Greetings from London: I will be here for a few days. One of the things that has struck me is the increasing presence of diminutive electric cars. London Mayor "Red" Ken Livingstone has made a big thing out of congestion charging in the city to lessen traffic and pollution. However, there still is a lot of traffic, though it's perhaps less than it was before. Many are now resorting to the solution of tiny electric automobiles to get around
problems associated with all the traffic rules and regulations in London as well as the daily grind of battling traffic and paying high fuel costs. Two popular models are the G-Wiz pictured above right and the Mega City pictured left. The Economist points out that having more of these kinds of cars in London does not improve London's environment that much for exempting large lorries from charging has done little to improve the air Londoners breathe. We'll see whether the situation changes in the coming months:The Green Car Guide has the following to say on the G-Wiz and the Mega City:SANDWICHED between a large BMW and an even larger Mercedes in the heart of London's theatre district is a parking meter glowing with a surreal blue light. The yellow-painted bay next to it is one of the first in London for recharging electric cars. Its futuristic look is intentional.
Electric cars are the fastest-growing form of transport in Britain's crowded capital. In June 2003 just 49 electric cars slid silently around its streets. A survey in March 2005 found 1,278, and they may have doubled since then. Altogether, London has some 14,000 alternatively fuelled cars, up from 1,800 in 2003.
The most ubiquitous is the tiny plastic G-Wiz, designed in California and built in Bangalore. Economics accounts for most of its growing charm. With a starting price of about £7,000—the hybrid Toyota Prius costs nearly £18,000—it allows Britain's middle classes to make an affordable statement on climate change. Such cars are exempt from London's congestion charge as well as national road taxes. Westminster—Britain's sootiest borough—offers free parking and recharging too.
Whether electric cars help solve the problems of pollution or global warming is a moot point. London's dirtiest vehicles are diesel-powered lorries and buses; removing a few passenger cars will do little for air quality. Exempting them from the congestion charge seems odd: they still take up space on the roads, and Britain's eye-watering petrol taxes give a strong boost to greener cars already.
But they caught the green imagination, and now the G-Wiz, at any rate, may be in trouble. Electric cars have been humming around the roads lightly regulated as quadricycles. When the transport department put one of them through a crash test earlier this year, test dummies were severely injured at impact speeds as low as 35 miles an hour. Importers argue that the tests are absurd for small light cars designed to travel slowly in cities. Nevertheless Stephen Ladyman, the roads minister, wants more tests and tighter regulations.
The market may bring a speedier response. Makers of the rival French-made Mega City electric car point out that their cars are routinely and successfully crash-tested. That has not gone unnoticed by some of the mums on a G-Wiz owners' website. “I bought mine to do the school run,” writes one. “Should I be driving my children in it?”
Both the G-Wiz and the Mega City are small, basically two seater, electric cars aimed primarily at the London Congestion Charge market. They both offer cheap, environmentally-friendly motoring.
So at first sight it may appear that these are two very similar cars. However in reality nothing could be further from the truth.
Up until now, if you wanted an electric car, there’s not really been a choice. The G-Wiz was first to market and has been, and continues to be, very successful. It stands for ‘cheap and cheerful’. If that’s what you want, go for the G-Wiz.
However, now we have the Mega City. And yes, it may take sales away from the G-Wiz, but more importantly, it now gives people a choice. If you’re not sure about the styling of the G-Wiz, or the cramped interior, or the poor quality of the materials, you now have another option. It’s more expensive, but the Mega City starts to bridge the gap between an electric novelty that’s not generally accepted as a proper car, and a vehicle that feels much more like a mainstream offering from a mass manufacturer. Both cars are on the same side in the battle against climate change, and this test shows that competition is a good thing (as opposed to communism (a bad thing) resulting in everyone having to drive a Trabant) (very bad for climate change).
