Sir, Johannes Mauritzen (“The attractiveness of electric cars has little to do with the price of oil, Letters, January 22) is quite correct about electric vehicles, although he may be underestimating a more inherent economic and technical advantage of electric systems: their mechanical simplicity, lower weight, operating cost and total cost of ownership. Their ageing economics are also superior compared with traditional combustion propulsion, where parts failure and replacement costs accelerate rapidly over time. They also reduce noise pollution equally with carbon emission.