Taking charge: building Britain's electric car infrastructure

You get in your car and turn the ignition. The fuel gauge creeps up; you check it, calculate in your head how far you’ve got to drive and think about whether you’ve got enough petrol. If not, you know roughly how far you’ll get and whether to fill up beforehand.

It’s easy enough; cars are ingrained into our culture and, more importantly, into our infrastructure. Petrol stations are plentiful and fuel consumption is easily understood. It’s actually pretty difficult to run out of petrol. But as more electric cars come onto our roads, the picture could change in many ways. Is a full charge equivalent to a full tank of petrol? Where and how will you charge your car? What kind of infrastructure will we need to make sure that people will be able to charge their cars when they need to? And how will you pay for the electricity?