This month our columnist Carlos Alba will make the final payment on an electric car, which he bought in an effort to help battle climate change. But he says the EV industry and government at every level appear to have done everything in their power to convince him he made the wrong choice

In eras of tumultuous change, history appears to get closer and closer, and for a number of reasons, 2021 now seems such a long time ago.

Boris Johnson was the Prime Minister of a shell-shocked UK still emerging from the Covid pandemic; Rangers were Scottish Premier League champions, if you can believe it; and we still had a thing called global warming.

The latter was the reason why, in the final month of that year, I traded my dirty old diesel automatic for a shiny new Mercedes 250 EQA – a top-of-the range example of the brave new generation of electric vehicles that was set to revolutionise the world of personal travel, and help save the planet from destruction.

As regular readers of these columns will know by now, my journey got off to a bad start and, not long thereafter, ground to a frustrating and inglorious halt.

You will be aware that my investment did not turn me overnight into a zealous, evangelising convert to the EV cause but rather, for the first time in my life, I became a grudging and frustrated Luddite.

Some of you will be delighted to know that this will be the last time you will hear from me on the subject because, at the end of this month, I will make the final payment on the........

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