Autocar recently gathered four key electric vehicles at the Longcross test track to assess where we are and where we are going with zero-emissions vehicles, and here is the hi-res gallery.
World-class engineer Richard Parry-Jones, who was until recently Ford’s global product development boss, was on hand to provide some intellectual rigour.
Read our electric car group test here
See the hi-res electric car comparison picture gallery
The Reva G-Wiz was the smallest vehicle, with a quoted range of 48 miles and a top speed of just over 50mph. The Smart ForTwo ED has a 41bhp motor and lithium-ion battery give it a top speed of 62mph and a range of 70 miles.
The Citroen C1 Ev’ie was launched a couple of months ago. It has a 40bhp motor, a 60mph top speed and a range of 60 miles. The biggest car in the pack is the Mitsubishi iMiEV, with a 63bhp motor that will take to a top speed of 80mph.
The test found that all cars were very different, with vastly contrasting approaches to electric vehicles.
Parry-Jones explained what the future holds for electric cars: “Some manufacturers will have an electric option on each model in their range by 2015 and all of them will do by 2020. But it won’t be until 2025 that electric cars will be mainstream.”
However the biggest obstacle will be price. “Unless there’s a huge technical breakthrough - and many bright people are working on it - even in 2020 the battery packs will be £5000 each.”
