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The 10 best electric cars to buy for the new 22 registration and their benefits

March 10, 2022Charge Your Car, Charging, Charging, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

We have picked the top EVs you can buy now in terms of range, efficiency and desirability ahead of a ban on fossil-fuelled cars by 2030

Thinking about buying an electric car? You’re not the only one. Plenty of British buyers are wondering about when to switch from petrol or diesel to an electric model and it will be interesting to see the percentage of EVs sold in March with the advent of the new 22 registration.

There’s good news if you’ve decided to make the leap: the market is brimming with brilliant options. Indeed, it feels like each week a new electric car (EV) comes out that brings with it more range, more equipment, a lower price or even a combination of all three.

To keep up, we’ve revised our list of the 10 best electric cars to buy for 2022. This list, of course, is not exhaustive; there are plenty more excellent EVs on sale, and indeed, it’s taken us no small amount of teeth-gnashing, hair-pulling and some heated discussion to come up with this ranking.

With that in mind, it’s important to remember that these cars are very closely matched; there are no bad cars in this list, and what’s more, several very good EVs missed out by mere fractions of a hair’s breadth; honourable mentions must therefore go to the incomparably affordable MG ZS EV, the brilliantly practical Vauxhall Combo-E Life, a glut of much-vaunted Teslas, the quietly competent Skoda Enyaq and the surprisingly sporty Ford Mustang Mach-E.

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Wandsworth Council EV charger rollout progresses with Liberty Charge installs

March 9, 2022Away From Home, Charging, Electric Cars, Electric Motorhomes, Electric Taxis, Electric Vans, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

On-street electric vehicle (EV) chargepoints are being rolled out across Wandsworth, with 35 sites set to see installations.

Wandsworth Council began the rollout of the infrastructure in 2021 across 26 sites, with 10 already live. The latest installations will take the total number of sites to 35, comprising 65 dual socket EV chargepoints able to charge 130 vehicles at any one time.

Liberty Charge is to own and operate the chargepoints, which are to be delivered by its sister company Virgin Media O2, with the council having chosen the company due to its ability to deliver fully-funded chargepoints for residents without the means to privately charge their EV.

Additionally, Liberty Charge’s chargepoints are 22kW, which the council said is faster than other street chargepoints.

Liberty Charge is a joint venture between Liberty Global and Zouk Capital, utilising Virgin Media’s existing infrastructure – as the telecommunications company is owned by Liberty Global – for the chargepoints.

Its creation followed an EV charging trial using Virgin Media’s infrastructure, the Virgin Media Park & Charge project, which aimed to deploy 1,200 charging sockets in towns and cities across the country by early 2021.

Liberty Charge is to own, operate and maintain the Wandsworth chargepoints without requiring local taxpayer support, while the council helps to identify locations and grants the necessary approvals, with the sites in Wandsworth agreed after consultation with residents throughout the technology rollout.

“We want to not only increase the number of available charge points but to ensure that a charge point is easily accessible to all our residents,” said Kim Caddy, deputy leader of the council and cabinet member for finance, resources and climate sustainability.

Over the past year, EV take up in the borough increased by just under 1,000 vehicles, with the new charging infrastructure to support and encourage EV adoption across the borough.

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E-transport is a game changer

March 8, 2022Buying/Leasing, Electric Cars, Leaf, News, Reviews and Comment, Nissan, UncategorizedRepost

Our company car is eight years old this month.

We purchased it secondhand just over five years ago. It’s a Nissan Leaf. All electric.

We purchased it in the days when people used to say ‘we haven’t got the infrastructure’ or ‘where are we going to get all the energy from?’ or ‘they don’t have the range’.

I let the wife conduct the research, just so she could build up her range anxiety until we saw an affordable great little car on sale from Stebbings on Hardwick Narrows.

Since we have had the car we have never used a public charge point, of which there are six times as many as there are petrol pumps in the UK and growing by around 200 a week on top of the hundreds of home chargers installed daily. No, we just use the ‘granny charger’ which is basically a three-pin plug charger, like your mobile phone. It uses about half the energy a kettle uses and stays on for an hour here and an hour there to keep us topped up.

A showroom tour of a Nissan Leaf (Image: T. Larkum)

Go out, come home, plug in. That’s all there is to it and for over five years, that’s my knowledge of electric cars.

Oh, you need to put washer fluid in for the windscreen and air in the tyres every now and then, but that’s it.

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GRIDSERVE and Moto open first high-powered EV charging hub in Wales

March 7, 2022News, Reviews and Comment, UncategorizedRepost

GRIDSERVE and Moto have opened a first high-powered electric vehicle charging hub in Wales, the first in the country according to the companies, as they continue their UK wide rollout of sites.

The Electric Hub is located in Swansea and features six 350kW electric vehicle (EV) chargers with contactless payment. It forms part of the GRIDSERVE Electric Highway, and has the possibility to add six more EV chargers when requested and GRIDSERVE said all chargers will be powered with clean energy, through their own solar farms.

Charging Station in Sunderland (Image: Fastned)

“This is a landmark project for GRIDSERVE and Moto and the first high-power charging facility of its kind for Wales. We’re really excited to be demonstrating that all parts of the UK should be able to embrace the EV revolution,” said Toddington Harper, CEO of GRIDSERVE.

“We cannot let a lack of infrastructure prevent drivers from realising the myriad of benefits that come with driving an electric vehicle. This project will help deliver the confidence for more people to make the switch to EVs, as well as support the growing number of people who already have.”

Harper added that Swansea’s Electric Hub is the first of many projects they are considering across Wales. Last year GRIDSERVE’s announced over 20 Electric Hubs, which are due to open across UK’s motorway services by the end of Q2 2022.

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InstaVolt sets sights on 1,000 rapid charger milestone by summer

March 4, 2022Charging, Electric Cars, InstaVolt, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

InstaVolt is planning to reach a 1,000 rapid charger milestone in the UK this summer, with its 700th set to be in operation later this month.

Rapid Charging Step 3: Choose to Charge (Image: T. Larkum)

Of the remaining 300 needed to reach their milestone, InstaVolt said they had 200 already in construction with new sites in development in partnership with McDonald’s, KFC, Costa Coffee and EH Booths.

“Improving public charging infrastructure across the whole of the UK is vital for people to feel confident enough to make the switch to electric vehicles. I’m proud to be spearheading the delivery of more rapid chargers to all four corners of the UK”, Adrian Keen, chief executive officer of InstaVolt, said.

Keen added that the company grew its network by over 50% over the past year, and it will keep on increasing the installation of chargers as sales of electric vehicles continue to reach record highs.

Another way for InstaVolt to increase their rapid chargers will be through Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, which they aim to install their first rapid chargers later this year.

“Not only does the UK need more chargers, but those chargers need to be reliable, in great locations and easy to use. The InstaVolt network delivers these requirements to drivers, as well as corporate fleets making the transition to electric,” added Keen.

The installation of new chargers will not only be done in new sites the company said, as they will soon start their first expansion project at their hub on the M40 in Banbury, with the addition of eight chargers.

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The electric cars that could boil your kettle for days during storm power cuts: Hyundai and Kia EVs can turn battery packs into mobile charging stations

March 3, 2022Electric Cars, Hyundai, Ioniq 5, IONIQ Electric, IONIQ PHEV, IONIQ Plug-in Hybrid, News, Reviews and Comment, UncategorizedRepost

With much of the UK today being battered by Storm Eunice, sparking the strongest wind on record in the south to massive snowfall in the north, a number of households are already experiencing power cuts, with more predicted for the weekend.

For those suffering this unfortunately consequence, if they have one of the latest Korean electric cars on their driveway they will be able to keep their home appliances running for days.

That’s because the £37,500 Hyundai Ioniq 5 and £41,000 Kia EV6 boast a feature that turns the vehicles into mobile power stations that can charge laptops, power a fridge or even watch TV for hours on end.

The electric SUVs both have something called ‘Vehicle-to-load’ (V2L) technology, which consists of a three-pin adapter that plugs into the cars’ charging sockets to take electricity directly from the lithium-ion battery so you can boil a kettle even when your house has no power.

While electric cars are undeniably expensive to buy and certainly not to all tastes, they offer one big benefit to owners if there are power cuts and blackouts for prolonged periods.

The sister Korean brands have developed ‘built-in bi-directional chargers’ that can take electricity away from the lithium-ion batteries as well as send it to them – tech that’s expected to feature on most new electric models.

Bi-directional systems are designed to allow plug-in vehicles to send electricity stored in their batteries back to the grid (vehicle-to-grid, or V2G), which can be financially lucrative for owners who charge at the cheapest off-peak times and sell that electricity back to the network during the most expensive in-demand hours.

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How much does it cost to charge an electric car? Running costs of EVs and how to find a charging point

March 2, 2022Charging, Charging, Electric Cars, Electric Motorhomes, Electric Taxis, Electric Vans, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

One of the major draws of switching to an EV is the chance to avoid the petrol pump – here’s how much you could save

Growing numbers of us are switching to electric cars – in fact the latest UK sales data suggests sales of electric cars doubled last year.

One of the major draws of switching to an EV is the chance to avoid the petrol pump; this week the cost of fuel across the country jumped to a record high in a further squeeze to the cost of living.

But just how much could you save by switching to an electric car? And when you’re on the road away from home, how easy is it to find a plug point to recharge?

Charging at home is cheap

For EV drivers lucky enough to have a driveway and a home charger, charging at home is easy and much cheaper than the cost of refuelling a petrol or diesel car.

For a typical electric car with a 60kWh battery and a 200 mile range, a full charge at home would cost about £9.20, according to PodPoint, although cars with larger batteries can cost up to £20 to recharge at home.

That is still cheaper per mile than a petrol pump.

Charge for free on the go

Growing numbers of employer are installing EV chargers at workplaces, and many offer charging to employees for free.

Likewise, supermarkets including Sainsbury’s, Lidl, and Aldi offer free charging to customers, and some councils also provide free-to-use chargers in their car parks.

Scotland has the highest number of free EV chargers, according to Zap Map.

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The promise and peril of the electric car revolution

March 1, 2022Charging, Charging, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

We can do better than electrified sprawl, if we try

The electric vehicle revolution is nigh. As recently as 2017, electric cars comprised just 1.4 percent of global sales. By 2021, they made up 8.6 percent, roughly a sixfold increase in just four years, with that last figure coming in a year when auto manufacturing was hamstrung by the shortage of computer chips.

Soon electric vehicles (EVs) will displace gas-powered ones, and that will be an improvement over the status quo — but only a modest one if American cities can’t take advantage of the broader benefits of electrification. We can do better than e-sprawl, if we try.

The reason EVs will win sooner or later is brute market dynamics. As anyone who’s ever felt the instant jolt of torque from an electric drive train can attest, they are simply better than gas-powered cars in almost every way, and they’ll only continue to improve.

EVs are more powerful, cleaner, and much cheaper to maintain and drive. As uptake increases, so will the network of charging stations. And since the vast majority of car trips are quite short, and almost every house and business in the country is already wired for electric power, it will be relatively straightforward to keep most EVs charged up most of the time. Couple all that to ever-tightening emissions rules and regulations in Europe and China (where the communist government basically bullied Toyota into shifting towards electric cars), and it’s simply a matter of time before the internal combustion engine is a quaint anachronism.

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Electric vehicles bring down CO2 emissions of new cars in UK to lowest level ever

February 28, 2022Charging, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, UncategorizedRepost

Though only 12% of new sales were zero-exhaust electric vehicles, emissions fell by 11.2% in 2021

Topping up at Tiverton (Image: T. Larkum)

The carbon dioxide emissions of new cars sold in the UK dropped to the lowest level ever in 2021 thanks to the unprecedented surge in electric vehicle sales, industry data suggests.

Average new car CO₂ emissions fell by 11.2%, to 119.7g for every kilometre driven, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), a lobby group.

Battery electric vehicles accounted for only 12% of UK sales during 2021, but they rapidly drag down the figures because they produce zero exhaust emissions. Increased sales of hybrids, which include a battery alongside an internal combustion engine, also contributed to the fall in emissions, which was previously stymied in recent years by the rise of sales in higher-emission sports utility vehicles (SUVs).

In 2021, the SMMT reported a 38% drop in average new car emissions since 2000, although those data were produced under a different test methodology so are not directly comparable.

Car sales data for January, also published on Friday, showed that the number of battery electric cars more than doubled year on year to 14,400, accounting for 12.5% of cars sold

‘Ambitious’ UK plans for electric vehicles welcomed – with reservations

Total new car sales rose by 27.5% year on year in January, although that was compared with January 2021 when the UK was in a strict lockdown and car showrooms were closed. The industry reported that sales were still limited by the months-long shortage of computer chips that has forced carmakers to favour key vehicles, including electric cars – which are vital for meeting emissions legislation.

Mike Hawes, the SMMT’s chief executive, said: “Once again it is electrified vehicles that are driving the growth, despite the ongoing headwinds of chip shortages, rising inflation and the cost-of-living squeeze.

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What’s the best electric vehicle for shaming supercars?

February 25, 2022Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, Porsche, Taycan / Mission ERepost

The Porsche Taycan Turbo S puts the ‘fast’ in ‘fasten your seatbelts’

It’s one of the best things about an electric car – that instant slug of full-on torque, wheels scrabble then the rubber bites into the road, none of the other drivers can see your Nissan Leaf for dust away from the traffic lights.

We might have laughed at all those Reva G-Wiz drivers weaving about the road into the paths of overtaking cyclists, hunched painfully behind the wheel, those hairiest of hair-shirted early adopters. But it’s clear now that these were performance pioneers, in the same way that someone taking a corner too fast in their Benz Patent-Motorwagen was setting us all inexorably on the road to world rally championships and Grand Prix glory.

And sure there have been upstarts and disrupters on the electric path so far, but of course we all knew that the big daddies of car making would come through with the sort of tech that would make others weep.

Porsche has spent decades and decades refining the 911 formula that people said couldn’t work. It positively crushed the naysayers under the bluff front end of its Cayenne performance SUV when they said that pseudo-4x4s were too dumpy to drive well.

Latterly the Stuttgart-based firm has electrified us all with the delights of its Taycan EV, a car that juggles the old-fashioned dynamic delights of a Porsche with the brave new world of electromobility. Critics will wiffle on about the lack of engine noise and aural titivation, or they complain in the same whiny tones as an electric motor about the fact that the Taycan has a Turbo model in its line-up when it doesn’t even have a turbo in its engine. “Watt’s going on”, they say. “Ohmigod”, they cry.

Maybe the Taycan Turbo S doesn’t even have a turbo, but with 751bhp on overboost you definitely won’t even care. A 2.8secs 0–62mph run will leave most other drivers sobbing pathetically in its wake – it’s basically a bargain at £139k and the polar ice caps will practically refreeze themselves as you thunder along. What’s not to like? You’ll be the envy of all the sad chumps at the charge points.

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