The Scotsman Bulletin Friday August 23 2024 #NC500
Transport correspondent Alastair Dalton speaks to deputy editor Alan Young about his trip around the NC500 in an electric BMW i5
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Bulletin for Friday. I'm Alan Young, I'm deputy editor of the Scotsman and I'm joined today by our transport correspondent Alistair Dalton to talk about a story which is going to be hitting the site very soon. Hi Alistair.
00:14Hi there Alan.
00:16Let's have a quick look at the front page first. We splashed today a couple of other papers on the SNP accounts which were revealed yesterday and the headline really was the incredible drop in membership. It's halved since the high of 2019 and down 10,000 since the last time we had a membership figure.
00:42This obviously comes amid ongoing turmoil within the party and will not be the last we hear of that story. I'm sure we've got the festival covered as ever. We're into the final few days unfortunately but do not miss our pull-out supplements today which has all the best news, reviews and reviews that you need.
01:06Alistair, what I want to talk to you about is not a story that's in today's paper but it is a story that will be going up on our website very soon and it's a bit of an unusual assignment for you and I've seen you up in the Highlands.
01:20Indeed, I was lucky enough to be invited to join what's called the EV or Electric Vehicle Rally of Scotland. It's a two-day event aimed at showcasing the potential of electric vehicles for company vehicles and it involves the likes of Scottish Water, the AA, Mobility Operations, Transport Scotland, even ScotRail,
01:46joining about 20 vehicles which this year are going around the North Coast 500 from Inverness all the way up to Thurso and then back down and as far as Edinburgh so that's nearly 600 miles in two days. Quite a daunting prospect.
02:06I had the luck to be lent a lovely BMW electric vehicle and I joined with our audio visual specialist John Devlin setting off from Inverness first thing yesterday morning.
02:22Now, as you can imagine, I should still be driving. I should be driving down the A9 to Edinburgh but here am I stuck in Glasgow because things turned out rather unexpectedly and really a reflection of the perils of driving in remote Scotland.
02:40We started off very well, the weather warning had lifted and we had some amazing weather which absolutely brilliantly demonstrated the attributes, the views on the North Coast 500.
02:54As we travelled west from Inverness through Achnasheen and towards the Applecross Peninsula and the first part of the route is the amazing Biachnal Bar or Pass of the Cattle, reputedly the UK's steepest road which takes you over the mountain and to Applecross on the west coast.
03:16Unfortunately, having just scaled the pass on our way back down to the village of Applecross, we got a puncture and because of the remoteness of the location and the time it took for the vehicle to be recovered, we weren't able to then continue with the endurance event with the rally and had to come home by train.
03:42It's a very different view of the landscape.
03:46Unfortunately, you couldn't complete the whole route but it really gives you an idea of how electric vehicles have progressed to even contemplate taking on a remote route like that with how the batteries in electric vehicles, the technology has progressed.
04:09Also, as you mentioned, Britain's steepest road which would have been a daunting thing to take on an electric vehicle not so long ago.
04:21Yes, and perhaps now you have the advantage whether the simplicity, the smoothness, the ease of driving of an electric vehicle if you haven't tried one compared to a manual petrol diesel car really came into its own tackling that really quite challenging route where you've just got really the accelerator to think about.
04:43There's no gears and with not just an electric vehicle of the scale of the value of the BMW we were driving, even much more modest ones really have got an amazing amount of power from that electric motor to get you up to provide all the oomph you need to get up that hill.
05:09That was an advantage.
05:10Now, unfortunately, we didn't have the chance to test out the charging infrastructure on the route, the chargers.
05:17There has been a concern in the past but it appears from the other vehicles that they have found quite a mixed picture with some chargers out of action or busy but there hasn't been any major problems so far.
05:30The other thing is the range of electric vehicles has improved remarkably over the last few years.
05:35I remember test driving a Nissan LEAF, which was one of the most modest versions, only had a range of about 70 or so miles.
05:44This BMW on paper had a range of about 350 miles, although the ascent up the hill that reduced it significantly and even the latest Nissan LEAF has almost doubled its range to about 150 miles.
06:00So that range anxiety is less of a problem nowadays.
06:05Indeed, really looking forward to reading this piece.
06:09Alistair, I'll let you get away to file it and you'll be able to read all about it and watch the video at scotsman.com later today.
06:19Please do, though, keep an eye on the website throughout the day where we'll have all the very latest news and analysis.
06:25If you can, do subscribe and then you'll be able to read and watch everything we do.
06:29And if you're out and about today, as ever, please do pick up a copy of the paper from me and from Alistair.
06:33Bye for now.