Research shows that some 37 per cent of motorists cite a distance of up to 300 miles as the range that would entice them to buy a pure electric vehicle. Their wait is over.

For many years the main barrier to consumer acceptance of electric vehicles has been “range anxiety”. Drivers have often wildly overestimated the length of their journeys, and underestimated the ability of electric vehicles to meet that need.

Now, though, the advances in electric vehicle technology – especially in sheer battery power – are gradually eroding that consumer resistance: electric cars are now within a matter of a few miles of meeting the range demands of more than one in three motorists – 300 miles or so.

Research by DrivingElectric.com, the independent consumer advice website for electric vehicles, shows that some 37 per cent of motorists cite a distance of up to 300 miles as the range that would entice them to buy a pure electric vehicle (that is, not a hybrid which also has a traditional petrol engine).

So now cars such as the long-range Hyundai Kona Electric – which can cover 292 miles – fall just eight miles short of the most common figure for consumers’ range ambitions.

Improvements in technology are arriving faster than many motorists realise, which means many don’t know their demands for range have already been met.

Read more: Independent