Where Do You Live?


State:



Driving an electric car in and around London can save you over £4,500 a year. That’s enough cash saved to buy a decent, low mileage Ford Fiesta or a Fiat Panda.  More people are realising though that electric cars aren’t gutless eco wagons fuelled by falafel munching hippies Electric cars are exempt from road tax and the London congestion charge, enjoy free parking in many areas, have low insurance costs and absolutely no petrol or diesel costs, so they might be worth investing in after all!

Until the choice of technology settles down though, you might be best advised looking at contract hire for an electric vehicle rather than parting with your hard earned cash to buy outright.You don’t have to go horribly down market either to go electric.Some leading luxury marques and auto makers are plugging into the electric bandwagon too.  Audi contract hire on something like the all-electric Audi A1 compact hatchback may be a better bet for the time being.20 of these beasts will be tested on the streets of Munich by mid 2011 supported by 200 ‘electric filling stations’.Capable of a top speed of 81 mph thanks to a hefty under floor lithium-ion battery pack, the electric A1 Audi also uses a small rotary petrol engine as a “range extender” to produce an extra 15 kW of charging power. Audi calculate that will deliver ‘fuel economy’ equivalent to 148.7 mpg.

BMW too has ripped the petrol-guzzling heart from one of its most iconic marques, replaced it with batteries and an electric motor and called it the Mini E. Retail prices for final models remain unconfirmed, so BMW car leasing may be the more judicious approach here too.The Mini E manages to deliver an impressive performance (thanks to an enormous battery pack) to reach a top speed of 95 mph and an impressive 155-mile range, but with room for only one passenger. The Mini E is unavailable at the moment, but Mini regularly runs field trials, with a second trial pencilled in from September 2010, so watch this space!

Technorati Tags: , , ,