Only one electric car can beat ‘range anxiety’ and make it to the North

While none of the most recent Tesla models – the 3, S, Y and X – was among the most sought after on the Auto Trader website, none of these vehicles could make the trip from London to Edinburgh on a single charge.

However, Rupert Pontin of Cazoo said while most electric cars struggled to make the journey from London to the North, the typical driver usually made much shorter journeys.

“While there are still a number of people with concerns over the distance an electric car can travel, the latest models coming to the market have a much better range – many cars are now capable of travelling more than 250 miles on one charge,” he said. “This may not take you to Edinburgh in one go, but it is worth remembering that the average journey in Britain is 8.4 miles.”

Auto Trader found that range anxiety remained a barrier to entry for most motorists: almost half of 2,000 car buyers surveyed indicated that the lack of charging infrastructure was their primary barrier to making the switch to an electric car.

There are around 28,000 chargers across the country, but estimates suggest that around 280,000 to 480,000 chargers will be needed to fulfil demand from drivers by next year.

Last month a report from the National Infrastructure Commission warned that there was a “real risk” to the plan to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 because of the slow progress of installing new electric chargers.

It said that Britain’s charging network was “significantly behind where it needs to be” and that without more chargers drivers “will not have the confidence to make the switch to electric vehicles”.