Electric Cars –To Buy or not to Buy

To buy, or not to buy: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The fumes and noise of conventional cars,
Or to take arms against our carbon troubles,
And buy an electric car.

Buying an electric car is a very small step to a greener lifestyle. The contribution to carbon reduction is minimal (until the electricity supply is decarbonised) but change has to start somewhere. The future will include electric cars and someone has to act as trailblazers to work out how an electric-car lifestyle works. There has to be a coming together of people’s expectations with the cars for sale. The car makers have to refine the technology using feedback from the early adopters to get the product optimised.

Current electric cars are being designed to deal with the expectations of conventional car drivers. Looking inside the bonnet of the Nissan Leaf, there is an aluminium cover that gives the appearance of a conventional engine; there is no need of course; the electric motor is a small item hiding away underneath.

Over time the designers will not need to masquerade their design to look like a conventional car but be able to take pride in being electric. The challenge requires innovative and cool design that appeals to the car-buying public.

I like the Nippy BMW E-mini but it is not a production car and is not on sale. I would like to buy a Tesla but that would be an expensive indulgence and not much use as a family car. I have decided to buy the slower, rather dull but practical Nissan leaf. I look forward to learning more about living with a production electric car.

Of course in all this discussion of electric cars, the much bigger step towards greener behaviour is not to use the car, by shopping locally, living close to our place of work and using the bicycle for short local journeys. The bigger challenge is not designing better electric cars but designing society better to be less reliant on the car.