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In the last blog, I speculated on the likely response of SUV-hating activists when faced with a hybrid Range Rover made from recycled drinks cans. But this is already becoming a real issue for the car industry.

Interviewing Henrik Fisker in 2011 about the new Surf, he told me he’d run into problems with a Scandinavian politicians who were not happy with the idea of large, heavy, executive car that could spend all day driving around a capital city on zero-emission electric power.

Do you have a large pile of empty aluminium drinks cans nearby? At this time of year you probably do. And they’re more precious than you might imagine.

At the launch of the current-model Jaguar XJ, I was told the body contained around 235kg of aluminium, but only ‘around 50 per cent’ was recycled. Aluminium drinks cans are ideal for recycling, partly because they made of pure aluminium, but they’re hard to obtain in big quantities, according to JLR engineers.

In yesterday’s blog I outlined the case against the battery-powered car and how some are arguing it will always remain a niche vehicle. EU legislation would mean that, by 2020, the average Golf-class car would probably match a battery-powered car in terms of levels of exhaust pollution and not be far away from the average Co2 released in charging a battery-powered car.

The French, however, have other ideas. Early in 2010, I was at an automotive conference in Qatar where Dominique Venet, executive vice president of French power giant EDF, explained just why the French state was holding out such hope for EVs.The key new acronym we’ll all have to learn is WTW – ‘Well to Wheel’.

Two days, two range-extenders. Last Friday, I travelled to Ballymena in Northern Ireland to see the first production example of the new London bus (powered by a 4.5-litre diesel engine/generator and 17kWh battery) and then immediately hot-footed it (via...

I spent a lot of time on the Brighton Road this weekend, taking part in two motoring events that were closely related but vastly different. The first was The Future Car Challenge, which runs on Saturday from Brighton to the Smoke: there my mission was to accompany Land Rover chief engineer Peter Richings in a Range Rover Sport Range_e prototype as part of this year’s Future Car Challenge (55mpg estimated, 89g/km CO2).

Next day I headed back the other way as part of a four-person crew in Daniel Ward’s fine 107-year-old, 20HP Renault, as a participant in the traditional Brighton Run for veteran cars, all made before 1905.

So I lied. Ahead of this year's Future Car Challenge I described it as the best way of gauging the real world energy use of the latest low emission cars.

What a load of twaddle. Before I'd crossed the startline yesterday morning my blood was pumping and my mind concentrating. I wasn't there to drive normally, I was there to do the best I could.