Not many of us have £50,000 to spend on an electric car, and a second hand one for now at least won’t be anywhere near affordable for the majority of people if the battery is knackered (£15,000 to replace anyone?).

I don’t think they are that green anyway, costing more carbon to produce in the first place and doing the equivalent of around 70-100mpg – if you take into account the carbon produced to generate the electricity (more information here Electric Cars are not emission free: How much CO2 do they actually produce? – Food for Thinking (foodforthinkingblog.com)). Don’t get me started on the government supporting the cutting down of trees and shipping half way across the world to burn at Drax power station while giving them half a billion of our (tax payers) money to do it!

So assuming you don’t have £50,000 to throw away (after finance costs and depreciation its quite a throw – £400 per month or more down the drain at least), what can you do to be green, greener than an electric car? Here are a few ideas:-

• If you are in a car with good MPG (50mpg+) and you take a passenger, the carbon per passenger mile is better an electric car with one person in it.

• A motorcycle, modern non sports models do 50mpg plus, many 70mpg plus. So a motorcycle with a passenger is greener too.

• Shop online, one delivery van delivering 80 packages per day is greener than 80 families going shopping.
• Remember force = mass x acceleration, so heavier cars and faster acceleration uses more fuel. You can help by not speeding in town in particular, which is also anti social. Don’t drive like you stole it! Relax and enjoy the ride!
• Try not to use your brakes unless you need to. Change down and use engine braking where possible. All modern cars have fuel injection, which turns off the fuel if you are above 1500 rpm and not on the accelerator. So this is the most economic way to drive.

Other things you can do:-

1. Choose a lighter smaller car with good fuel consumption figures. Even cars from 2012 such as the Mercedes E220 although diesel do over 50mpg. Manufacturers need to make more rather than sell on performance. With modern tech and not too much weight and power surely 100mpg + is possible?
2. Do not drive unless you have to.
3. Do not leave the engine running when you are stopped.
4. Work at home if possible, even working from home one day a week makes a difference in the long run.
5. Travel at a time of day where you aren’t stuck in jams. Engines idling are inefficient and not very green.
6. Choose a route with less traffic if possible.
7. Consider an electric bicycle. If you don’t fancy this, but could use on the cheap e-scooters consider lobbying your MP to legalise these like other countries in Europe have so you can travel on the road or cycle lanes. This is a lot greener than other forms of transport mainly due to the very light weight – they go a long way on a small amount of electricity.
8. If possible consider public transport such as buses or trains (not everybody can I appreciate that).
9. Use your gears correctly. Every day a range rover comes past my house at 30mph in 1st gear (very high revs). What is it doing there 10mpg??? That is the sound of the planet dying.
10. Government could help too by encouraging higher mpg and cracking down on loud exhausts. What do a lot of car and bike enthusiasts do? Remove the catalytic converters, and or get a sports exhaust. So not only is it now too loud and can be heard for miles, the emissions are back to the 90’s. Not good. Do not do this. Nobody is impressed apart from your ego maybe.
11. Consider supporting a charity which plants trees 11 Of The Best Tree Planting Charities In The UK | pebble magazine. If every EV driver paying £700 per month just to buy the car, instead bought one for half the price and put £25 or £50 per month towards planting trees, I bet that would have a bigger effect than buying an EV.