THREE IN ITS LIFETIME AND THAT IN ITSELF MEANS HUGE MANUFACTURING CO₂ AND WASTE DISPOSAL HEADACHES. WHO'D HAVE ONE ANYWAY, GIVEN THEIR RANGE IS INCONVENIENT AND CHARGING SPOTTY? ALL PERFECTLY LEGITIMATE CONCERNS.... IN 2013.

A decade on, those objections have all pretty much gone away. What makes electric cars so fascinating is the speed of change. Whatever you knew about them is wrong. Whatever you know now will soon be wrong too.

Let's go for a drive to look at some of the reasons. It's a route of 750 miles in two days, going to some remote places, and in sketching it out beforehand my attitude to charging the car is basically, "What could possibly go wrong?" This, I tell myself, isn't foolhardiness. It's experience. I've done several similar trips in this same Renault Megane lately and had no trouble.