Imagine a London where, instead of firing up your noisy diesel or petrol saloon and blasting a cloud of fumes into the air as you set off for work or the shops, your car glides silently, elegantly – fumelessly – along the road. Rather like rolling downhill, with the engine off. Pipe-dream? Not if Mayor Boris Johnson’s plans to make London the electric car capital of Europe come to fruition, and the good news is that our journey into this bright, clean future is already well under way. A decade ago just 9,000 pure electric and electric hybrid vehicles were registered in the UK, but today more than 72,000 are in use according to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. Now, experts are predicting, the number of “EVs” could rise to 85,000 by 2015, racing on to 600,000 by 2020.