Power to the people, free of charge

Free fuel on tap 24 hours a day is available in the hamlet of Inverliever, which lies far off the beaten track, 37 miles from Oban.

The catch is that the roadside station, which has been opened by brothers Nick and Adrian Loening, only caters for electric cars.

Nick Loening admitted yesterday that although the facility has been open for a few months, they are still waiting for their first customer. Mr Loening, 47, said: “We charge our cars up at the house, this is just for the public. It’s to encourage people to use electric cars.

“My brother and I have plugged our cars in there occasionally, but nobody else owns an electric car round here so no-one else has used it yet.”

Mr Loening, who runs a hydro power station at Inverliever with Adrian, said: “We have been using electric cars since they came out and we built a hydro station, so it made sense for us to put a charging point there.

“It doesn’t cost us much. There will just be a small amount lost, which otherwise we would have sold to the National Grid.

“We feel that if there are more places for people to charge electric cars, more people will have the courage to buy them. It’s like a chicken and egg situation.”

Older electric cars can travel about 45 miles before they need recharging, while the new Nissan Leaf model can travel 100 miles at one stint.

Mr Loening called for a network of charging points all around Britain to promote the use of electric cars.

He said: “People usually just plug into a normal plug in their house, but if you want to go anywhere far you have to think about where to recharge.”

The brothers built the recharging unit themselves and it cost about £500 for the parts.

Although there are some recharging points in existence they are scarce and are not usually open 24 hours a day.

Mr Loening, who also runs a yoga retreat, said: “The government should be putting charge points in all round the UK, they should make petrol stations have charge points.”

The father of two said electric cars are perfect family runarounds and are cheap to run.

A 40-45 mile car journey powered by commercial electricity costs about 80p, compared with an average of about £5 for the same journey using petrol, he said. “There is no road tax and the insurance is very low, there are fewer parts to break down, no need for servicing, no oil changes.

“For a family, where your average journey is just ten, 15, or 20 miles, they are good. I take the kids to school and back in the electric car.”

Argyll and Bute Liberal Democrat MP Alan Reid said: “Electric cars are the future, but there are still problems to be overcome before they are a practical proposition for ordinary motorists.

“The government should be making preparations now so that when electric cars do become a practical proposition, then there is a network of charging points throughout the whole country, so that rural areas are not left behind.”