EV or ICE? Alpine A290 GTS v Volkswagen Polo GTI

The text read, ‘I’m plugged in a few miles away, but this “up to 200kW charger” (the third I’ve tried) is chugging along at 23… With you asap.’

Dan is an heroically understated kind of cove, but I could still almost see the steam from his ears curling up the Welsh valley to where the VW Polo GTI and I were waiting. In the end he was only 40 minutes late, but he’d left what he had every reason to believe was more than enough time and had only come from Bristol. And when he arrived, the Alpine A290 GTS still only had 75 miles range in it, enough – just – for us to grab our photographs and get him back to the charger.

And we’d already compromised our shoot location because of the paucity of decent chargers anywhere near where we’d have rather gone instead. It didn’t make a whole heap of difference to us, but what if it had been a job interview, a plane that needed catching or any number of other scenarios where turning up late was not an option?