Together in electric dreams ... or nightmares

I had the chance to drive an all electric BMW i3 while my car was being serviced and it was an interesting experience. Push the pedal and it goes, take you're foot off and it stops. It takes a little getting used to, in fact the braking effect of the motor is so good that if you take your foot off like you would in a normal car it stops about 30 yards short of the lights.

Overall it's so nice, quiet and easy to drive by the end of the day I was reluctant to give it back and drive home in  my noisy and polluting diesel.

So why nightmares?

When I picked it up there was  only 28 miles of charge displayed on the star wars type instruments, as someone had forgotten to charge it the night before. But I made it home and back with some 6 miles to spare, lucky I didn't need to stop off at the local supermarket.

The range between charges is 125 miles and the batteries have a 5 year or 100,000 mile warranty. For a short range commuter car it would work if you're into leasing and replacing your car very three years or so, but doesn't sound like an attractive long term proposition.