Are you sure that every one of those electric vehicles was purchased by a separate individual?
How many internal combustion vehicles sold in the same period?

Just like I wrote on Xmax Paul's thread. The trouble is with fancy electronics when it goes wrong it's seem very problematic to find out the exact problem is and the fix is usually stupidly expensive to repair.

And the Twizy can do drifting according to AutoCar.

gn2 wrote:Are you sure that every one of those electric vehicles was purchased by a separate individual?
How many internal combustion vehicles sold in the same period?

That isn't vehicles, that is just the scooters

From single figures to 17 million units per year and accelerating

wozza wrote:Just like I wrote on Xmax Paul's thread. The trouble is with fancy electronics when it goes wrong it's seem very problematic to find out the exact problem is and the fix is usually stupidly expensive to repair.

You are absolutely right.
Best thing is to get rid of the fancy electronics and troublesome sensors, reduce the motor to just one moving part, add a throttle and torque control box much simpler and more reliable

And no need for a gearbox - whether manual or cvt - either.

Auto Express are running a Leaf at the monent and the first service was amusing - the washer fluid was topped up, with the rest of the work being done on a laptop. And since the battery and the motor were fine and the software up to date, nothing actually needed rectifying.

Hope you're right that its simple as that......

I think the real proof will be time ( 6-8 years of ownership) and mileage.... Until then, I for one will wait and see.

Servicing really is as simple as that.

My Burgman has far more wires than my electric. We forget that it is actually quite hard to get a petrol engine to run because we see it happen every day.

There is a Vectrix owners forum so if you want to see what problems they are finding and having with the only proper electric maxi scooter on sale (since 2007), dive right in:

http://www.vectrixowner.com/members/vec ... 0Questions

Yep just did that and the very first post I see is - Another dead VX1, and running down the list there seem to be quite a few problems with them.

As for the Nissan Leaf- yes I'm afraid there has been reported problems with them. In the USA and Japan there have been problems with some cars just not starting. Also in the USA there's been reported a number of cars which have been left stranded on the side off the road after the batteries have run out of power. This was inspite of the respective cars were still giving several miles of range left. Nissan blame the owners by saying the car read out is only an estimate of range left. If you break down in a conventional vehicle there's a reasonable chance of the AA/RAC getting it going, but an electric car you've got no chance....and as for running out of power you've definitely got no chance.

Electric vehicles are cheap to run at the moment,but Government will have to make up the shortfall in revenue somewhere. If loads of people started switching to electric vehicles there will have to be a pay off elsewhere down the line, possibly with the introduction of mileage charging.

As for the reliablity in the long term of electric vehicles, I remain unconvinced though I'm sure technology and range will increase with development.