Changing your car from petrol or diesel to an electric vehicle can provide you with many benefits, apart from the knowledge that you are helping to save the planet. Sooner or later you are going to have to switch to an electric vehicle anyway because many motor manufacturers are now changing over the way their cars are powered, and it will come to a point where you won’t be able to buy petrol or diesel in any event.

If you think about it logically, why would you want to continue with petrol or diesel? Certainly, the last Labour government pushed the great benefits of diesel but didn’t take any account of the harmful emissions that they create. Now we know. Not only do petrol and diesel vehicles create emissions, they also have to be transported many miles across country by very large tankers which themselves create even more emissions. By contrast, when you use an electric vehicle you can just plug it into the nearest power supply.

Even if the electricity that you use to power an OLEV Energy Saving Trust electric vehicle comes from the dirtiest coal-fired power station, it will still produce less global warming than a petrol or diesel car. Furthermore, a study in the US over a period of two years covered the full life cycle of an electric vehicle which looked at manufacturing, operation, and end of life disposal. It found that an electric vehicle produces half the emissions of a comparative petrol car, even after taking account of the emissions caused by the manufacture of the battery (https://www.ucsusa.org/clean-vehicles/electric-vehicles/life-cycle-ev-emissions#.WnNata6nFEY.)

Not only that, more and more homes are installing solar power panels and obtaining their electricity free of charge. When powered exclusively by solar power or wind power, it means that an electric vehicle can operate almost entirely free of emissions.

Furthermore, battery electric vehicles have mechanics which are a lot simpler than petrol or diesel engine cars. This means that they are a lot cheaper to maintain. For example, you don’t have to change the oil every 5,000 or 10,000 miles, you don’t have to change spark plugs because there aren’t any, you don’t need to replace the timing belt, and so on. In fact, their engines don’t need any maintenance.

Even if you are paying for your electricity, it will cost you a lot less per mile than paying for petrol or diesel. It is also convenient because you can plug in on your home charging unit overnight and wake up in the morning with a full "tank".

But how do you plug in on your home charger if you live in a flat or a terraced home with no front garden? The answer is that you don’t. However, there are several different options available. One method is charging up from a lamp post. Some councils have already installed charging units on lamp posts – at a cost of around £1,000 per post, but once installed it is there for as long as it lasts. This may, or may not, be a long-term solution. It does present a trip hazard because you have to run a cable along the gutter and up into the car. Furthermore, there could be arguments among residents as to whose turn it was to use the power supply this evening! After all, charging an electric vehicle is nowhere near as quick as filling a tank with petrol.

However, other offerings are on the horizon. Shortly you may find armadillos, geckos, and limpets around the streets and car parks. Armadillos are kerbside charging units which are actually made from recycled tyres. Geckos can be attached to existing street furniture such as road signs and bollards. Limpets are wall mounted sockets that can be established in car parks and provide several outlets each. Companies such as Tesco are trialling these because, quite obviously, they can not only charge for the power they provide, but also it will keep customers in the store for the length of time that the charging takes place.

Virgin Media has also announced that it is to start using its’ network of underground cable ducts and street cabinets to install kerbside electric vehicle charging points. As the company pointed out, its’ cabinets are already powered, and they could produce thousands of charging points across the UK.