It represents an image boost for electric vehicles, which often have more in common with milkfloats than Maseratis. Its inventor, Hiroshi Shimizu, claims the Eliica could reach 250mph. The only factor preventing its arrival on British roads could be price: a production version could cost £170,000. And then there’s the 10-hour recharge.
The highest speed achieved in an electric vehicle is 245.5mph by the White Lightning Electric Streamliner in 1999. The torpedo-shaped vehicle was never intended for production.
Married to a driving style
“For better, for worse” also seems to apply to the driving behaviour of married couples. Husbands and wives tend to mirror each other’s driving habits, whether they are good or bad, research shows. Women married to aggressive men become more belligerent behind the wheel, and men whose wives are timid drivers become more careful.
Researchers investigated the driving styles of more than 800 married couples whose ages ranged from 19 to 68 and considered a variety of factors including driving speed and levels of attentiveness and assertiveness.
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“The higher the level of recklessness and aggressiveness of men, the higher the level of such driving styles can be expected for their women partners,” said Orit Taubman, one of the team of researchers working at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University.
Driving styles also rub off on children. “Two risk-taking parents in the car is a very bad example for a child or a teenager,” said Taubman.
Jam vision
Motorists will now be able to watch real-time video footage of motorway jams on their mobile phones.
The Highways Agency has launched a service that will send images from its CCTV cameras so motorists can check traffic before setting out. A trial project has begun with 100 cameras on the M25, M1, M6, M4, M5, M40, M42, M54, M60, A1M and M61 and will extend to cover the agency’s full network of 300 sites by December. Users select the camera they want by scrolling across a map. The service is free by texting “traffic mxdata” to 60070.
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President Nigel
His name was once synonymous with high-speed thrills and spills, but now Nigel Mansell, below, plans to set a more worthy example as president of the Institute of Advanced Motorists.
The former Formula One world champion takes over from the Duke of Gloucester, who spent 32 years in the position. Mansell received a six-month ban for speeding in 1998, but says his reckless days are behind him. He and his two sons took their advanced driving tests last year.