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The final episode of series 17 of Top Gear aired on BBC2 and BBC HD on Sunday, July 31, and featured a segment in which two of the shows presenters road tested electric cars in Lincoln.

Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson and James May weren’t very keen on the electric cars they tested for the show, but they did enjoy their time in Lincoln.

Clarkson and May, driving a Nissan Leaf and a Peugeot iOn, broke down in Lincoln on May 12, when their electric cars ran out of battery in the city centre.

After they were told at Lincolnshire County Council’s offices that the closest charging point is too far from the city, the Top Gear duo finally found a spot to recharge.

The electric cars recharged for several hours at the University of Lincoln, while Clarkson and May visited the city, including the cathedral, castle and Steep Hill.

The two also dined and went fishing in Lincoln, where they said they had a very good time. Once recharged, they left Lincoln to Cleethorpes, the final road test destination.
At the end of the segment, Jeremy Clarkson and James May concluded that while Lincoln is a nice place to break down in, the electric cars they tested were not replacements for petrol cars, saying hybrid vehicles are a more versatile solution.

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See also: Jeremy Clarkson criticised for parking in disability bay - The Telegraph

Top Gear has been criticised by disability campaigners after presenters Jeremy Clarkson and James May parked in disabled parking bays during a feature on electric cars on Sunday night's show.

See also: Electric car owners may face £19,000 battery charge - The Telegraph

Electric car owners face a bill of up to £19,000 to replace the battery, a report has found.

Figures obtained by The Times discovered that a new battery for the Nissan Leaf, the world’s top-selling electric car, costs more than double past estimates.

The disclosure could mean that the switch from fossil fuels to electric motoring will be much slower than the Government has predicted, the paper said. However, the figures did show that owners of an electric car would save money as the cost of petrol rises.

Only 680 electric cars have been bought so far this year despite 2011 being declared Britain's “year of the electric car”.

The Government has provided £43 million to give 8,600 buyers of electric cars a grant of £5,000 towards the purchase price.

Nissan has admitted that owners of a Leaf, which costs £26,000 after the government grant, may need to replace the battery after a few years, depending on how it has been treated, The Times reported.

The battery’s capacity can decrease significantly if the owner repeatedly uses a fast-charge point.

In the latest episode of Top Gear Jeremy Clarkson was shown running out of power and having to be pushed into the centre of Lincoln, which has no public charging points.

Andy Palmer, Nissan GB’s senior vice-president, told the paper that the lithium ion battery is made up of 48 modules. He said that each would cost £404 to replace, making £19,392 for the entire battery pack. He said that most owners would not need a new battery for at least ten years because electric vehicles should mainly be used for short journeys.