Electric cars are the future, according to Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan. Tim O'Brientest-drives a petrol-free Mega City
I WAS A VISION driving in the orange-coloured electric car. In fact, the vision wasn't really mine, but that of Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan who announced this week he wants to see 250,000 car drivers switch to electric vehicles over the next 12 years.
My mission was to test drive one of these vehicles. I set out from South King Street onto St Stephen's Green, and we were off.
"The windows close themselves automatically. . . like a Porsche," my electric car guide, Robert Nolan, of Green Machines, says, admitting there probably isn't room in the small cockpit for a window-winder anyway.
This "city car" really is small. It is about the size of the new Fiat 500, or an original Mini, and not nearly as silent inside as it was from the kerb. In fact, it rattles quite a bit, is tight on space, and lane-hopping or sudden bursts of power are not an option. As we pull up at traffic lights, it is apparent that the car is now attracting much less attention, and, mixed in with other small cars, it does not look out of place at all.
As we drive along Nassau Street and Trinity College to Pearse Street, this city car has no problem keeping up. It has a simple gearstick - forward to go forward, backwards to reverse. But, like the old "variomatic" cars from Daf, if it stops on a hill it will roll backwards unless the accelerator is depressed slightly.
The brakes are also somewhat soft, I remark to Robert, who seems to be clutching the door and wondering about my driving technique.
Driving onto an almost empty Lower Mount Street, I put the foot to the floor. Very little happens. This is no sports car. "You can't compare it to other cars," says Robert. "It is not the same thing at all." He explains that comparisons based on power and performance ignore the central advantage of the electric car, which is that there are "practically zero emissions". "It is a quadricycle," he says. "Something they are big on on the Continent, and which they use for driving in the cities."
He says it is now "cool" to drive an electric car, but you have to know what it is, and what it is not. If you want to drive 200kms across the country you use a different vehicle. But in a city, particularly like Dublin, it offers you freedom from a dislocated public transport network.
Running costs are another plus. It is estimated that it costs less than €300 a year to run. Road tax is at the lowest band, costing just €100. This makes more sense than driving a sports utility vehicle into the centre of Dublin.
The car has features you would find inside any small car: a radio, electric heating, speedometer, cigarette lighter etc, but also a switch to opt for a high or lower power output.
The range of the car is given as 80kms and the battery takes about six hours to charge. Robert says tests at his base in Terenure have upheld the claims of French manufacturer Aixam in this regard. The car has no airbags and no European New Car Assessment Programme (EuroNCAP) safety statistics, this being the car industry standard but Aixam insists independent safety tests have been carried out, with favourable findings, and data is available on its website.
There are other, practical problems. The on-street recharging infrastructure is not yet in place, although it is beginning to roll out in other European cities. You plug the car in at home, but this is not yet practical if you live in an apartment and your car is parked in the basement.
These cars are unlikely to appeal to a Jeremy Clarkson-type, or to someone who regularly drives more than 80km a day. But to an environmentally-conscious city dweller - with somewhere to plug it in - the car could be something to consider.