EV Rally Scotland North Coast 500 with Alastair Dalton

I test drove an electric car on the North Coast 500 and it was brilliant - until I hit trouble

The drive along the North Coast 500 in an electric car featured views even more spectacular than hoped, writes Transport Correspondent Alastair Dalton
It was a daunting challenge - to drive an electric car nearly 600 miles in two days between Inverness and Edinburgh via the North Coast 500 (NC500), and hope the chargers worked along the way.

But the route was also an exhilarating prospect, made more so by being behind the wheel of a BMW i5 “executive saloon”, lent to me so I could take part in the EV [electric vehicle] Rally of Scotland.

The rally is not a race but an annual endurance event to showcase EVs’ potential for company fleets, even in remote areas.

It was to become an odyssey that featured views even more spectacular than I’d hoped, together with the thrill of of one of Scotland’s most dramatic mountain roads - and then a sudden, unexpected twist that set me off on an entirely different journey home.

With The Scotsman audio visual specialist John Devlin accompanying me, our car was among some 20 vehicles starting the rally from Inverness on Thursday morning.

We were due to follow much of the NC500 clockwise as far as Thurso, then continue round and on to the capital on Friday.

A rain warning that had threatened to wipe out all views had been lifted early, with the blustery winds and sunshine treating us instead to Highland scenery at its most breathtaking, the light constantly changing as it vividly illuminated one side of a hill as cloud enveloped another.

That striking panorama unfolded as we headed south west along the A832 from Achnasheen, enhanced by the smoothness of some newly-resurfaced sections of the single carriageway before it narrowed to more and more single-track stretches.

The experience was further improved by driving an electric car - its quietness, smoothness and being so easy to drive reducing the stress of motoring.

Some models, like the BMW i5, take that one step further with “regenerative” braking, which means only having to use one pedal for much of the time.

Lift your foot off the accelerator and the car automatically slows, the energy used in braking returned to the battery instead.

The responsiveness of an electric car also gave me all the power I needed when tackling the epic mountain pass on the Applecross peninsula, reputedly the UK’s steepest as it rises from sea level to 2,054ft in fewer than four miles.

Known as the Bealach-Na-Bà, or Pass of the Cattle, with its Alpine-like hairpins, it’s thrilling rather than scary, especially as you don’t have to worry about constantly having to change gear in an EV.

But while the road is fine if you take care, it’s other drivers you need to watch out for - and I was alarmed to encounter on the pass not just a lack of single track road etiquette, but some downright dangerous manoeuvres.