Peugeot signed a deal with Mitsubishi 2 years ago. That enables the French brand to sell a slightly modified Mitsubishi i-MiEV under its own brand name in Europe. Without any surprise, the Peugeot brand’s doing better than the Japanese brand (save in the UK), thanks to its much larger sales network and more popular name. It even managed to do something nobody had ever thought of (to my knowledge), sell EVs to a driving school. That’s in Germany. The car has been fitted with the twin pedal set-up that is mandatory for this use, and it may prove a good idea because it’s just so smooth to use. Perfect for learning.

Nothing’s smoother than an electric car, but in Europe, everybody learns to drive in a car fitted with a manual transmission. You have to know how to shift gears. Then some cars are brutal. Learning to drive in an EV might be good, because it will show the youngsters how good an EV is, which should make them willing to buy one when they can afford it. But it may make drivers ill-prepared to drive many cars that are on the road today. Another issue is that an EV is substantially more expensive.