Motoring

ADAM TUDOR-LANE takes to the open road and open air in the Audi A5 Cabrio  Like many, the thought of trying to arrange foreign travel right now seems far more effort than it’s worth. Plus, there are so many incredible places in our own country to explore, to that extent, I always try and get away once in the UK every year. This time I was heading to York at the end of June via Lincolnshire, so what better way to travel than in a convertible. There are few drop-tops on the market right now, as with fast hatchbacks, that class of car seems to go through fits and starts. It needed to be something stylish, semi-sporty and a good long-distance cruiser. Audi’s A5 ticked all those boxes. Prices start at £43,000, but this model in range-topping ‘Vorsprung’ trim is a heady £56k; it does come with nearly every option..

ADAM TUDOR-LANE outlines the positives of owning the BMW i3 EV I’m now three months into owning an EV, and I can safely say that I don’t think I’d ever buy an internal combustion engine car ever again. After travelling 1,300 miles in the little BMW i3, it’s cost me £58 in electricity. Compare that to the car it replaced, at £60 per 300-mile tank, well, it’s pretty much four times cheaper to drive the equivalent distance. Now because this is my first EV, I didn’t quite bite the bullet fully. I occasionally need to drive 110 miles in one go to visit family, and while the i3 can do that (133 miles to a full charge), that does depend on the weather. If it was freezing cold in the depths of winter, you could shave 20, maybe 30 miles off that number, which would potentially leave me a little..

ADAM TUDOR-LANE answers how you can home-charge an electric vehicle  One of the biggest questions of EV ownership is ‘How do I charge it?’ Yes, there are thousands of chargers out in the wild, but day to day, you’ll want to plug in at home. This brings up the next question, ‘How do I get a charger installed?’. It’s far easier and less costly than you may expect.  Currently, home charging will only work if you have a driveway; you need your car close to your property. So terrace house dwellers are currently out of luck, lamp post chargers are available, but it’s something the council needs to address… which will likely take years. For those with off-street parking, there are a plethora of home chargers to choose from. If you buy a brand new EV, the manufacturer will likely provide their own charger and installation in with the cost..

At the end of 2020, there were roughly 150,000 pure electric vehicles on our roads; the total number of cars in the UK stands at 32 million. Granted, electric vehicles won’t be for everyone; in fact, they’d probably suit 90% of car owners. The National Travel Survey from 2019 shows the average trip length is 8.4 miles. Round that up to 10, and you have a 20-mile round trip. 42% of journeys were defined as ‘Medium Length Trips’ in another study, these varied from 5 – 25 miles. Take that upper figure and double it, 50 miles.  What about commuting? Well, the average commuter trip across England and Wales is roughly 10 miles. Put all those figures together, and the average motorist needs a vehicle that can take them between 20 and 50 miles. And this is where switching to an EV could save you a small fortune. Now before..

ADAM TUDOR-LANE test drives the Qooder Oxygen.  Did you know that EV sales jumped by a whopping 185.9% last year compared to 2019? While the world is thrown into turmoil, it seems people are thinking about the way they use their cars. Now it’s time for two wheels to make the battery only leap. Motorbikes and scooters produce very little in the way of emissions compared to their four-wheeled brethren, but with many cities across the globe looking to ban all combustion-engine vehicles at some point or another, it’s only a matter of time before the humble motorcycle becomes an electric-only machine. With that in mind, I braved the winter weather on a Qooder Oxygen to tell you all about it. The Oxygen is a zero-emission scooter designed explicitly for built-up urban environments where congestion makes driving a car painful. There’s a choice of a 2.65 or 3 KW version;..