Ecotricity Nemesis: The UK Tesla

The Ecotricity Nemesis - a British Tesla

Ecotricity, makers of wind turbines and eco-electricity, has created Ecotricity Nemesis, a Lotus-based electric car – just like the Tesla Roadster

Dale Vince has built Ecotricity – an environmentally-friendly electricity generating company – from nothing to an annual investment of £25 million in wind energy. Which casual readers here would think we would find appalling. But far from it; we think it’s admirable.

We do need alternatives to our reliance on oil. But we need fully formed solutions coming to market, not half-cocked alternatives. Until there is a sensible alternative to oil for cars we should focus our efforts on reducing the amount of oil needed to run them, not foist poor substitutes – like electric cars and wind power – on a trusting public.

Still, Dale Vince has a vested interest in building an electric car as his company generates electricity from wind. Which is all very well as an eco-project to flog electricity to those who want to polish their green halo, but in the real world it’s a non-starter. You’d need 10,000 square miles of wind turbines to power the UK. That’s an area 25% bigger than Wales. Although if Anne Robinson were in charge of alternative energy…

All the nonsense apart, Dale’s electric car is impressive, if a little expensive, as a one-off. It’s based on a second-hand Lotus – just like a Tesla Roadster – and sports a big bank of 96 x 100 A/h 4.2 V pouch lithium polymer cobalt cells. It has an output of 330bhp from its twin electric motors and can hit 60mph in 4.4 seconds and 100mph in 8.5 seconds.

The Ecotricity Nemesis will recharge in around eight hours or in just two hours from a fast charger. Range is said to be between 100-150 miles, depending on how heavy your right foot is.

Which is all very interesting and a fun way for Dale to spend some of Ecotricity’s profits (and £400k in daft grants from the taxpayer). But as with all these solutions, it’s not thought through. If everyone drove an electric car we’d need six nuclear power stations in the UK just to power cars. Or turn Scotland in to a wind farm as well as Wales.

Maybe Dale Vince has a plan…