The lack of emissions may make electric cars an important part of the battle against climate change, but designers face a battle to win over some sceptical motorists.
A Daily Express report recently noted that 90 per cent of electric vehicle drivers will never go back to petrol or diesel, but this report sparked a backlash from some readers.
The paper said comments poured in from drivers expressing opposition to government plans to ban the sale of fossil fuel-powered cars from 2030.
Among the objections raised were the time it takes to charge an electric car, the cost of electricity, the consequence of a power cut and the fact that half of electricity in the UK is currently produced by burning gas.
One respondent said: “I won’t be buying an electric car as they don’t do 700 miles as I do driving from the UK to the South of France.” He added that it would take a long time to charge an electric car enough to do such mileage, whereas it only takes him five minutes to fill up with diesel.
Another said the difference between his car’s cost and that of an electric vehicle was £15,000, which was “like running my car for nothing for the next ten years based on driving an annual mileage of 10,000 miles.”
Such attitudes create a challenge every precision engineering company involved in developing electric vehicles will face, but it is also an opportunity for those who can produce the best models to be the ones who manage to persuade doubters of the virtues of these vehicles.
Some of the benefits of advanced technology may include faster charging, increased battery capacity and lower cost, all of which can emerge from further research and development work driven by the necessity to make these vehicles mainstream inside the next decade.
PA Media lists the electric car with the greatest range at present as being the Mercedes-Benz EQS at 453 miles, followed by the Tesla Model S at 405 miles.