We are expecting to have Electric Mercedes Vito sometime late 2011 to early 2012. Its already being trialed in Europe so we will have to wait and see.
Thing is they are talking £60/70/80K for these things in basic form so you will no longer be buying your vehicles in the traditional way. You will be leasing them. You sit there and work out you entire running costs including fuel and you get a figure over the next 4yrs. Add a bit of interest, a bit of profit, a bit of a resale value and divide by 48. There is your monthly cost. Thats the future of buying/running your car/van.
The batteries will be leased to. TBH i suspect the batteries will be worth more than the car so the idea of swapping batteries at the garage wont stack for a very long time yet. You will have a lease and included in the lease will be a guarentee/warranty for the batteries. Who would pay £80k for a vehicle that 70% of the residual value relied on electrical batteries?
Personally i thinks its all claptrap. This country relied on tax from fags. Its lost a lot of that. This country relys on tax on fuel. Are you seriously telling me that if electrical cars became a viable alternative to petrol/diesel the country could afford to write of that tax? No way, they will just tax electricity or the electricity outlets. I remember LPG being the big thing. Hell the govenment paid for the entire conversion for a while to encourage us. Then when it started to show slight signs of popularity they did away with the grants for conversion and started to raise the tax. Not to the point where it was more expensive, but to the borderline where it just wasnt worth the hastle of extra downtime (Who is gonna fix these alternative fuel vehicles? Your local BSG?) the lack of parts etc etc.
All nice ideas but i am yet to see a viable alternative fuel source and i dont think it will happen untill all governments agree, not just the UK