There isn’t a shiny suit in sight and the salesmen are eager to tell customers not to trust the car manufacturers’ official figures.
Welcome to Britain’s first multi-brand electric car showroom, where the hard sell is strictly forbidden.
The sales staff, who are called gurus, do not receive commission and are told to give people the unvarnished truth about electric cars, even if that means they decide to stick with petrol or diesel.
The Electric Vehicle Experience Centre, which opens on Saturday in the main shopping centre at Milton Keynes, is part of the town’s bid to become the electric car capital of Britain.
The number of plug-in cars in Milton Keynes has doubled to 2,500 in the past year, with sales helped by the widespread availability of charging points. The town, which was designed to suit car drivers, has 9.2 electric cars per 1,000 people compared with a national average of 1.5 per 1,000.
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The showroom is being funded by BMW, Kia, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Renault and Volkswagen as well as the government’s Go Ultra Low Cities scheme, which seeks to encourage uptake of plug-in cars. It offers test drives in electric models from the six makers, and people wanting to try one for a week can do so for £75, refundable if they buy it.
One deterrent to switching to electric motoring is “range anxiety” — fear of the battery running flat. Owners often complain that they get far fewer miles per charge than the range quoted by the manufacturer.
Ted Foster, the showroom manager, said that his staff were trained to give a realistic range. “For the Renault Zoe, the rated [official] range is 255 miles but in the real world you are going to get 180,” he said. “The Nissan Leaf is 124 miles [official] but in the real world 90.”
He said that staff would offer advice on the most appropriate electric car for the customer’s budget, driving patterns and family size.
“We are educators first and foremost, not salespeople. We are not going to recommend an electric car to people if it is not suitable for them.”
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Staff are neutral on electric car brands and would recommend one from a company not involved in funding the showroom if it was the most appropriate for the customer. “If someone has a large budget and wants a 300-mile range, we will point them in the direction of Tesla.”
The showroom will not actually sell any cars but will pass on the details of interested customers to dealers.
David Martell, chief executive of Chargemaster, which operates the showroom for the council and the car companies, said that the best way of overcoming scepticism about electric cars was to get people to try one.
Milton Keynes council wants electric vehicles to make up 23 per cent of new car sales in the area within five years, up from 2 per cent at present.
Which model is for you?
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Family with children and a dog doing regular long journeys
The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV (£32,000) and Volkswagen Passat GTE Estate (£35,000) are large plug-in hybrids. They have an electric range of about 30 miles and a petrol engine, so it is not necessary to stop to charge up the battery.
Couple in the city doing short journeys
With a realistic electric range of 180 miles in the latest Renault Zoe (£20,000), many owners will be able to drive for a week before needing to recharge.
Business driver with a daily commute
The BMW i3 with Range Extender (£32,000) or Kia Optima PHEV (£32,000) both benefit from being in a low company car benefit-in-kind tax bracket of 9 per cent.