Electric vehicles get something of a bad rap. Even the mighty Tesla Roadster, designed and built in collaboration with Lotus and notching up 0-60mph in 3.9 seconds, got a hard time from truculent motorista Jeremy Clarkson.

But electric vehicles really are the way forward and the reason is simple: there are a million different ways to make electricity, but making oil is a little more difficult.

However, the switchover isn’t quite a simple as, say, changing from leaded to unleaded. Electric vehicles come with limitations – the distance they can cover for one – and perhaps most importantly, charging takes time and space.

About 18 months ago when I tested an electric scooter, the problems of charging it while living in a first floor flat outweighed its usefulness quite considerably.

But things are moving forward. Brighton and Hove City Council has been awarded £30,000 to spend on ten vehicle power points for charging around the city, and Mark Stevenson, a Sussex resident, has just opened the Eco Garage in Worthing, specialising in electric cars, vans and bikes.

He says: “No one is too sure how it’s going to work yet but I’m hoping we will get dedicated electric vehicle bays, like the car club bays.”

The Eco Garage vehicles are all designed for inner city use and the van, one of the most popular products, comes with a range of 40-60 miles on one charge, a charge time of about eight hours and a speed of 30mph. Mark explains that in an ideal future public transport links between built-up areas will be good enough to dispense with the need for personal transport entirely.

The van is designed to minimise the energy needed to power it. It weighs in at just 785kg, has no power steering, and brakes I’m sure I had on my old push bike. Similarly, there are few bells and whistles – not even electric windows or central locking.

The brakes do take some getting used to but the motor carries very little momentum, unlike a petrol engine, and if you take your foot off the accelerator, you roll to a halt within seconds.

With no more than four moving parts in the engine, maintenance costs are teeny tiny and fuel works out at about 1p per mile, compared with an average 14p per mile in a petrol car. Performance is OK too.

Even though it never gets above 30mph, it manages the hills of Brighton and Hove with aplomb and, unlike my ancient VW Polo, makes it to the top without the power bottoming out.

It really is good fun to drive, and Mark agrees – they all have a great time playing with them up at the garage. It is also practical, maybe not for inter-city trips just yet, but it is a realistic solution to inner-city gridlock and pollution, and many of the initial problems with the technology are beginning to be ironed out.

“It’s only a new technology in the UK,” says Mark. “In France they are used in place of the old 2CV vans. People have to invest in them to get the throughput to warrant further investment. Those using them now are like pioneers of the electric vehicle industry.”

  • Vans start from £12,000. Sarah tested the 12-battery Mega multi truck from The Eco Garage in Worthing. Call 01903 536092 or visit www.theecogarage.co.uk.