To entice more people to go green, the UK government currently subsidizes electric cars in a bid to make them more viable over petrol and more accessible, but do they make a real difference?

On the surface, electric cars seem very attractive. They have no emissions, which straight away contributes to reducing the urban air pollution problem.

They are cost effective as with technological advancements both the cost and maintenance of electric cars has dropped in recent years. They tend to have lower maintenance than petrol cars as there is no engine to lubricate or service and they are very quiet which reduces noise pollution too.

These vehicles are limited by their range and speed. Most of these cars have a range of about 50-100 miles before they need to be recharged again and compared to petrol stations, electric charging points are still very much in the development stages. There are around 10,000 charging stations in the UK, most of which are privately owned by the vehicle owners themselves. The charging time itself is also far longer than it is to fill a car up with petrol.

Read the source article on electric cars by Charis Lestrange at The Naked Scientists