As always, there is still time to add your questions to be answered in our remaining blog posts of the series, so add your questions to our list.

Check back next week, or sign up for automatic updates using the ‘Follow Blog Via Email’ link on the right of this page, when we’ll be bringing you answers to a range of questions on the costs of electric car purchase and ownership.

As with previous posts, we’ve been joined this week by Andrew Robinson, PhD student in Professor Phil Blythe’s research group, and put ours (and your) questions to him.

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Dr Sarah Sweeney, Theme Administrator, NIReS: As always, thank you so much, Andrew, for taking the time to sit and answer our questions. We’ve only got a few this week, and then a last short batch to go through next week, but all of the information you’ve given us so far has been extremely useful and very interesting.

Andrew Robinson, PhD student, School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences: No problem at all – it’s been very interesting for me to see what questions people have about electric cars.

Sarah: Great. So, to kick off this session, you’ve given us a lot of information so far on how long it takes to charge a car, where you can charge them etc, but what if you’re using an electric vehicle as your family’s second car and not using it every day? If it’s a while between uses of the car, will the batteries drain?

Andrew: That depends on a variety of factors like ambient temperature, type of battery, age of the battery and how much energy is in the battery when you park it. However, the drain is very small relative to the battery’s capacity.  Sodium batteries which were used in early EV’s until a couple of years ago would drain over a period of time, but no discernible drain is measured from new generation Lithium Ion batteries.

Sarah: And how long are their engines/batteries predicted to last?

Andrew: Most electric cars currently use lithium ion batteries which, although they previously had a short lifespan of five years, now typically last for 10 years (but their life can be reduced depending on how they are charged/how many charge cycles they undergo). Using fast-charging points will significantly reduce the battery life. Nissan says the ‘glide path’ for a normal Leaf’s battery degradation is down to 70%-80% capacity after five years and about 70% after 10 years.

Sarah: And how does this compare to a petrol/diesel engine?

Andrew: Typical battery life for a petrol/diesel engine is 10 years as well, so there’s very little, if any, difference.

Sarah: How expensive are the batteries to replace? Will this negate the benefit of the cars being cheaper to run?

Andrew: The cost of replacement batteries depends on the size and type of battery. A replacement battery for the Nissan Leaf, for example, is currently expected to cost approx. £8,000; for other electric car models with less expensive batteries, the costs are significantly cheaper. Also, the costs of electric car batteries are predicted to decrease with more research and increased demand, which may mean that by the time they need replacing 10 years from now, they are much cheaper.

New business models are being explored by car manufacturers as they recognise the cost of the battery and the uncertainty over the life of the battery is the main barrier to adoption of the vehicles (in Newcastle University’s focus groups of electric vehicle triallists a much more significant issue to them than range anxiety).  Renault, for example, ‘lease the battery’ and take responsibility for it.

Sarah: Fantastic, thanks. So, how regularly do electric cars need to be serviced?

Andrew: They will need to be serviced with the same frequency as a petrol car; however, because electric cars require very little maintenance (their engines have five or six moving parts as compared to the hundreds in a petrol engine) the service will be relatively minor and should cost far less than that for a petrol car.

Sarah: Well, that’s definitely good news! Are the chances of break down and the cost of repair the same, better, or worse than a conventional car? Will these cars suffer higher breakdown frequencies and repair costs from having more complex electronics in them?

The good news is the smaller number of moving parts in electric cars means that they are far less likely to break down than a typical petrol or diesel car. The bad news is that because they are relatively new, repairs are likely to have to be carried out at the dealership rather than a standard garage, which could make not only the repair more costly. Also, in the event of a breakdown, as things currently stand, what may happen if you break down is that the roadside recovery services may not have the skills or tools to get the car going again on the roadside and it will most likely need to be transported to the nearest dealership for repairs, so roadside assistance may also cost more. Having said that, as we’ve stressed before in these interviews, these sort of issues usually do crop up when you’re dealing with very new or cutting-edge technologies, and as electric cars get more widespread, repair and recovery services are bound to catch up to the technology so those costs should start to come back into line with the equivalent costs for a conventional petrol or diesel vehicle.

Sarah: That’s great, thanks again for your time Andrew – see you next week!

In the latest of our series of blog posts on electric vehicles (EVs), we’re looking this week at the sort of considerations that will determine whether or not EV ownership will suit your own lifestyle – will it be a practical option for you, your family and the sort of journeys you’d be likely to need to make?

There’s still a little time to add your questions to be answered in our remaining blog posts of the series, so add your questions to our list.

As always, check back next week, or sign up for automatic updates using the ‘Follow Blog Via Email’ link on the right of this page, when we’ll be bringing you answers to a range of questions on the costs of electric car purchase and ownership.

This week, we met again with Professor Phil Blythe, Professor of Intelligent Transport Systems and Director of the Transport Operations Research Group (TORG) and put your questions to him.

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Dr Sarah Sweeney, Theme Administrator, NIReS: I know we say this every time, but again, we really appreciate you taking the time to sit with us and answer our questions.

Professor Phil Blythe: No problem at all.

Sarah: Thanks Phil.  So, this week, we’ve just got a short series of questions on how EVs might (or might not) fit in to the practicalities of every day living. To start with, you’ve mentioned in previous conversations with us that the range of electric cars is expanding all the time, but we think this is still one of the main things most people would worry about if considering buying an EV. Most people have heard that you can’t get very far in one before you have to charge it: what sort of range can you realistically get out of them?

Phil: The exact range for each type of electric car depends on the make and model, but typically you get 80-90 miles out of a fully-charged battery. This is why electric cars have been recommended for ‘daily drivers’ doing short commutes or trips to the shops, rather than for long journeys. It is also why electric cars are generally not considered as a serious alternative to conventional cars for most drivers. However, it is worth noting that, according to the Department for Transport, over 90% of car journeys are less than 20 miles in distance. Manufacturers are developing models which can overcome these problems; the Vauxhall Ampera, for example, combines the benefits of an electric car with the long range of a traditional petrol engine by using electric mode for its first 50 miles and, once the charge runs out, switches to a petrol-powered reserve which can travel for a further 310 miles (Source: The Guardian, 25/08/12). For many families,having an EV as their only car may not be an option as things stand.

Sarah: So are we talking here about the range of the cars under ideal driving conditions? How much is the range affected by the number of passengers, luggage, hills etc?

Phil: Just like a petrol car, the electric car’s efficiency is affected by the weather, poor car maintenance, under-inflated tyres, number of passengers and driving style. However, these effects on the range you get out of the car are more noticeable in an electric car; a loss of 10-20 miles in range of 80-90 is far more obvious than with a petrol car with a range of 400 miles.  Driving without aggressive acceleration and braking (so called eco-driving) can extend the range of a vehicle by up to 30%.  The topography of the road has  a major effect on range (both reducing and increasing) as does congestion and temperature.  From research at Newcastle it has been found that electric vehicle drivers tend to modify their driving behaviour and avoid driving at 70mph+ to conserve battery power.

Does how much luggage you put in an electric car affect its performance?

Sarah: Could you use one to pull a caravan? How far could you drive with the extra load attached?

Phil: As a general guide, a caravan’s weight should not be more than 85% of the weight of the car used to tow it; the weight a vehicle can tow has nothing to do with the power it produces. As most fully electric cars tend to be small models, they are unlikely to be suitable for towing caravans. A hybrid vehicle might be more appropriate. As with a petrol car, towing a caravan will have a dramatic effect on the efficiency of the car and the range you get out of it.  In Newcastle’s SwitchEV trials we have two electric Range Rovers designed by Liberty Electric Vehicle; they have a 75kWhr battery and would be capable of towing a caravan.

Could you tow a caravan with an EV?

Sarah: And do they have less boot space/leg room/passenger space than conventional cars?

Phil: This largely depends on the model of electric car you choose. In many cases the battery takes up some of the boot space, some are 4 seat rather than 5 and the Nissan Leaf has reduced legroom in the back as the floor is higher to accommodate the battery management system.

Sarah: Thanks again Phil – that’s extremely useful, but that’s everything we have for you this week. If it’s OK, we’d like to put some more questions to you next week on the topic of maintenance and repair?

Phil: I’ll look forward to it!

There’s still a little time to add your questions to be answered in our remaining blog posts of the series, so add your questions to our list.

As always, check back next week, or sign up for automatic updates using the ‘Follow Blog Via Email’ link on the right of this page, when we’ll be bringing you answers to a range of questions on the costs of electric car purchase and ownership.

Dr Sarah Sweeney, Theme Administrator, NIReS: So here we are again – as before, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to sit and answer our questions. This week we’d like to look at issues surrounding charging.  So, our first question is: will the availability of charging points depend on where you are in the UK, and what would be the situation if you were in Europe?

Andrew: At the moment, the simple answer is, yes – it does depend where you are. If you’re in the North East of England, you have the advantage of being in an area with an excellent (and expanding) infrastructure of charging points, but some other areas of the country are still a little way behind. This is improving all of the time though, so it is a case of thinking about where you might need to charge an electric car, and having a look to see how many charging points are available in that area.

Phil: The other factor is that the technology in the cars themselves is evolving all of the time, and the range you can get out of one full charge is expanding, so over time, those two things coming together (the improving charging infrastructure and the improving range of the cars) will help to allay those concerns. But yes, as things stand, coverage of charging points is variable.

Andrew: In Europe and elsewhere overseas, electric car charging points are becoming more widespread, as they are in the UK. As in the UK, however, they do tend to be clustered around the major cities, although this is likely to change as electric cars gain in popularity. Norway, the Netherlands and Germany currently have the most charging points in Europe, with other countries being slower to catch up.  If you are looking to see where charging points are located in a particular country, The OpenChargeMap project is an open source database with a public API for sharing and distributing charging information globally: http://openchargemap.org/. The project aims to provide globally relevant data freely to other application developers and navigation providers. Individual countries also have their own systems for helping drivers to find charging points, similar to the POD Point system in the UK.

Sarah: OK. So, if someone was considering making the switch or had already bought an electric car, how would they find out where charging points were located?

Graeme: Local authorities provide maps of where charging points are located in their area; electric car manufacturers such as Ford and Nissan also offer in-car location services, and mobile apps which will help you locate charging points and plan your journey around them.

Phil: As Andrew alluded to earlier, the North East has the most well developed charging infrastructure in the UK. Charge Your Car (CYC) is the scheme brand for the Plugged in Places project for the North East of England, funded with £7.8m by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles, One North East and regional partners.  Its aim is to create a comprehensive connected network of electric vehicle charging points throughout the North East of England by March 2013.  To date over 300 charge points have been installed in public, commercial and workplace locations with a further 80 domestic charging units in use at the homes of electric vehicle drivers in the region.  A growing network of eight 50 kW DC Quick Chargers along the main arterial routes is also providing an 80% charge in 30 minutes.   The Charge Your Car back office and EV User Membership Scheme has been successfully supporting EV Drivers and operators of charging infrastructure since October 2010, providing a single access tool and live charge point status map which can be accessed at:  http://chargeyourcar.org.uk/

Charge your car web map

Andrew: There are also several independent websites now available which can show you where charging points are located. For example, a map of charging points is available at www.ev-network.org.uk. The website also has a smartphone app, allowing you to search for charging points along your route. There are also community websites – for example PlugSurfing.co.uk – that allow individuals and organisations providing charging points to share information about their location and the type of charging facilities that are available. Both public charging points and private facilities – provided by PlugSurfers, the site’s users – are included and drivers can contact locations beforehand and review charging points after using them.

Sarah: Fantastic, so it’s quite easy to find out where there’s a charging point near you?

Andrew: Absolutely – couldn’t be easier!

Sarah: Great, thanks. Our next question is closely related.  So, you’ve found that there’s a charging point near you, but can you see whether or not it’s actually in use or available at the time? Is there a way of avoiding arriving needing a charge and finding that there isn’t actually a charging point available?

Graeme: Some charging point operators, like PODpoint, actually publish live availability of their charging points and in the future intend to allow users to book their charging points, precisely to get around this issue.

Phil: The North East’s Charge Your Car scheme does indicate whether a charging location is being used. At this point in time, there’s no pre-booking system for this, but we, at Newcastle University, are developing a booking and payment scheme under the EU SmartCEM project, so it’s possible or even likely that, in time, this will be available as an option.

Sarah: So now to the crucial question that everyone wants to know about. What happens if you run out of charge before you find an available charging point? Will I end up getting stranded on my way to somewhere?

Andrew: Well yes, if you completely run the car out of charge it will eventually coast to a stop, just like a petrol or diesel car would if it ran out of fuel. However, electric cars are generally equipped with many measures to try to prevent this from happening! The Nissan Leaf, for example, comes with a navigation system, programmed with locations of high-speed commercial charging stations as standard, so the driver of a Leaf always knows where electrical relief is available. As the charge begins to dwindle, however, the predicted remaining range is overlaid on the map, showing the driver where attainable charging stations are. As the charge decreases, the range indicated on the map continues to shrink. If the driver ignores that warning and keeps driving, a ‘limp home’ mode kicks in, limiting the car’s top speed and maximising the range left in the car. Finally, you can reach down and flip a switch for about two more miles of electricity, a sort of reserve fuel tank.

Sarah: Is there a protocol for behaviour at charging points? What would you do if you arrive and find another car plugged in but fully charged? Could you just unplug the other car in order to plug yours in?

Phil: Unfortunately, you would just have to wait until the driver returns to unplug their car as the charging points lock the plug in place exactly to prevent people unplugging other people’s cars without letting them finish charging. This is an issue that needs looking at further: from trials in the North East, busy city centre charging posts are, on average, occupied for 3hr 37 minutes after the electric vehicle has completed its charging, so some sort of management of this issue is clearly needed. Fast charges are managed in the North East, however, with a maximum of 40 minutes parking allowed at the charge point at any one time.

Sarah: We’ve heard a lot of different, and conflicting, information about the possibility of charging electric vehicles up at home, so what is the story there – can you charge them up at home, and how would you do this? Do you need a special type of socket installed to be able to do it?

Andrew: It is possible to charge an electric car using a standard household 13-amp three-pin plug, but there are safety implications to consider. The car will draw a lot of current, which risks overloading the circuits and, depending on the condition of your wiring, could cause a fire risk. It is generally recommend that you install a dedicated charging point on its own circuit. A dedicated charging point will also be robust, weatherproof and lockable, and you can position it in the most convenient place for your car. Home chargers also charge up your electric car up to 40% faster than using the standard home electricity plug points, and many energy providers offer special tariffs for electric car charging, which are cheaper than standard tariffs. It costs from £250-£1000 to have a standard charging point installed at home, depending on the difficulty of the installation. However, the fact that you can plug the car in anywhere means you could go on visits to relatives or on holiday and still be able to charge your car.

Phil: Smart meters are being installed with the charging points in people’s homes so that charging of your electric car takes place at times when there is less demand for electricity from the grid (from midnight to 6pm).  Coincidentally this is also the time when the CO2 in the UK’s energy grid is at its lowest.

Charging behaviour from SwitchEV trial

Sarah: Great, so even more sustainable! What if you don’t have off-street parking: can you still charge your electric car from home if that’s the case?

Graeme: No. Unfortunately, as things stand, you need access to some form of off-street parking so that you can safely get a cable to your car. Trailing cables over the pavement is not on! So either a garage (with power) or a drive next to your house is definitely required.

Andrew: If there are several people on your street who would like a charging point installed, you could petition your local authority to install a public charging point, though.

Phil: Yes, and inductive charging is being researched which could reduce the needs for charging leads and potentially offers a solution to this issue.

Sarah: And how much does it cost to charge up an electric car from home or from a charging point?

Phil: Well, fuel costs are very low due to the competitive price of electricity (fuel duty is zero-rated) and the high efficiency of the vehicles themselves. The Peugeot Ion, for example, has a 16kWhr battery and costs less than £2.00 to fully charge which will give you approximately a 90 mile range. According to Nissan, the cost per mile for the Nissan Leaf is 1.75p per mile (when charged overnight at home on a special tariff); the cost of the average conventional petrol car is over 10p per mile. At present most public charging points are free and if you’re using one you often get free parking at the same time, often in order to attract customers to local businesses. This may change, and in London there are some charging networks now in place where you pay for the electricity.

Sarah: One of our team had mentioned that she wouldn’t be able to charge a car at home at all, as she has no parking near her house. So, if someone always had to drive to a public charging point, would it really still be more efficient or cheaper to have an electric car than a petrol or diesel car?

Andrew: Yes, it would certainly still be cheaper to run an electric car if it was only being charged at a public charging point, particularly if you were using a free charging point and not having to pay for the electricity! However, it could be very inconvenient and would probably take some planning. Not impossible though …!

Sarah: And is it true that it takes ages to charge a car?

Graeme: It takes about 8 hours to fully charge most models on a standard charger; fast chargers can fully charge a car in 1-1.5hr hours and there are some ‘rapid’ charging points which can give 80% charge in 30 minutes.

Sarah: That sounds great, but does it affect the life of the batteries if you consistently only part-charge them?

Phil: That really depends on the model of electric car or battery. In the newer models such as the Ford Focus Electric this would not be an issue and only part-charging will not degrade battery life.

Graeme: Generally speaking, the batteries are well managed by an internal battery management system.  Our team here at the University have been monitoring a fleet of 44 electric vehicles for almost 3 years and the battery degradation is significantly less than what the car manufacturers plan for.

Sarah: Fantastic: well as always you’ve given us plenty of food for thought and a lot of very useful information. Thanks once again, and we’ll see you next week when we’ll be firing some questions at you around how to decide if electric cars fit your lifestyle or not.

Phil: Our pleasure as always – see you next week!

As always, there is still time to add your questions to be answered in our remaining blog posts of the series, so add your questions to our list.

Check back next week, or sign up for automatic updates using the ‘Follow Blog Via Email’ link on the right of this page, when we’ll be bringing you answers to a range of questions on the costs of electric car purchase and ownership.

Dr Sarah Sweeney, Theme Administrator, NIReS: Thank you all for taking the time to sit down with us and answer our questions. This week we’d like to look at driving electric cars, and have some questions on what it’s actually like to sit behind the wheel.  So, to kick off, we’ve all seen items on the news where some reporter sits behind the wheel and raves about how silent electric cars are.  Is this really true? Do they sound really quiet when you’re driving them, and isn’t that a bit unnerving?

Andrew Robinson, PhD student, School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences: Yes, they are very quiet.  The main noise you will hear is the wheel to road friction noise.  As to whether it’s unnerving, I suppose when you first get behind the wheel, particularly when you’re pulling off at initially quite slow speeds, it can feel very strange if you’re used to the noise generated by a petrol or diesel engine, but it’s amazing how quickly you get used to it.  And then, once you’re moving at a normal speed, say 30 miles per hour or more, you do start to hear those friction noises a bit more, which helps to give you the audio feedback you’re used to having from your more conventional car.

Graeme Hill, Research Associate, School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences: Yes, it’s like any new (or newer) car – we’ve probably all experienced that sensation, when first driving a newer car than we’ve had before, of being amazed at how quiet the engine is compared to the (relatively) old banger we’ve been used to driving, and it’s natural to feel as though you’ll never get used to it, but the truth is you get used to it incredibly quickly, and conventional petrol or diesel cars start to sound horribly loud by comparison!

Sarah: Fantastic, thanks – something to look forward to then! What about the feel of the car? Do electric cars feel very different to petrol or diesel cars to drive?

Graeme: In a word, yes, but it will depend to a certain extent on the sort of car you’ve been used to driving. If you’ve only ever driven manual cars in the past, the fact that all production electric cars are automatic will feel very different at first (just as it would if you switched to a conventional automatic car).  On top of that, though, they will still feel a bit different: vehicles that run off electric motors have ‘instant torque’, which means you get the car’s top acceleration at all speeds. They are generally therefore fairly quick and very responsive and have been described by drivers as ‘zippier’. This can be a bit disorienting at first, but, again, it’s just like if you took a new car for a test drive that you weren’t used to driving – it might be more powerful or have more sensitive pedals than your old car and could therefore take a couple of drives in it to start getting used to.

Phil: Manufacturers are aware of this, though, and in some cases are making alterations to their vehicles to make them feel more familiar to drivers. For example, Ford have limited the potential acceleration of the electric Ford Focus so that it feels the same to drive as the petrol version; they have done the same for braking. They believe this makes the new technology easier to adjust to, and safer. Limiting maximum available acceleration also saves the batteries.

Sarah: Is an electric car slow to pull off? It always looks from news items on TV that we’ve seen as if they are a bit sluggish, but is that just because of the way they’re being driven in those reports?

Phil: No, they’re not slow to pull off at all! In fact, due to their electric motors they can be faster than petrol cars at pulling off and accelerating.  Just like a scalextric car in fact!

Andrew: I think, from what I’ve seen, that the news reports either tend to be filmed in the car park of a TV studio, limiting how fast the reporter can pull off, or, in a lot of the items I’ve seen, the reporter is trying to still speak to camera while pulling away, so I think that’s why you see them being driven very slowly on news bulletins!

Sarah: One of the questions we’ve wondered about, and which we’ll be covering with you a bit more in a couple of weeks, is how driver behaviour might affect the efficiency of electric vehicles. Increasingly, most of us know (whether we choose to heed it or not) all of the advice on how to drive efficiently and save fuel in a petrol or diesel car, but do the same rules apply in an electric car. What constitutes efficient driving in an EV, and how much difference to the range would efficient driving make?

Phil: To be honest, the principles for efficient driving in an electric car are actually exactly the same as for a petrol car and, according to a trial we ran recently, can extend the range by up to 30%. The best way to drive efficiently is to maintain a constant speed, at minimal throttle, in the highest gear possible. The advantage with an electric car is that, being an automatic, it will make some of this easier for the driver. Generally, fuel economy is maximized when acceleration and braking are minimized. So a fuel-efficient strategy is to anticipate what is happening ahead, and drive in such a way so as to minimize acceleration and braking, and maximize coasting time. So drivers who are already trying their best to maximise their fuel efficiency in a conventional car will find that they’re able quite easily to get maximum range out of an electric car.

Sarah: One of the things we were discussing when compiling our initial list of questions on electric cars was whether or not the stats that you see associated with the cars are based in the real world. For example, you see figures quoted on what the range of a particular model of electric car is, but we strongly suspect that these figures assume you drive a bit like a saint in perfect weather conditions and with no additional electrical items running in the car.  I personally like to have the radio or CD player on when I drive, and if it’s a hot day I’ll often have the air conditioning running (or the heat on a cold day), then obviously at night or in bad weather there’s the addition of the headlights or fog lights etc. How much difference will this make to the energy usage of the car?  Can the battery cope with having all of this switched on and running as well?

Graeme: Yes, the battery can cope, but, just as in a petrol or diesel car, using these things will consume extra energy. Heating and air conditioning consume significant power and will reduce range but most electric vehicles will automatically calculate range reduction when what’s known as hotel loads (heating, air conditioning, lights etc) are on so you should have a ‘live’ reading of what your range actually is at any given point in time. The radio or CD player and some lights use a separate car battery, similar to a petrol car, so using these shouldn’t reduce your range.

Andrew: In other words, it’s really no different to driving a petrol or diesel car – yes, some things such as air con will reduce your range as with petrol or diesel fuel efficiency, but you should be able to see by how much as you’re driving.

Sarah: That’s great, thanks.  One last question: most of the electric cars that get shown on TV or talked about in the media seem to be broadly similar in terms of the type of car – Nissan Leaf, Peugeot iOn etc. Same sort of body type, top speed, acceleration etc, and one of the biggest objections we could foresee from some people might be to do with this. If one of our readers currently drives a really fast, powerful or sporty car, we can imagine them being reluctant to switch to one of these electric cars. Does that mean that the switch to an EV isn’t an option for them?

Nissan Leaf

Graeme: Not at all, but you’re right that this is a common misconception about electric cars. When electric cars first came on to the market, there wasn’t a great deal of choice, and this is probably where this assumption comes from, but that’s the same for any newly-introduced technology. But as time goes on, more and more choice starts to appear.

Peugeot iOn

Phil: Exactly. It’s just the same as if you were looking to buy a petrol or diesel car: it would depend on the sort of car you were looking to buy, but there’s now a fairly extensive range of electric vehicles on the market in all shapes, sizes and degrees of power.

Andrew: Absolutely – you can get all sorts of electric cars with lots of manufacturers offering a choice of electric vehicles. For example, Tesla make a Roadster which might fit the bill if you wanted a full-on sports car, a Model S if you were looking for a powerful luxury sedan car, or a Model X if you wanted a sports utility vehicle.

Tesla Roadster

Graeme: Looking across the entire range of manufacturers selling electric vehicles in the UK, including Nissan, Citroen, Peugeot, Renault, Tata, Mitsubishi, Toyota, Chevrolet and Vauxhall as well as some of the smaller or more specialist manufacturers such as Avid Vehicles or Smith Electric Vehicles the choice is now fairly extensive and I see no reason that this trend won’t continue, and gather pace, as time goes on and technologies become more and more refined and cost-effective.

Tesla Model X

Andrew: Of course, if none of the electric cars currently on the market fit the bill for your own requirements and you really want to make the switch now, there are also a range of hybrid cars available which, while not as environmentally friendly or economical to run as an electric car, will still offer savings and reduce your environmental footprint as compared to a conventional petrol or diesel car.

Phil: The days are long gone when switching to an electric car meant you only had a choice between one or two models that were broadly similar in performance, shape and price.  There are some very sleek, sophisticated and powerful sports and performance electric cars out there, and more are coming on to the market all the time.

Tesla Model S

Sarah: Well, I think that’s our last question for this week.  Thanks once again for indulging us and taking the time to answer all of our questions. We’re sure that our blog readers are finding all of this incredibly helpful and informative.

Andrew: You’re very welcome, it’s been a pleasure.

Graeme: Absolutely – any time.

Phil: See you next week!

As always, there is still time to add your questions to be answered in our remaining blog posts of the series, so add your questions to our list.

Check back next week, or sign up for automatic updates using the ‘Follow Blog Via Email’ link on the right of this page, when we’ll be bringing you answers to a range of questions on the costs of electric car purchase and ownership.

Dr Sarah Sweeney, Theme Administrator, NIReS: Thanks for sitting down with us again, Phil, and answering more of our questions on electric cars.

Professor Phil Blythe: No problem at all. What’s the topic this week?

Sarah: We’d like to move on to looking at the costs of owning an electric car, as this is undoubtedly one of the main issues that puts a lot of people off. So, first of all, are electric cars a lot more expensive than conventional petrol or diesel cars to buy?

Phil: At the moment, the simple answer is yes, but this is always the case with new technologies. Electric cars currently have a high purchase price and, as they are so new, there are very few second-hand purchase options. The general consensus is that it would take a very long time for the cheaper running costs to outweigh the expensive purchase price. There is a £5,000 government subsidy available to those in the UK wishing to purchase an electric car though and, as more come on to the market, prices will drop and more second-hand vehicles will become available, so the situation will improve over the next few years.

Sarah: So, if you decided to take the plunge and buy one, what about the day-to-day running costs? Does it work out much cheaper to run an electric car than a petrol or diesel car?

Phil: Yes, running costs are definitely much cheaper. Comparing an electric vehicle (EV) doing 10,000 miles a year to a petrol equivalent saves more than £3,000.This is because electricity is cheaper than petrol and not subject to fuel tax, plus electric cars are more efficient than their petrol equivalents. In addition, servicing and maintenance is minimal as there are fewer moving parts in an electric motor (the only part which will require maintenance is the batteries) and, if you live in London, electric cars are exempt from the congestion charge.

Sarah: So that’s good news! What about road tax? Do EV owners have to pay the same?

Phil: No, in fact, electric vehicles are exempt from road tax, due to their low emissions, so this also helps contribute to the £3,000 per year saving I mentioned.

Sarah: What about insurance? For a lot of drivers in the UK, particularly younger drivers or those over a certain age, insurance is a significant part of the cost of car ownership. How do electric cars compare to conventional vehicles on that front?

Phil: As electric cars are relatively new, it can be slightly more tricky to sort out insurance for them (some insurance companies may not have heard of the make or model). But this is improving, and most major insurers are happy to insure them and you may even receive a discount. However, at present it does generally seem to cost more to insure an electric car than a petrol one: this would seem to be due to the lack of statistics for electric cars involved in accidents, their high acceleration, the high value of their batteries (which could be seen as a target for thieves) and the assumed higher costs for repairs should the car be damaged (this is partly due to expensive batteries and partly due to the fact that not all garages may be suitably equipped to fix electric cars, meaning dealerships are the most likely place for a repair job).

Sarah: So there seem to be a lot of factors to consider from a cost point of view if thinking of buying an electric car. You mentioned earlier that it’s generally thought that, as things stand, it will take a while to recoup the purchase price of an electric car. Do you have any thoughts on how long we’re talking about?

Phil: Obviously this would depend on the model of electric car purchased. The Peugeot iOn, for example, now costs only £13,000; with the cheaper running costs of an electric car predicted to save you £3000 per year, you should break even after 3 or 4 years. But that assumes that you’re comparing the cost of buying an electric car against not buying a car at all, which for most people won’t be the case, so depending on which model of petrol or diesel car you would otherwise be thinking of buying, the time to recoup the difference in cost could be quite short.  Then, obviously, once you’ve recouped your purchase price (or the extra cost of going electric), you’re going to see significant savings from that point onwards.

Sarah: You mentioned earlier that one of the factors driving up the price of electric cars is the fact that they’re only currently available from new. If someone either couldn’t afford a new car, or would prefer not to suffer the depreciation on buying from new, does that rule out a switch to electric cars altogether for them?

Phil: Not necessarily, no. There are an increasing number of car clubs in the UK and globally which seek to encourage people to swap private car ownership for membership and use, as needed, of a fleet of cars. A number of these clubs either now have electric cars as part of their fleet, or are investigating the use of EV technology, so it’s probable that, in time, you wouldn’t need to buy an electric car in order to be able to switch to an EV. These clubs also offer additional savings against private car ownership (particularly if your car usage isn’t particularly heavy). It also works the other way round: some of these clubs allow private car owners to sign up to have their cars included as part of the fleet, meaning that, when you don’t need your car, you can recoup some money by hiring it out. For example, in the North East, we, as a University, have partnered with Commonwheels Car Club to trial the use of an electric vehicle for University staff, as part of their aim to roll out electric cars as part of their fleet.

Sarah: Fantastic, thanks Phil. We’ll have some more questions for you and the team next week on what it’s like to drive an electric car, if that’s OK?

Phil: Of course, see you then.

To get the answers to these questions, we’ve spoken to Professor Phil Blythe, Professor of Intelligent Transport Systems and Director of the Transport Operations Research Group (TORG) and other members of his team and asked them to give us the low-down with the benefit of their expertise.

This week we’re starting with a shorter post covering just a couple of questions on some of the basics, and looking at what an electric vehicle is, what a hybrid is, and what the difference is between these and other vehicles you may own or have owned in the past.

Check back next week, or sign up for automatic updates using the ‘Follow Blog Via Email’ link on the right of this page, when we’ll be bringing you a fuller post with answers to a range of questions on the costs of electric car purchase and ownership.

And don’t forget, it’s not to late to add your questions to our list. If you think there’s anything we haven’t covered, add your comments at the bottom of the page, and we’ll try, as far as possible, to get answers for you.

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Dr Sarah Sweeney, Theme Administrator, NIReS: Thanks for taking the time to sit with us and answer these questions, Phil. We’d like to start off with a couple of fairly generic questions about the vehicles themselves. One of the most basic questions that I think a lot of people are curious about is simply ‘what is the difference between a hybrid and an electric vehicle?’

Professor Phil Blythe: Put quite simply, hybrid cars use an electric motor and a traditional petrol engine, with the electric motor supplementing the propulsion of the petrol engine. With both power sources working together, the hybrid runs more efficiently and gets more miles per gallon than a traditional petrol car. In contrast, an electric car is powered solely by an electric motor.

Sarah: OK, great, thanks, that really helps.  So are electric cars automatic or manual?

Phil: Most new electric cars developed by the major manufacturers are automatic; however, hobbyists can convert manual transmission cars to run on electricity and there are small, specialist manufacturers who do produce manual electric cars. These can have greater performance and efficiency, using higher performance batteries, but have a much shorter range than automatic transmission electric cars (30 miles as compared to 80-90 miles).

And yet take up on these vehicles still isn’t very widespread, probably because of a lack of reliable, real information (as opposed to manufacturer’s sales patter) on what it’s actually like to own, drive and maintain an electric car.

Well, at Newcastle University, our researchers have spent the last three years conducting a research project on electric vehicle usage, monitoring a phenomenal range of aspects of electric car ownership and usage, giving us access to an unparalleled body of data and opinion on what it’s really like to be an electric vehicle driver.

In an upcoming series of blog posts, we’ll be sitting down with Phil Blythe, Professor of Intelligent Transport Systems and Director of the Transport Operations Research Group (TORG) and other members of his team, and putting to them the sort of questions we’ve always wanted to ask and will be using this to give you the inside scoop (and the real picture, not a sales pitch!).

So, here’s your chance to have your input: below are the questions that we’ve come up so far.

What else would you want to ask if you had the chance? What would your barriers be to buying an electric car? What have you always wanted to know about electric vehicles but not had the chance to ask?

Use the comments box at the bottom of this post to add your questions and we’ll include as many of them as we can (sensible suggestions only, please!).

And then don’t forget to check back next Monday to read the answers to ours (and your) first set of questions … or you can sign up to receive updates automatically using the ‘Follow Blog via Email’ link on the right hand side of this page.

We look forward to reading your suggested questions!!

• Terminology and general questions:
  • What is the difference between a hybrid and an electric vehicle?
  • Are they automatic or manual?
• The cost of electric car ownership (buying, running and maintenance):
  • Are they a lot more expensive than conventional petrol/diesel cars?
  • Does it work out cheaper to run an electric car than a petrol or diesel car?
  • Is the road tax free?
  • How much does it cost to insure an electric car?
  • How soon would you recoup the purchase cost of an electric car?
  • I couldn’t afford to buy a brand new petrol or diesel car – if I wanted to switch to electric cars, what are my options?
• Driving:
  • What constitutes efficient driving in an electric car, and how much does this extend the range by?
  • Do electric cars sound really quiet when you are driving?
  • Can the battery in an electric car cope with having a radio/lights/air con on, or does it make a big difference to energy use?
  • Does an electric car feel the same to drive as a petrol or diesel car?
  • Is an electric car slow to pull off?
  • I have a really fast, powerful car at the moment – surely an electric car isn’t going to have that sort of power?
• Charging:
  • Will availability of charging points depend on where I am in the UK? What about Europe?
  • How do you find out where charging points are located?
  • Is there a way of finding out which charging points are available en-route, to avoid arriving needing a charge and finding none available?
  • What happens if you run out of charge before you find an available charging point? Will I end up getting stranded on my way to somewhere?
  • Is there a protocol for behaviour at charging points? What do you do if you arrive and find another car plugged in but fully charged?
  • How do you charge them up from home?
  • Can you charge an electric car from home if you don’t have off-street parking?
  • How much does it cost to charge up an electric car from home/from a charging point?
  • I wouldn’t be able to charge a car at home all; will it really be more efficient/cheaper to have an electric if I always have to drive to a chargepoint to charge it up?
  • Is it true that it takes ages to charge a car?
  • Does it affect the life of the batteries if you consistently only part-charge them?
• Will an electric car really suit your lifestyle:
  • I’ve heard that you can’t get very far in one before you have to charge it: what sort of range can you get out of them?
  • How much is the range affected by the number of passengers, luggage, hills etc?
  • Could you use one to pull a caravan? How far could you drive with the extra load attached?
  • Do they have less boot space/leg room/passenger space than conventional cars?
• Maintenance and repair:
  • If it’s a while between uses of the car, will the batteries drain?
  • How long are the engines/batteries predicted to last, and how does this compare to a petrol/diesel engine?
  • How expensive are the batteries to replace? Will this negate the benefit of the cars being cheaper to run?
  • How regularly do they need to be serviced and how much will this cost?
  • What happens if the car breaks down? Do break down companies know how to fix electric cars?
  • Are the chances of break-down and the cost of repair the same, better or worse than a conventional car? Will these cars suffer higher breakdown frequencies and repair costs from having more complex electronics in them?
• Sustainability:
  • Isn’t it a ‘false’ sustainability to use electric cars at the moment, when the electricity used is derived from fossil fuels?
  • How sustainable are the cars in terms of production processes and materials compared to conventional cars?

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Over a month has passed since the end of the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.

It was a busy time, and only now do I feel able to make sense of what happened. In the months leading up to the conference I was not optimistic that it would achieve what I, and countless others, thought was necessary: a meaningful commitment from the world to move to a sustainable model of development (specifically, no longer be based on using natural capital at unsustainable rates in order to fuel short-term benefits for a minority of the planet’s population).

Instead, I hoped for minor victories, such as publicity and hence raised awareness amongst the general public about sustainable development issues.

However, as Rio+20 imminently approached I became more optimistic as I succumbed to a sense of excitement surrounding the conference. All of a sudden it seemed like Rio+20 was everywhere. There was a flurry of articles about it in the press (with hindsight maybe I was just looking in the right places), and friends and family who had no previous interest in sustainable development issues were discussing it with me.

Even that week’s edition of The Economist was supporting it, opposing damaging fossil fuel and water subsidies and warning of the paradoxical nature (and dangers) of drilling for oil in the Arctic.

Travelling to Brazil further established this feeling in me: at Heathrow I spotted a passenger reading WEM (“The Environment Magazine”, not your usual departure lounge novel!) and on arrival in Rio there were banners, motorcades and Rio+20 themed sandcastles aplenty.

The buzz continued to the vast RioCentro conference centre. Whilst at the conference, I split my time between the official ‘side events’ there which caught my interest and the events organised by the Planet Earth Institute (PEI), our hosts in Rio. In my mid-conference blog post (published 21st June) I discussed two of the events that I attended.

Others which I think are worthy of note include:

• ‘Resilient cities’, hosted by the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, and
• Future cities’, hosted by the UN Human Settlements Programme

At the conference there were numerous side events about cities, which, as Ed discussed in a blog post and as I discussed in my first post, have a key role to play in future development as the centres of population and of the economy.

The discussion panels at both of these events included government ministers and advisers from several countries. The later event was particularly compelling, with a Singaporean cabinet minister discussing how important the decisions that are currently being made about cities as their impacts will last centuries. He also stressed the benefits of powerful city-level governance for decision making (very much the case in his native city-state and something which I felt was conspicuously absent from the recent proposal for elected mayors in the UK).

[As a slight aside I found the large focus on cities at Rio+20 slightly ironic. This was because Barra da Tijuca, the district where the conference was held, was to my eyes a textbook example of how not to design a city! It seemed to be an endless sprawl of shopping malls, apartment blocks and car parks, all only accessible by car with no mixed-use areas, no chance of mass utilisation of public transport/walking/cycling, and no sense of place. I heartily would recommend Triumph of the City by Edward Glaeser and Car Sick by Lynne Sloman to Rio’s urban planners!]

• ‘Inclusive green growth’, hosted by the World Bank. I was impressed by a South Korean minister who described how his country is introducing carbon trading, admirable in the on-going absence of a global or regional scheme. At the same event, Min Zhu, Deputy Managing Director of the IMF, stated that fossil fuel subsidies “…must … be reduced…” and evidenced how they mostly benefit the wealthy. Despite the failure of the Rio+20 agreement to even mention fossil fuel subsidies, I felt that for such a senior economic figure to say this was a small victory for the Twitter-based #endfossilfuelsubsidies campaign which ran on the eve of the conference
• Events about CESSAF (Centre of Excellence in Applied Sciences for Sustainability in Africa), hosted by the PEI. The PEI discussed the post-graduate training centre that they are helping to establish in Angola with the aim of helping to make Africa scientifically independent and stopping ‘brain-drain’ from the continent

Meanwhile, as I was attending events such as these, the leader’s summit element of the conference was failing to agree to the rigorous declaration that had been hoped for. In the end, the final document contained hardly any fixed actions; instead the international community only stated that sustainable development should be ‘encouraged’.

One example of the document’s weakness is that the phrase ‘unsustainable consumption and production patterns’ was omitted under pressure from the United States – agreement could not even be reached that there even is a problem with our current model of development!

Another example is that the phrases ‘sustainable development’, ‘sustainable growth’ and ‘sustained growth’ all somehow became synonyms of one another in the document. The misuse and misunderstanding of terms such as ‘sustainable development’ is very unhelpful and a problem in the UK at least, a situation not helped by such confusion in major UN agreements!

I therefore had mixed feelings about the conference by its end. I had thoroughly enjoyed my time in Rio and had found it incredibly interesting, but the main outcome was deflating, even if it had been expected.

Minor successes did materialise though: countries, companies, and NGOs signed up to hundreds of voluntary agreements and numerous of small positive actions were showcased, such as South Korea’s carbon trading and the PEI’s CESSAF project.

Most promising of all though, was one definite aspect of the Rio+20 declaration: an agreement of a timetable to establish Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) via a UN organised working group.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs, due to expire in 2015) have been a reasonable success, and these proposed SDGs could be too if they are ambitious enough, target the correct areas, and win strong commitment from the countries that will need to implement them.

In my opinion, the SDGs should renew and increase the MDG targets in areas such water and sanitation, education, and poverty eradication, as well as target new areas such as harmful fossil fuel, agriculture, and water subsidies, resource efficiency, biodiversity and key pollution markers. If the SDGs do these things, and countries act on them, Rio+20 might not go down in history as a complete failure.

Upon entering the office ´Rebecca Black: It´s Friday Friday´ was being played!  A ritual that apparently happens every Friday!  But work does still continue and Friday, my final day at work, was definitely the busiest!

Fernanda, the Senior Director of Linhas Comunicacao, left for London on Tuesday night.  Before she left, I had a meeting with her to discuss the project for the Planet Earth Institute I would work on during my time here.

I was asked to draw up a marketing plan for the Planet Earth Institute that could be used in both the UK and Brazil.  I initially undertook research to bring myself up-to-date with the Planet Earth Institute’s main projects through reading past newsletters, magazines and their website.  From this I created a report outlining how the institute could make improvements to their current marketing.

Sustainability issues and the work of the Planet Eearth Institute is something I feel very passionately about and so I really enjoyed this project!  In fact, it was very closely linked to the blog I wrote for the Rio 20+ competition!  This project was right up my street!

I presented my ideas on Friday morning to five members of the Linhas Comunicacao team, including the Assistant Director, and it went extremely well!

The Assistant Director really liked some of the ideas and asked a great deal about them.

The marketing ideas discussed in the presentation included ways to promote the group during the Olympics in London, make the advertising more appealing and recommendations for the social media sites and the newsletter.

After I presented, there was an informal discussion on how the ideas would work in practice.  I have now forwarded the report to the Senior Director of Linhas Comunicaco who is currently with the Planet Earth Institute and their headquarters in London, so who knows - maybe my ideas will be passed on?

After my Planet Earth Institute pitch in the morning came the meeting I had been looking forward to all week – meeting the Rolling Stone Magazine editor at their offices!

You could definitely tell it was a music magazine office as there were magazine covers and clippings all over the walls!

In the meeting the next issue of the magazine was presented to the PR Coordinator who will now write press releases and contact journalists to get as much media coverage for the issue as possible.

The Editor of the magazine gave me a tour of the offices and introduced me to all the different teams, including editorial, marketing and sales.  He then showed me the meeting room where all the meetings with bands take place: ´crazy´ is the only way to describe this room!  Around the edge of the room there were many cardboard cut-outs including a life-sized Elvis and a guerilla!  In the middle of the room was a large glass display unit with a motorbike inside … and this was the table!

On Friday afternoon the Marketing Coordinator presented a mock pitch for one of the agency’s current marketing projects to me.  It was very interesting to see the presentation as it would delivered to the client.  All of the budgets for the project were also explained to me as well as exactly how these had been estimated.  Afterwards we had a discussion on which aspects I liked the best – but to be honest, I loved it all and was really impressed!

I can´t get over how welcoming everyone at the agency has been – I did not expect them to be my tour guides as well.  I have found the insight into the lively PR office fascinating!  I have learnt a lot, gained new international business contacts (already added on LinkedIn!!) and I very much hope to keep in contact with the staff.

I would like to thank Newcastle University Business School for sponsoring the trip and the Newcastle Institute for Research on Sustainability for organising it – it has been a great experience!

I would also like to thank Linhas Comunicacao for devoting so much of their time to me this week.

Etta Smylie
BSc Marketing

My colleagues have been the perfect city guides throughout my stay and have made a real effort to educate me about life in Brazil.  One of the graduates at the company, Juliana, has been keen to practice her English and I had dinner with her and her university friends on the first two evenings.  I very much enjoyed this as I learnt more about university life in Sao Paulo too!

On Tuesday the office staff awaited eagerly as I tried ´Feijoada´, a Sao Paulo dish consisting of pork, rice, beans, leeks, fried pork fat (not sure about that part!) and a few other things I didn´t recognise to sprinkle over it.  It was very good!!

I have also been educated on Brazilian football – there was a big match last night and a lot of buzz around the office the whole day in anticipation of it.

On of my favorite tasks of the week was delivering new promotional packs for one of Sao Paulo´s top restaurants to journalists throughout the city.  This was a great opportunity to see a lot more of the city and again my colleague was a great guide and full of information for me.

Unfortunately, many of the journalists we had arranged to visit canceled our meeting last minute.  This was disappointing, but I was informed this happens a lot and it was a more accurate insight into life in a PR office.

One of the journalists that could meet us was from Abril, one of the largest publishing companies in Brazil with the rights to many magazines including Elle, MTV, National Geographic and many more.

The offices were as impressive as the list of magazine titles!

We met the journalist on the 30th floor of the building and the view from the office was amazing!  The meeting, conducted in English for my benefit, was brief but very interesting as the PR Co-ordinator presented the new menu for the restuarant we were promoting.

I have been working on formulating a marketing plan for the Planet Earth Institute (PEI) over the past few days and this morning I will have a meeting with the Marketing Co-ordinator to discuss my ideas.

I will give an update on how this goes – I´m looking forward to hearing what he thinks of the ideas I have come up with!

Henrietta Smylie
BSc Marketing