ALTHOUGH new sources of crude oil are being found all the time, the cost of extracting it is bound to go up and up and therefore the cost of our petrol and diesel is bound to continue rising.

So although electric cars don't seem a real alternative at the moment, they soon will be when running costs are a couple of pence per mile.

The latest electric vehicle (EV) that will hit the streets next year is the Chevrolet Spark. The Spark city car is better than average for space and great fun to drive in petrol form.

And the electric version has a high power 130bhp motor giving excellent acceleration and a new state of the art battery that enables fast charging to 80 per cent capacity, in just 20 minutes.

That's a big breakthrough and makes their electric vehicles a big step ahead of the rest.

And thanks to light weight and that technology, the Spark is also claimed to have a longer range than other EVs.

Fast charging must be done on a special high output charger and ordinary mains charging takes the usual six to eight hours.

A stylish interior includes a column-mounted instrument cluster with one large full-color LCD screen, and there's another in the centre console.

: 3yrs/ 60,000 miles

: Renault Zoe