Sales of new electric cars in the UK plummeted by nearly 90 percent in 2009 compared with their peak in 2007, according to motoring trade association figures released this week. These tidings are brought to us by The Guardian, which tells us that just 55 of the "green" cars – whose fans include Boris Johnson, Jonathan Ross and Jade Jagger – were registered in 2009. That compares with 397 in 2007.

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I gather that most any "celeb" type in a fancy car, is lent them free.....so I doubt Boris, Ross or Jagger have parted with a penny.....

Who would want to be like prats such as Bozza and Wossy? I always thought the Nissan Note was going to be a bake, I fear that Sunderland has drawn the short straw on this one.

China scaling back exports of rare earth elements won't help matters...

Or tried to travel more than 50 miles!

That's certainly highly plausible in this case, however, none of these people are exactly in the position of praying their car passes the MOT or it's money they'd find hard to spare, and while posing with a Green motor might be a bit of a lark, it's hard to believe they don't have several other cars at their disposal - for serious use. They definitely won't be depending on a Green car for transport.

The reason electric cars don't sell is because buying one doesn't make any sense. Like most Green measures such as windmills and CFLs, it's questionable whether they even make any sense in terms of cutting CO2 emissions.

The Norwegian Th!nk car has some interest from Google.
This makes sense - dotcom bubble, green bubble, next big fad bubble...

If electric cars were the future they have been promising us for decades we would be all driving milk floats by now.

Not even milkmen seem to be driving milk floats these days.

How about these ...

Asd an electrical engineer, I would love to be able to advocate en electric vehicle. Unfortunately I can't because they make no economic sense whatsoever.

There won't be many people queuing up to buy a G-Wiz electric car after seeing this horror story:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... smash.html

The picture of the smashed G-Whizz is particularly unsettling. There is no need for modern light, small vehicles to be so flimsy as the Aerial Atom and Smart show. Both are very strong little cars especially the Smart though I do wonder about how narrow it is while still seating two side by side. Occupants sat in tandem would allow more side impact protection but that seating arrangement has never been popular. Modern normal road cars are built to be fantastically strong with air bags doing the work of cushioning the occupants as this Fifth Gear crash test demonstrates.(The impact is at 1:50)

There are sound reasons why electric cars are struggling to take off. The short range makes them potentially useful for city dwellers who already have access to public transport. Commuters could make use of them but again they are in competition with public transport and with normal vehicles too which are much more flexible because of the ease of refuelling. That is aside from the issue of cost. They would only stand a chance of being popular once they are cheap enough to be had as a second vehicle and I cannot see that ever being the case.

We're still waiting for hydrogen powered cars as well, both combustion and fuel cell machines. One of the stumbling blocks is access to hydrogen but I don't see that really being an issue. Just produce electrolysis machines in massive numbers to make them cheap enough that they come with the car and then you fill up at home just as you would with an electric vehicle.

Top Gear got earache from the UK factory that finishes them off so that they get UK car quota rather than import quota. This stinks of official corner cutting to save jobs in Lab. constituencies.

Electric vehicles have been around as long as the horseless carriage and the problems have always been the same:

There is no rechargeable battery with close to the energy density of hydrocarbon fuel. Hence limited range and capability. There have been improvements in battery technology, but nowhere near enough to close the gap.

Batteries take time to charge and are nowhere near as convenient as putting liquid fuel in a tank.

Batteries have a limited life anyway - a definite number of useful charging cycles.

Over the years there have been all sorts of developments announced with much excitement, in the 60s there was talk of sodium-sulphur cells and a prototype tractor was produced using fuel cells. Nothing ever seems to have come of them. Then of course, there was Sinclair's C5; any sane person would have bought a bicycle instead.

There are a few examples of successful battery powered electric vehicles such as fork lift trucks and milk floats.

I saw a C5 the other week! Nearly crashed, I was so surprised. It was being driven by a young girl on the pavement with her dad walking right behind her.

In retrospect it does look rather like a kiddy toy...