IN answer to Andy Brown and his letter regarding the huge savings he is making driving his electric vehicle (Electric cars are great value and joy to drive, Craven Herald letters, November 7).

He fails to mention the main costs of owning an electric vehicle and that is depreciation and replacement battery cost, after three years an electric vehicle will have lost 50 per cent of its value which averages £20,000.

Batteries are guaranteed for on average for seven years and a replacement can cost £10,000. The cost of charging a battery ranges from 3p per mile up to 26p per mile if you are on a motorway and require a rapid charge so his claims of saving £5,000 are somewhat optimistic.

I should also like to challenge his remarks about the tragic flooding in Valencia, having owned a house in the Alicante/Murcia region flooding at this time of year is an annual event. The Spanish name for this event is ‘Gota Fria’ and is caused by the warmth of the Mediterranean Sea at this time of year, I once witnessed a downfall of 350mm one day, to link this to global climate variation is somewhat spurious.

I also wonder where he believes the electricity has come from in recent weeks when we have experienced zero wind and sun. In the past two years we have exported the majority of green power we have generated mainly because we can’t store it, the technology doesn’t presently exist and we would need a battery the size of Wales to store it.

John Driver Cowling