Electric dreams - the car convoy urging world leaders to speed up the switch to going green

  • Watch a report by ITV News Anglia's Charlie Frost

A convoy of electric cars has set off from Essex heading to Glasgow for the UN's COP-26 Climate Change Conference - to highlight the importance of green transport. 

Drivers from 28 European countries are calling on world leaders to speed up the switch to electric vehicles.

GEVA is calling for action to shift from vehicles burning fossil fuels to vehicles running on clean renewable electricity. Credit: ITV News Anglia

They left from the UK's first electric forecourt in Braintree- with drivers calling for faster transport global decarbonisation, fuelled by renewable energy. 

At COP26 they will be calling for all sales of new cars and light duty vans to have a plug by 2030 and to be 100% zero emission by 2035 at the latest in the 28 countries represented in the Global EV Drivers' Alliance (GEVA).

Credit: ITV News Anglia

'We believe it's an achievable goal and we believe we have to set the bar high. They're quiet, they're easy to maintain and if you live in a home for example, every morning you wake up and have a full charge.' 

Stanislav Rozman & Nejc Koncan, Slovenia 

'You know, all of the other drivers, or almost all of the other drivers are driving a Tesla and we wanted to show a German car can even compete with this rally to Glasgow. And yeah, we made it so far to the UK, it was no big deal at all and we're really proud of it. Electric  vehicles are in the public mind that they're charging slow and it is not possible to go a long route with it. And I think we are showing that this is not true anymore.'

Johannes Schleicher, Germany 

'For us personally, it is also that the youth should be informed and that for them it is normal to drive electric.' 

Danae Bodewes, Netherlands 

Drivers took time for a photo opportunity before the convoy left the electric forecourt in Essex Credit: ITV News Anglia

Sceptics though are critical of the time it takes to get a full charge and the price tag, with a mid range electric car starting at around £20,000.

But the motoring journalist and broadcaster Quentin Willson disagrees.

"To the people who listen to all this nonsense on the internet about the batteries degrade they don't last, you'll lose money, they depreciate. It is all nonsense I'm afraid. Look around you. Look at the people who have come from Lisbon today, 3,000 km. They work. they do not depreciate. if you bought a Tesla model X last year, you can sell it for £10,000 more. The batteries are lasting 300,000 miles."