The problem with most electric cars is that they are, well, not that sexy are they. They have a bit of a PR issue and for most petrol heads they just aren’t cool enough to be seen driven around in……until now.
The new SRZero is one car that has been produced to help improve the image of the electric car. This car particular car would wipe the floor with most “regular” cars and with its 400bhp it has a top speed of 125 mph and can last 400km on one charge. It also accelerates at a range of 0-100kph in approximately seven seconds.
The car is a “rebooted” version of a Radical SR8 and it retains the original bodywork and the chassis of this car but instead of a regular combustion engine the car operates off two supercharged batteries – and offers some serious power.
Whilst cars like this are great for the environment, just how handy are they and how easy are they to charge? There are now lots of charging points now on the roads and some energy companies like Hydro Electric are now even offering specific tariffs so that people can charge their cars all over the UK and abroad.
It is thought that there around 3,000 electric cars on the road at the moment and as reported in The Guardian sales are likely to double in 2013 with the increase in cheaper models and the number of points where cars can be charged.
The reason sales were slow to begin with was due to the pricing of cars, they were too expensive and they weren’t able to do what regular petrol and diesel cars could do. The range on most electric vehicles is still not long enough to warrant moving to an electric car – yet.
Obviously there are some slight disadvantages that having an electric car has but when you weigh them up against the financial and environmental impact that regular cars currently have. It is thought that the cost to every EU citizen for the pollution and noise that cars create is £600 per year.
In a report by the Dresden Technical University in Germany they calculated that even with driver’s insurance contributions discounted, it still costs the 27 EU member states £303bn (approximately 3% of the bloc’s yearly GDP).
It is very easy to see why people may not fancy getting on board the electric vehicle route just yet but assuredly the numbers will increase and there will be more of these types of vehicles on the road. This will only increase also with the newer, sexier models that will be available in the near future.