The electric MINI-E takes on the Nurburgring - with lots of pugging-in going on
Cars UK is calling on Secretary of State for Transport Philip Hammond to address the false and misleading range claims by makers of electric cars.
We reported last week that Gordon Murray – he of the McLaren F1 – has created what seems to us the ideal electric car – the Gordon Murray Design T.27 – small, light and adequately powered for city use. Gordon ‘gets’ the whole electric car thing, not as a replacement for the internal combustion engine but as a terrific way of getting round congested cities in a ‘Zero emissions at point of use’ kind of way.
But most car makers don’t get this whole ‘Fit for Purpose’ idea across. They’re building cars which look – to all intents and purposes – just like regular cars. Except you plug them in for cheap motoring instead of dashing off to your local BP every five minutes to hand over big chunks of your hard-earned to HMG.
But this concept of cheap motoring heaven from a zero-emission car is at best disingenuous and at worst downright dishonest. An electric car will not suit anyone unless their journeys are short. It will not replace the normal family car for a holiday trip to Cornwall, much less one to Spain. It will only work if your normal usage is local. Very local. And it will only stay cheap to run until Governments start to tax electricity used to power cars – which they will.
But car makers aren’t making this clear. Worse, they’re being dishonest about the range their cars can manage. They are quoting range under best possible scenarios; ideal temperature; no ancillaries being used; brand-new batteries. In fact the range they are quoting is the equivalent of regular car makers quoting economy based on an eco-run in a car. Which would probably yield an mpg figure twice the real consumption.
If electric cars are to become part of our landscape then it is necessary for there to be regulation regarding the claimed range achievable – just as there is with petrol and diesel-engined cars. It is unacceptable that BMW can claim a range of over 150 miles for the MINI E when real world users get half that – and even less in cold weather. But BMW is not alone – all makers of electric cars claim a range based on almost laboratory conditions.
We applauded Secretary of State Philip Hammond for a damn fine start in his job. We now ask him to look at this unacceptable anomaly and address it before tens of thousands of car buyers are tricked in to buying a car that is not fit for their purpose because of dishonest range claims.
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