Kitcatt Nohr Digitas

This cute phrase has been much bandied about lately when discussing the likely rate of adoption of electric cars.

It's actually a more complex issue than at first appears. Most people are not pragmatic in their choice of cars (just look at the metal on the streets) and different people have very different attitudes towards their transport.

I know some people who fret when their petrol tanks are only a quarter full - despite that fact that outside Scotland you are hard pushed to go fifty miles without finding a petrol station open 24/7 in this country. Others (like me) take pride in taking it to the wire, arguing we minimise boring stops to fuel up.

The issue also touches on freedom. The great power of the car lies in its promise of freedom. In a couple of weeks my wife and I will jump in our Eos, crack the roof open and in a couple of days - with luck - find ourselves in Morocco. It's going to take a lot to get me to give up that kind of opportunity. As car manufacturers move forward with electric technology the ones which succeed will be the ones that identify the psychographics of different customer groups, really get under the skin of their attitudes towards the car, and deliver the right technology faultlessly marketed.

In the last one hundred years motorists have had relatively easy choices when it comes to propulsion units: diesel or petrol, and how big would sir/madam like it? I predict that for the next 20 years or so we'll see not just the huge range of body cloaks that we can already choose from, but a much wider variety of propulsion options as the industry struggles to match evolving technology to drivers needs, wants and, indeed, anxieties.