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If you’re thinking of switching to an electric car and you’ve seen stories in the media suggesting EVs aren’t capable of doing what petrol cars can do, we’ve put this to the test in the real world. And while we’ve been at it, we’ve also updated our responses to some other common EV myths.
Our starting point was tackling some of the UK’s most challenging roads in an electric car. We’ve done this many times before in various electric cars, including all-wheel drive performance EVs. But this time we did it in one of the cheapest electric cars that you can buy, a Fiat Grande Panda, available from £20,995. Surely an EV such as this can’t cope with the Lake District’s steep ascents, mountain passes, scary descents, and more? Read on to find out the real-world answer to this question, and the real facts about other popular items of EV misinformation…
The Fiat Grande Panda is designed for use in the city. It only produces 113 hp of power and it’s front-wheel drive, so you might imagine that it’s not going to cope well with steep mountain passes. Wrong. Like all EVs, the Panda has 100% of torque available at all times, so you get instant responses, unlike similar cars featuring small petrol engines with huge turbo lag. The Panda has a single-speed transmission, like most EVs, so there’s no gear-changing required, and there’s no clutch to burn out. And electric cars are much more refined and quieter than petrol cars. We’ve lost count of the number of times that we’ve heard the engines of petrol cars screaming away while trying to drive up various Lake District passes, as well as seeing clutches being burnt out. The Panda is also compact, and it’s reasonably lightweight for an electric car, so it’s agile and fun to drive, and perfectly-sized for narrow Lake District roads.
Read the full Fiat Grande Panda review
The average driving range of new electric cars is currently over 300 miles, with increasing numbers of EVs having ranges of over 400 miles, and more than 500 miles in some cases (the new BMW i3 has an electric driving range of up to 567 miles), which is more than many petrol cars. The Fiat Grande Panda is a small car designed for the city so it’s only got a relatively small battery, with a range of 199 miles. However despite this, a motorway drive from Carlisle to South Manchester was completed on one charge, with 40 miles of range spare on arrival. And when driving around the Lake District, it’s a challenge to cover more than 50 miles in a day – which is just 25% of the Panda’s official range.
Most EV drivers charge their car at home, however if you do need to charge on the go, there are EV chargers all around the UK, including in the Lake District. At the end of May 2026, there were 121,262 EV chargers, which are on 94,217 devices across 46,664 charging locations around the UK. Out of this total, there were 28,374 Rapid or Ultra-Rapid EV chargers, across 6,953 charging locations. In comparison, there were approximately 8,300 petrol stations operating across the UK – that means there were 5.6 times more charging locations than petrol stations. And to address the issue of how long it takes to charge an electric car, most EVs can be charged from 10% to 80% in around 30 minutes at a DC rapid charger. However battery and charging technology is improving all the time – BYD’s FLASH Charging technology is now in the UK, enabling an electric car to be charged from 5% to 70% in just five minutes, and a 10% to 97% charge in nine minutes. This technology doesn’t require huge and expensive new electricity connections that can take years, because it utilises battery storage.
See more information about EV charging at Zapmap
Prices for the Fiat Grande Panda Electric start from £20,995. The Panda petrol hybrid costs from £18,995. However, this is not the full picture. Leasing costs are the same for both powertrains: in terms of PCP finance offers, the Grande Panda Pop is offered in either petrol hybrid or electric form at the same deposit and monthly payment – from £199 per month, with a £2,999 customer deposit. Some EVs are now the same price as petrol/petrol hybrid models. And running costs of electric cars are much, much lower in the vast majority of cases, which makes EVs much cheaper from a whole-life perspective. And you also need to take into account that EVs v petrol cars isn’t a like-for-like comparison: electric cars are better than petrol cars in a number of ways. Apart from EVs having no tailpipe emissions – a fairly major benefit – they have single-speed transmissions, ie. they’re basically automatic, which means that there’s no need for old-fashioned gear changing, and they’re massively more refined.
We recently tested a Tesla Model S that had covered over 260,000 miles and it was absolutely fine to drive. Some very early electric cars had some issues with battery degradation, but since then manufacturers have made huge progress with ‘thermal management’, ie. ensuring EV batteries are at the right temperature when charging, which has almost eliminated the degradation that was experienced with the early EV batteries.
An often-quoted statement is that electric cars aren’t as green as petrol cars from a whole-life perspective. The fact is that there have been numerous independent reports over many years proving that this isn’t correct. In the UK, the energy involved in the manufacture of an average EV is offset after just 1 to 2 years of driving (typically between 10,000 to 15,000 miles), after which an EV produces significantly fewer lifetime emissions. Research by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) shows that BEVs emit 73% fewer greenhouse gases over their lifetime compared to equivalent combustion-engine cars. Even when charged using an electricity grid with a high proportion of fossil fuels, EVs are cleaner than petrol cars over their full lifetime. As national electricity grids use more renewable energy, the emissions associated with charging EVs continue to reduce.
ICCT research: Why electric vehicles are already much greener than combustion engine vehicles
We’ve heard many people say that the latest petrol and diesel cars are almost as clean as EVs in terms of tailpipe emissions. This is another huge myth. EVs produce zero direct tailpipe emissions, compared to petrol and diesel cars which emit greenhouse gases – which impact on climate change, and harmful air pollutants – which impact on local air quality. Despite strict emissions standards such as Euro 6d in the UK and Europe, a traditional petrol car still emits around 120 to 165 grammes of CO2 per kilometre, while diesel cars produce around 110 to 170 grammes per kilometre. Even the cleanest new petrol and diesel cars emit unburned hydrocarbons and nitrogen dioxide from their exhausts. Diesel engines, in particular, remain significant producers of harmful particulate matter and toxic air pollutants such as NOx despite modern filters.
In June 2026 there are over 130 EV models available from nearly 40 different manufacturers in the UK, with body styles ranging from city cars to pick-up trucks.
Click here to read reviews of every electric car ever on sale in the UK
Click here to select electric car reviews by brand
There is now a huge selection of used electric cars. Electric cars are a sensible second-hand choice because they offer excellent value and there’s so little to go wrong with electric powertrains compared to cars with petrol or diesel engines.
Click here to read reviews of used electric cars
A number of surveys have shown that at least 90% of EV drivers – and a higher percentage in some cases – would never go back to a petrol or diesel car. This is in contrast to a small number of people who some media titles have found with a negative story about EVs.
There are lots of stories in the media about how electric cars aren’t as good as petrol cars. These stories are usually written by people who have never driven an electric car, or who have an anti-EV agenda. I’ve personally reviewed every electric car that’s ever been on sale in the UK, following years of driving most petrol and diesel cars. Based on this experience I can confirm that electric cars are better to drive for the vast majority of motorists, and that’s even before you take into account that they have zero tailpipe emissions. If a Fiat Grande Panda, available from £20,995, can cope with some of the UK’s most challenging roads, there really is no argument for saying electric cars aren’t as good as petrol cars.
Paul Clarke
Editor
Green Car Guide
