Ten practical tips to fix the modern electric vehicle

3. Put recharging sockets in the right place

This is on the back of your cars, on the nearside. On the Nissan Leaf and Renault Zoe, they’re on the front. That means you have to drive into recharging bays forwards.

I distrust anyone who drives forwards into a parking bay, but in this case in particular it makes you more likely to inadvertently run-over a pedestrian who doesn’t know you’re about to move as you reverse out.

On the Mitsubishi Outlander, the charger’s on the offside – making life harder for charging when parallel parked. These cars should be properly converted for left- and right-hand drive.

4. Fit a good nav system as standard

I’ve always struggled to understand the need to set a waypoint in a modern car, but when you’re driving any distance in an electric car, waypoints suddenly make sense.

That’s because you’re generally hopping between chargers. You need to know how far you’ve got to ‘hop’ on each leg, whether there’s a compatible fast-charger at your next stop – and ideally, whether it’s available and working. There’s no guarantee of either, by the way. You also need a realistic ETA that takes account of the applicable charging times - and most of them don’t.

5. Fit better fuel gauges

In EVs, they’re remaining range indicators – and too often, they’ll tell you one thing when you set off, and another when you’re settled on the motorway at a frugal but realistic cruise. Ultimately, you rely on the range gauge for your security of onward travel.

If your car grinds to a halt five miles short of the charger you were aiming for, you can’t put a gallon of 100v DC in a carry can and walk back to it. It can’t be hard to make them commune with the sat nav for a more dependable estimate.

6. Adaptive cruise control should be standard, too

When you’re cruising, adaptive cruise control effectively manages your energy-regeneration for you – and it’s tricky to do it perfectly on your own. Sometimes, coasting is the most efficient thing to do; sometimes it isn’t.

7. Work together on behalf of the customer

This is the really infuriating one. With such an immature technology, we should have one standard for fast-charging – and only one. Europe’s developing charging infrastructure doesn’t need three different systems to accommodate. And yet it’s got them.

Nissan and Mitsubishi came along first, with one called ‘Chademo’. But instead of following its long-time strategic partner, Renault decided to fit AC fast-charging to the Zoe and Fluence.

And now BMW, Audi and Volkswagen are adopting a third format called ‘CCS’, which isn’t as available in the UK at the moment, but which – we’re told – will win the war with the other two in the end. In the meantime, the bloke spending the money’s got no idea which horse to back. Madness.

8. Be flexible with your cables and sockets

Don’t offer one charging cable as standard that won’t fit into a three-pin, 13amp socket, for example. Equally, don’t only offer a three-pin cable when most public chargers won’t now accept them. Recognise that, for a while, EV drivers will have to charge wherever, and however, they can.

9. Make the cars desirable

Some have done this well, others not-so-well. Besides all else, a BMW i3 is just a great-looking supermini. You could say the same about a Renault Zoe. A Mitsubishi i-MiEV isn’t a great-looking anything – and a VW e-Golf isn’t going to excite too many of us, either.

I’d argue that, for now, electric cars have to be distinctive, stand-alone models. But not too quirky or strange-looking. A Nissan Leaf is the limit of acceptability when it comes to ‘quirky’. A Vauxhall Ampera’s the wrong side of the line.