What are the advantages of an electric car?

Electric cars and hybrid cars: what are the differences?

First and foremost, let’s look back at these two types of green vehicles, each with its own characteristics.
Electric cars have one or more engines supplied by a powerful battery. It runs solely on electricity and must be recharged either at home or at a suitable charging station. One of the most emblematic models in this category is the renowned Renault ZOE.
The hybrid car, on the other hand, has a combustion engine and a lower-powered electric motor. Depending on driving and traffic conditions, the vehicle alternates between the two systems to offer the best fuel consumption/CO2 emission ratio. If the battery can be plugged-in to recharge, which is the case on several models, it is a rechargeable hybrid car.

The advantages of electric cars

The green benefits of all-electric vehicles offer significant advantages:

• they do not emit CO2 ;
• they make very little noise, which means less noise pollution;
• they do not consume while idling;
• they can be recharged when braking;
• they do not require the purchase of fuel;
• they benefit from attractive purchase incentives: conversion premium and ecological bonus, regional aid…, some low-emission vehicles are eligible for plug-in grants up to £3,000 in the UK. There are also some tax relief opportunities, and zero-emission vehicles benefit from a £0 vehicle tax rate;
• they are cheaper to use: a refill costs between 3 to 4 times less than a full tank of unleaded petrol;
• their maintenance is simplified: it is generally limited to the tyres and the braking system (no more oil changes, filter changes, etc.).

The advantages of hybrid cars

Their main advantage is that they combine a drastic reduction in greenhouse gases with a range greater than electric cars.
Plug-in hybrid cars also benefit from purchase incentives, which compensate for their higher price than conventional vehicles. Vehicle tax rates are based on vehicle CO2 emissions when first registered. The zero-rate incentive applies only to vehicles that produce less than 50 g/km of CO2 emission for the first year. Subsequently, hybrids receive reduced tax payments.
Finally, these green cars are cheaper to use than vehicles with internal combustion engines because recharging – even partial recharging – is still cheaper than filling up with fuel.

What is different about a green car?

Driving an electric or hybrid car has an unforeseen advantage: peace of mind at the wheel! In addition to near-perfect silence in the passenger compartment, these vehicles offer great flexibility and responsiveness, especially in the city. Some studies even prove that gree- car drivers are less inclined to drive aggressively than their fossil-fuel-powered counterparts.
Ecological, economical and fun to drive: the green car seems to score points on all fronts. With the development of recharging stations and the improvement in the range of autonomous electric vehicles, we can be sure that these vehicles have a bright future ahead of them.