On the BBC this morning they were talking about electric cars and their costs and…

On the BBC this morning they were talking about electric cars and their costs and practicality. The electric version of the Nissan Leaf is about £12,000 more than its traditional engined version and has a range of about 100 miles between re-charges.

For £12,000 (ignoring interest etc.) we could buy enough diesel to do over 110,000 miles in our current car and it's range between "recharges" is about 750 miles ( and a recharge takes less than 3 minutes and can be done in a lot of places). Our current car cost under £1000 second hand.

A car with a 100 mile range would mean we couldn't get to our boat moorings without a recharge (and another one on the way back) and we'd need two  (four for the round trip) to get home to visit my parents.  
Of course people will say " Well you use the Leaf for commuting and you have a second car to do long trips" . Financially an electric car will never make sense for a lot of people and that includes us.