Why are electric cars so expensive?

HELPDESK:Answering all your motoring queries

From D Smith: We are in the market for a used supermini and I my wife suggested we might go electric or hybrid. I read last week’s report on the Mitsubishi but the price seems exorbitant. Will it really be €35,000? Is there not going to be something more affordable? I have a budget of €13,000 and we’ll be looking to buy within the next 18 months.

Those are the estimated prices for the iMiev, but the final price has yet to be confirmed. I can understand that there is a certain degree of impatience by consumers about these electric cars, particularly after several years of grand promises from the motor industry. In the last four years virtually every motor show I’ve attended has been led by promises of electric models in the pipeline. The good news is that the early models are now about to take to our streets. The bad news, as with all new technologies, is that costs will be relatively high initially.

The Government’s efforts to subsidise the initial models is to be warmly welcomed and that may well lower the price for the likes of the iMiev, but it’s going to be some time before they compete directly with regular superminis. The problem is that small cars are already extremely price sensitive and many are being sold at rock bottom rates in the hope that profits can be made up through volume sales. With electric cars, the batteries alone are going to be expensive, hence the debate about whether they should be offered as part of a leasing arrangement separate from the cars.

All these factors have to be sorted out in the next few months, but if your budget is €13,000 then you might want to look for small low-emissions superminis, like a Ford Fiesta or VW Polo.

From TOJ: I’ve read the reports on scrappage deals and the report last Christmas in your paper about best buys. There were several comments that Renaults were worth considering. I spent three heartbreaking years from 2001 in a Laguna as my staff car. It spent more time in the garage than on the road. Has the brand improved since then?

Yes. Renault has been working hard to repair its reputation after several bad years with reliability, particularly on the Lagunas. The current car is the one they should have built from the start. Several months before its launch I met the man charged with improving production quality. He came from the French nuclear industry, which is a statement of intent in itself.

Warranty repairs in the first few years of the model you had were too frequent and the management of the brand – who had to foot the bill for those repairs – realised it very quickly. There has not been the level of public complaints about the current model, which would reassure me that things are certainly moving in the right direction for the French brand.

From T Donnellan: Is there any way of importing a car short-term without paying VRT? Everyone else seems to know about it except me, to judge by the number of foreign registrations in my housing estate.

There are a few exemptions – for example if a non-resident visits or for certain diplomats – but unless your street has declared itself an independent state, then those cars need to be re-registered within three days of arrival into the State.