...for all things EV in the UK!

What Is an EV?

EV stands for Electric Vehicle. An EV uses an electric motor rather than an IC (Internal Combustion) to create forward motion, a battery pack feeds electricity into a controller which in turn controls the motor that drives you forward. An electric motor is more dynamic than an IC engine, for example it is possible for a motor to spin fast enough to allow a car to reach speeds of 250MPH withought any gear changes.

EV History

You may be suprised to know that electric vehicles have been around just as long if not longer than the so called "conventional Car", to begin with they were a better choice than "Conventional Cars" due to quiet operation, low vibration and the ability to charge them at home. It was only when Henry Ford began the mass production of gasoline cars that they became more acceptable. Imagine if he had chosen to mass produce electric cars instead! After the acceptance of the gasoline car the electric car was forgoten about. Some people built electric cars as a kind of hobby but they never caught on due to short range and high costs. Today technology is much more advanced, it is cheaper and more efficent, and with the continuing upward trend of petrol prices they have become a viable option. In many ways an electric car betters its petrol equivelents, they are: cheaper to run, require less servicing, quieter, better for the enviroment, more convienent and in a lot of cases - faster.

Why Choose an EV?

There are 3 main reasons for choosing an EV:

Cost - Even a high performance EV such as the Tesla Roadster does the equivelent of 135MPG and costs only a few pence per mile to run. There are no more costly oil changes every 9000 miles either, there are very few moving parts so maintence is relativly cheap.
Enviroment - An electric car produces no tail pipe emissions. Some people may argue that the emissions are still produced, just at the power station rather than the tail pipe. While this is true an electric car is a more efficent than ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) car, (some where in region of 85-95% effiecent compared to 38-48%) so theres a lot less emissions produced than a standard car. If you buy your electricity from Ecotricity or if you generate your own electricity then your EV truly is zero emissions.
Sustainability - Fossil fuel is a finite resource, at some point it will run out if we keep using it. If you drive an EV then your not dependant on fossil fuel that has to come primarily from foregin countries such as Russia or Afghanistan.