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Electric vehicle sales continue to increase with a constant stream of new developments coming from manufacturers and providers of charging points and batteries. On the downside Electrocity, the providers of rapid charge points at motorway services, have announced a new charging scheme for those using their rapid chargers.

In future they will charge £6 per half hour to charge your car, currently provided for free. Whilst some believe this move to be premature others feel that it won’t affect electric vehicle sales as drivers only tend to use motorway fuel stations as a quick fix, waiting till they are off the motorway to fill up.

The same will apply to electric chargers. At the moment the charging points can be a little congested but by charging for charging (did I just say that) drivers will no doubt plan their journeys better. Another charge point provider, Chargemaster, is developing inductive charging, the same type of wireless connection that is used to boil our kettles. They claim that they can charge up to 10 plus cars at any one time at the workplace.

Mercedes are developing inductive charging for their cars and will be rolling out the first car to have it fitted, the S Class Hybrid, in 2018. The system will then filter down to the cheaper models. Technology giant Qualcomm, who licence the technology to Chargemaster, claim that the next generation of EV’s will have both methods available, inductive and the traditional plug in.

Formula E, the electric car racing series already use inductive charging for their medical and safety cars. So the system is already proven. For those worried about the safety of such devices when say a cat or dog walks onto the pad, that would be placed under the car at home, the unit stops charging and an alert is sent to your smart device.

I still can’t understand why the industry doesn’t standardise batteries with a quick swap facility at battery centres, you pull in, the old battery is slid out with the charge noted, a fully charged battery is slid in and the driver is charged for the difference in charge. Simples. Maybe I should patent this idea! By Graham Hill

How do you fancy driving an executive car that achieves 148 miles to the gallon? Well you can with the new BMW 330e M Sport which we just happen to have on offer at the moment. It is BMW’s entrée into the Plug in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV).

Whilst the new tiered Government Grant scheme has dropped the grant from £5,000 to £2,500 it is still good value for money on a lease. You will need a means to re-charge the car from an electric charge point that can be installed in your garage (grants available) or via charging points now available at services on motorways, some hotels and on certain streets.

The electric motor starts you up and moves you off whilst the 2.0 petrol engine takes over to boost power or take over when the 87bhp electric engine starts to flag. In EV mode the car has a top speed of 80 mph but switch across to petrol and you increase the top speed to 140 mph. The car has all the usual refinement of a 330i but with all the economy of a hybrid, the general consensus is that the car is a definite winner leading the way for other hybrid cars across the BMW range.

Oh and another piece of breaking news, Transport Secretary, Patrick McLoughlin has announced plans to allow PHEV vehicles to have access to bus lanes in the eight Go Ultra Low cities across the UK as part of a £40 million investment plan in readiness for electric and hybrid vehicles. Some of the investment will be used to provide rapid charging hubs and plug in points at street lights. Time to make the move? If not we are certainly getting close. By Graham Hill