[Arragonis]

BBC News - Mini adventure: how far can an electric car go?

EDIT - Some text

Charging network

It would be easy to charge the car by asking successive pub landlords between Westminster and the Royal Mile if they wouldn't mind you plugging into their electricity supply while you had a drink.

That is until you mentioned that it might need a 10-hour charge and would need to leave a cable dangling out of the window overnight.

No, the only practical way for drivers to charge their cars is by using public charge points, of which there are thought to be as many as 500 in the UK.

No-one has actually added them up.

Even OLEV, the government office for low emission vehicles, doesn't know exactly how many there are.

So are there enough? And are they spaced correctly for me to get to Edinburgh within a working week?
Range anxiety

To try and get a better idea of feasibility we went to visit Calvey Taylor-Haw, who runs a business called Elektromotive.

At a factory in Lancing, West Sussex, he manufactures many of the electric charging posts that make up the network.

After looking at the map, he pronounces that the journey as far as Tyneside is perfectly achievable.

But between Northumberland and Edinburgh it will be a significant challenge.

"The gap is 87 miles," he says, "which is more than the range of your car.

"Ideally you need another charging post halfway between the two. Otherwise you are going to suffer range anxiety."

From where I'm about to sit, that's a serious understatement.

I think this is going to be crucial for uptake of these leccy cars. I have done this journey from Edinburgh to London and back in a day before, obviously with ICE.