Mass market sales of electric cars are unlikely to be a reality until models from the mainstream brands arrive in 2012.
THE PLUG-IN points have arrived, but electric cars are likely to remain a rare sight on Irish roads for the next year at least.
While there are some niche players in the market at present, mass market sales are unlikely to come on stream until electric models from the mainstream car brands arrive in 2012.
First on these shores will be the Mitsubishi i-Mev, a small city car that’s due to go on selected sale to corporate clients from October. It’s expected to be priced at €30,000, which is quite high for a car of its size.
Next year will see the official arrival of two fully electric family cars: the Renault eFluence and Nissan Leaf. Opel will then follow up with its long-awaited Ampera model. Yet even when these cars go into full production, demand from larger markets will limit initial supply in Ireland for the first few years.
The environmental benefits of electric cars are evident and in theory they can be just as much fun to drive. There are significant cost savings, with an estimated cost of just three cent per mile compared to 15 cent per mile for a conventional car.
Prior to yesterday’s announcement, we took Mini’s electric prototype for a morning drive earlier this week. Apart from the whisper-quiet start, the major difference is in terms of acceleration.
Preconceptions about electric cars being slow are very wide of the mark: the electric Mini is faster than the sporty Cooper version of the car currently on sale. Electric cars can be tuned to be as fast as anything else on the market.
While comparisons with bumper cars might seem derogatory to the electric dream, the electric Mini’s accelerator has a similar stop-start nature. It only moves forward when the pedal is pushed and once you lift off there is not the natural coasting effect you get from regular engines.
In everyday motoring, however, the most significant change will be the way a car’s battery power becomes a major factor in travel plans. “Range anxiety” remains the biggest hurdle to mass acceptance of these vehicles.
Modern lithium-ion batteries can be charged to 85 per cent in less than 30 minutes, though in most instances a full charge from a normal home plug will still take several hours. The car firms claim these vehicles can run 160km (100 miles) on a single charge. Yet all the tests suggest the real figure is closer to 100km. On a 16km trip in the Mini, the battery power dropped to 80 per cent from the initial full charge.
Car firms have developed a solution to this “range anxiety”. Models like the Ampera will feature small petrol engines used solely to recharge the battery as it runs down, extending the range of these vehicles to about 400km.
Even if it means occasional visits to the fuel pump, it removes the final major hurdle to an electric future for car buyers and makes the electric dream a realistic proposition.