‘I drove at 100mph because my electric car was running out of charge’

A driver caught speeding at 101mph told police they were speeding because they were rushing home to charge their electric car.

The speeding motorist insisted that their EV was about to run out of battery.

The driver was pulled over by police in Wiltshire earlier this month.

But the excuse did not wash, with the driver now facing a court hearing and set to pay a hefty fine.

A Wiltshire Police Specialist Operations unit tweeted a picture of a device recording 101mph.

The unimpressed officers pointed out that the faster the vehicle travels, the more power it uses.

Social media users joked the driver wasn’t “the brightest spark”.

David Cameron-Young said: “Obviously, physics wasn’t their strongest point.”

Rossi Rides said: “I think the driving test should include an IQ test with a minimum pass score. #DarwinAward.”

It comes as Conservative MP Greg Smith, who serves on the transport committee, said electric car owners should pay for the risk of fires through their insurance, saying fire services were having to spend seven-figure sums on submersion tanks for the burning wreckage of the cars.

He said: “It doesn’t take a genius to work out that a seven-figure capital expenditure on one of these things, by the time every car on the road is battery-electric, even if you have 0.1 per cent setting themselves on fire you’re going to need more than one tank.”

Mr Smith said the taxpayer would end up footing the bill for the fire equipment but that it should be insurance companies paying out.

“Something we actually need to be looking at is cost recovery for the public sector, particularly the fire service.

“Just as there is precedent that insurance companies pay out on medical issues caused by road traffic accidents, for example, I think that is the way you would solve the problem of who pays for putting electric fires out.”