With the UK planning to ban petrol and diesel cars and vans in 2040 we asked you what it’s like to drive the vehicle of the future.

Amid fears that rising levels of nitrogen oxides pose a major risk to public health, Britain plans to ban all new petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2040. As part of the government’s much-anticipated clean air plan it has said the move is needed because of the unnecessary and avoidable impact that poor air quality was having on people’s health.

With the inevitable demise of diesel and petrol vehicles we asked electric car drivers to tell us what it’s like to drive one, and why they are the future.

Christine Burns, 64, retired, Manchester: ‘The UK government’s policy isn’t really a policy – the market will get there before’
Drives a Nissan Leaf

In an electric car you glide around in virtual silence like a limousine, but it can also out-accelerate the boy racers at the traffic lights! A scheme where I live in Manchester, means I only have to pay £20 a year to have free access to chargers across the city. There are almost a dozen kerbside and car park chargers inside a 1-2 mile radius of my home, plus I can charge from empty to full in around four hours for less than £3 on domestic electricity.

Benefits of electric cars include a low-cost mileage, no road tax, no congestion charge and low servicing costs. They’re also easy to drive with just one pedal, and there’s no smelly flammable refuelling involved. People tend to be curious when they find out I have an electric car and want to know more especially as there are a lot of myths like low acceleration. However, charging infrastructure could definitely be improved in the UK.

The UK government’s policy isn’t really a policy. Saying you’ll ban internal combustion engine car sales in 23 years from now doesn’t make sense, as the market will get there long before that. Norway plan the same by 2025 so why can’t we?

Øivind Johansen, 52, craftsman, Vestfold, Norway: ‘Electricity is much cheaper’
Drives a Nissan Leaf and e-NV200

It’s beautiful to drive. And with just forward and reverse they are not difficult to drive. There is no clutch or shifting of gears. They are peaceful, without any noise and there are no stinking fuels. I just plug it in at home. It’s pre-warmed in the winter and pre-cooled in the summer which is wonderful when going to work. They’re fun. I’ll never go back to fossil fuel cars.

Where I live in Norway, most people have their own houses which makes it easy to install chargers outside. There are normally charging stations every 50km with most places having at least two. What it comes down to though is money. It’s expensive to pay for diesel and electricity is much cheaper. I can drive 10km for around 10p. They’re also so much cheaper, both in parts and repair. We save around £6,000-7,000 a year by not using a diesel car.

I think the UK government’s plan is too little too late. It’s crazy when you think about how much oil is burnt every day by internal combustion engine cars. I’m just glad to be able to do my bit for the environment.

Read more: The Guardian

The stone age didn’t end because we ran out of stones. It ended because we learnt how to make and work something even more versatile…metal. Bronze and then Iron.

Those “Ages” took us thousands of years to get through. But things have speeded up a bit as we have harnessed, made and learnt how to use many other things –the Industrial Age (revolution) leading to the Engine Age and then a rat-a-tat-tat of Jet Age, Atomic Age, Space Age, Digital Age (another revolution) and Information Age.

Many of those advances have taken place in an overlapping “Oil Age” which has lasted little more than a century. And picking up on the theme of this column last week, that Age is entering the beginning of its end not primarily because we are running out of oil. We could keep using this and other fossil fuels for at least another century, even at gas-guzzling rates.

But it will be replaced by the “Electric Age” because oil-sourced energy is ultimately finite, more expensive to extract, has some end-of-the-world-side effects and above all because we have discovered (but so far grossly under-used) more ways to make something better – electricity – using more powerful methods like nuclear fusion/fission and infinitely more abundant and planet-friendly sources like rivers (hydro power), the sun (solar power), the wind and ocean currents.

HUGE APPETITE

The fundamental point here is that imminent swing from petrol and diesel to electric and hybrid motor vehicles will dominate the headlines for a while, but in practice this change will be a quiet evolution. The real “Revolution” will be how we generate the electricity and how we use what will be massive advances in that process in myriad ways other than the propulsion of your car.

All existing technology for generating electricity will improve exponentially in efficiency, availability and versatility – at prices that get progressively lower and for sure there will be new technologies not yet thought of.

Read more: Daily Nation

As recently as five years ago the prospect of our roads being filled by electric cars seemed unlikely. Although the technology had accelerated dramatically in the previous five years, there were still so many obstacles to overcome, not least of which were the vehicle’s limited run time and the non-existent infrastructure necessary to accommodate them (no charging points).

Nay-sayers still look askance at the electric car even now, but with London sales rocketing up 85% this year, it’s hard to deny that it is beginning to come into ascendance.

In cars as in practically every other part of life, London can be easily dismissed as being in its own reality-free bubble. Journeys in England’s south-east are typically shorter than elsewhere in the UK, and because it’s home to most of the ‘people who matter’ for at least half of the year, developments happen at a far speedier pace – the likelihood of finding an electric vehicle charging point in London is, one would imagine, far higher than in rural Shropshire or the Scottish highlands. However, it would be wrong to reject these figures out of hand; with more than 10,000 electric vehicles now owned across the UK, this is more than just a Capital-based blip. So why are electric cars gaining such popularity, and are they worth it?

Firstly, it’s important to know that there are two types of electric powered car. The most common runs on a battery which needs to be charged before use. Less common is the hydrogen fuel-cell battery powered car, which uses the engine’s motion to fuse hydrogen with oxygen to create electricity: clever but expensive and therefore currently less popular – although that may change as prices stabilise.

Regardless of the type of battery it uses, there are three key reasons why it makes sense to go electric:

Cutting costs

Costing as little as 2p per mile to charge, the electric vehicle is extremely economical to run. And because their inner workings are a lot less complicated than a traditional combustion engine, electric cars are cheaper to maintain; it’s estimated that the Nissan Leaf costs a meagre £11 per month, versus £30p/m for the Ford Focus.

Cutting carbon

Air pollution is increasingly appearing on the international agenda, with a recent report stating that more than 40,000 early deaths per year are linked to the problem in the UK alone. Electric cars produce no emissions, so driving one is no worse for the environment than walking.

Add to that, in purchasing an electric vehicle you’re purchasing cutting edge tech and that applies as much to the driver interface as it does to the internal mechanisms. In short, if you want the bells and whistles you’ll find them in electric cars.

So what about the flip side?

Range anxiety

There’s no arguing with the fact that even though electric cars can travel far further than they ever could before, they still come with the niggling concern of ‘what if I run out of power?’ No one wants to be stuck on a country lane with no way of powering their vehicle.

Expense

Going green has always come with government subsidies, but even still electric vehicles do still require a higher than average initial outlay and this can present a major deterrent.

Whether an electric car is worth the investment is entirely down to individual perspectives. As independent vehicle supply professionals, at OSV we’ve watched the development of electric with close interest. The environmental credentials are deeply appealing, and with the global issue of diminishing oil supplies producing very real concerns for the future, in our view green could be the way to go.

Read more: Huffington Post