Electric vs. Hybrid Cars

Believe it or not, electric cars have been around since the late 1800's. Indeed, they even out-sold petrol driven cars for a number of years after their arrival. They practically disappeared after the 1930's, but had a brief comeback in the 1990's before being withdrawn under mysterious circumstances. A few years on, and they are beginning to re-appear again. This time, it seems, they're here to stay.

One day, I'm sure, most cars on the roads will be electric. At the moment though, buying an electric car over a 'normal' one isn't a straight forward decision, even for a committed environmentalist.

On the one hand, you have a car which produces no carbon emissions or pollutants, costs just 1 to 2 pence a mile to run, has zero or very low annual road tax, avoids congestion charges (in London), has very low servicing and maintenance costs and, in some cases, won't ever rust because it's made of plastic.

On the other hand, most electric vehicles are relatively expensive to buy, have limited range (Typically 40 miles or 64 km per charge), generally look odd, are not big enough to be a family car, and the batteries cost a fortune to replace when they eventually fail.

I also wonder how much support you might get if you don't live near the manufacturers or a salesroom. For example, if I lived in Cornwall and had a new car shipped from London because it was my closest salesroom, would I get adequate backup should something go wrong with, say, the charging system?

So, it looks like electric vehicles are currently more suited to local commuting in cities which have electric car salesrooms. Certainly, they're becoming an increasingly common sight in London, where there are plenty of reasons for driving them. Elsewhere in the UK, I think it's going to take a while for them to appear in any numbers, particularly in rural areas where the limited range will be a deciding factor.

Given time though, the problems will be solved, and manufacturers will open outlets in many more towns and cities. Electric cars will then have their day (More about Electric Cars).

Until then, the way to go seems to be a hybrid car like the Toyota Prius or Honda Civic Hybrid. They have all the advantages of a normal car like size, range and street cred, but they use less fuel (Particularly in towns) and pump out far less emissions (around 40 - 50% less CO2 than the equivalent size petrol car). What's more, buying a 4 or 5 year old hybrid can cost you less than £8000.