Financial Costs

We're all too familiar with these, petrol and diesel prices skyrocketing, interest rates fluctuating, car prices, train fares, bus fares, new "green" taxes, insurance costs - all going up. You can buck the trend by switching to electric, and we'll show you how.

Commute Distance: 15 miles each way
Annual Commute Distance: 7050 miles for 47 working weeks x 5 working days

Environmental Costs

CO₂, CO, NO_x, SO_x and particulates are all emitted from the internal combustion engines used in mopeds, motorbikes, cars, buses, lorries and trains. They are all harmful to both you and the environment, and each vehicle emits literally tons of of these pollutants in a year.

I'm not saying that electric vehicles are totally without pollutants, they're not. There is the CO₂ expended in the production process, they probably contain nasty heavy metals like lead or dangerous chemicals such as cadmium or strong acids. However, their pollutants are almost always contained and are recycleable if treated properly at the vehicles end-of-life. Even the production process is less harmful, the CO₂ produced in the manufacture of a lightweight plastic or fibreglass body is almost completely insignificant when you compare it to the CO₂ generated in the casting of engine blocks, forging, rolling and pressing of steel or aluminium body panels.

With an electric vehicle you have the option of reducing your CO₂ production to zero by choosing to buy your electricity from a renewable or "green" electricity generator. If you have enough land you could install your own wind turbine, although this does cost quite a lot - but you can sell your surplus electricity to the national grid. Solar panels are also another option, and despite the terrible weather we have it's still quite effective.