ULTIMATE GUIDE TO BUYING A NEW EV
FEATURING
• Britain’s best EVs rated
• Is an EV right for you?
• How to buy and run an EV
• Charging explained
ELECTRIC cars have been around for a while now and there’s an impressive range of models available, as you’ll see in our feature starting on page 38. As editor of Auto Express’s sister title DrivingElectric I’m asked a wide range of questions every day by motorists looking to make the switch to an EV. We’ve got all the answers on our website, drivingelectric.com, but we’ve summarised the most common over the following pages.
Q: What is an electric vehicle, and could it be an everyday car?
A: There are several classes of electric vehicle, but arguably the easiest one to remember is the battery-electric vehicle (BEV), commonly known as an electric car.
How does a batteryelectric vehicle work?
THE most obvious difference between an electrically driven vehicle and a more conventional one that is powered by diesel or petrol is that the latter machine’s internal-combustion engine has been replaced by at least one electric motor.
This motor uses electricity that has been obtained from the main grid and stored in an on-board battery. The power is then delivered to the electric motor through a special controller. This is connected to the car’s throttle, which dictates exactly
