Toyota demos FT electric city car

Range

"Toyota did say, however, that the car is aimed at users travelling up to 50 miles a day between home, work and public transport. So there's its range, then."

Not necessarilly it's full range. Unlike other EVs Toyota may be realists.

They may be sensible enough to accept that a theoretical maximun (like the Tesla's 227 miles) is not necessarilly something you should expect on every run. I know that my car's theoritcal maximum on a tank of juice is about 480 miles, but I seldom take the risk of exceeding 350.

They may also be sensible enough to realise that we all exceed our normal daily mileage occasionally. A detour via the supermarket or pub perhaps. Maybe you need to go to a meeting across town.

What good would a car be that would run out of juice on a good say just as you get home from work? So lets at 25% for occasional extras and 25% for safety. So lets call it 80 miles.

Of course it still raises the environmental issue of multiple cars. A car for work and a car for longer journeys seems to be the mantra of the EV crowd. But how many miles in your big car would you have to do before you did the same envuronmental damage as manufacturing your eco friendly city car? And if we believe the eco crowds insistence that traditionally generated electricity generates 0.86Kg per KWh what is real the difference in emissions between your family car and your work car?

Not that I'm down on EVs at all, I just think some questions need some good solid answers before we all rush headlong into the technology.