It’s nearly a decade since the original Prius introduced hybrid petrol-electric cars to the UK in 2000. Produced in Japan, the Prius – like its main rival by Honda – used a battery and electric motor to recover energy wasted from braking and rolling down hills. The result: emissions around a third lower than a conventional petrol car. Although Toyota’s car was not an overnight hit with the British public, endorsements from Leonardo DiCaprio and other celebrities coupled with an increasingly enthusiastic motoring press helped the company to sell over a million worldwide. Following the Prius’ success, other car-makers jumped on the hybrid bandwagon, including Ford, GM and the Toyota-owned Lexus brand.
But hybrids are not the only route manufacturers have been pursuing on the road to a low-carbon future. British and American drivers have been able to buy 100% electric vehicles since the late nineties — most notably the Ford TH!NK City in the UK and GM’s EV1 in the US, which became the subject of the 2006 documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car?
In the UK, the electric trailblazer has been the G-Wiz, a tiny Indian-built car popularised by London-based distributor Goingreen. While Goingreen has only sold around 1,000 G-Wiz models, the car became an iconic vehicle that people loved to praise (Boris Johnson is a fan) and mock (BBC’s Top Gear has crashed and detonated several).
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