...EVs

...and no, not just because of the Top Gear feature that everyone's talking about, which was amusing at times (the Autocar comments at the end, the Retard button) and pretty disappointing at others (more deliberate traffic jams, the uncomfortably staged slow-motion crash testing). It would be good at some point to see more "accidental crapness" rather than the increasingly scripted idiocy from the last couple of series. Some of the funniest Top Gear moments have been those that seemed a little more spontaneous - Clarkson capsizing his Toybota, the slogans on the American road trip episode and Clarkson's "present" for Richard in the Vietnam bikes episode.

In fact, if you want an amusing take on the Top Gear electric car but without the repetitive script, you're better off checking out Autocar's road test. But I digress.

I've been thinking about electric cars rather obsessively recently. A whole bunch of the things seem to have been unveiled in the last few months so the concept of usable production EVs seems closer than ever, even if it's realistically still a good few years off. Renault have revealed four of the things to the press, the Twizy, Zoe (whose name is causing quite a stir, apparently), the Fluence and the Kangoo ZE, and all have been praised for their driving characteristics. Tesla have been making headlines for quite a while now expecially after their Roadster managed 313 miles on a charge, and smart are gearing up with the ForTwo ED which is beginning more serious testing.


So, it all seems to be "happening". The date 2012 seems to be being thrown about a fair bit by manufacturers - perhaps the Mayans were wrong about the destruction of the planet and the cataclysmic event they predicted to happen in two or three years will be the advent of electric cars as a serious option for drivers?

I've been thinking about their application. City cars are obviously a great place for manufacturers to start as producing a city car conveniently negates some of the typical electric car criticisms such as range and performance, as you only need a limited quantity of each for something that will spend it's life in traffic. I expect once the technology develops it'll move onto larger cars - family cars, MPVs etc. I'm aware there's a lot of unease in the car enthusiast community that electric cars will mean the death of driving fun and the internal combustion engine, but I reckon this unease is misplaced.

The cars we drive simply for the love of driving will continue to be petrol powered for some time, and at the very most will become hybrids offering the best of both worlds. Should petrolheads really care if the cars they'd never drive anyway become electric? Many car enthusiasts hate the Smart, so surely it makes little or no difference to them if the ForTwo is suddenly only available with an electric motor? Do they care if small vans and scooters are all powered by electricity?

I certainly don't. I can't wait to get a drive in an electric Smart or the new Mitsubishi i-MiEV. Good things come in small packages.

(Electric smart image: ©Tarmac 2009)