Nice news - Nice and spacey - 2008

Forget the new Lotus and the Focus RS and the Bentley Conti Flying Spur Speed at next week's British Motor Show. The Nice stand is where it's at.

That's Nice as in the guys who make electric cars, not biscuits, and this is their big offering: the Ze-O MPV, billed as the first all-electric car available within a family budget.

OK, it may look like a mildly freshed-up Perodua Kenari, but if it lives up to the promises, the Ze-O could prove a decent proposition. A better proposition than the G-Wiz, in any case.

Priced around £14,000 the Ze-O will go on sale in the UK towards the end of this year, with a quoted range of 65 miles in city driving and a top speed of 55mph. Hardly stellar stuff, but higher-performance lithium-ion batteries - as seen in the hopefully-soon-to-arrive Tesla - will follow as an option.

Assuming - perhaps optimistically - that the goal posts don't move dramatically in the next few months, the Ze-O should be exempt from road tax and the congestion charge.

"We know customers want practical electrical cars and they want them sooner rather than later," says Nice's Julian Wilford. The question is, do you want this electric car?