IT WAS October when I previously drove the EVC Smart and, as parents will have noticed, a lot can happen in nine months.

EVC’s Smart had been improved in the interim and director Mark Parr (pictured) was keen for me to drive it again.

The major difference is the regenerative braking – the must-have for any electric to offer serious range.

Put simply, when you lift off the ‘gas’, the electric motor becomes a generator, topping up the battery.

This feature also provides ‘engine braking’, the like of which few will have experienced – unless they’ve stuck a big British single (motorbike, that is) down a couple of gears and dropped the clutch a bit sharpish.

In fact, the deceleration is so pronounced that it’s as well to keep an eye in the mirror and feather the lifting off if you’re being tailgated.

This shouldn’t be a problem in the production cars, the brake lights of which will operate during lift-off braking.

You can more or less forget the brake pedal. It’s necessary only in emergencies and for shedding the last couple of mph at downhill yellow lines.

It means the front wheels stay nice and clean – not a trace of brake dust on them.

The payback is that usable range, more than most of us need for a day, and I was impressed to get from EVC to home to Safeway to home and the EVC – around 16 miles – and see just one of the battery indicator’s five bars extinguish.

I was in a hurry both ways and was pleased to see that this time, even two-up, the car kept up with traffic up the steep part of Les Eturs, between the Houguette filter and the vet.

It didn’t quite do so last time.

And the management technology allows the car’s performance to be tailored to the customer’s needs.

The aim was to produce a vehicle that would do 40mph and have a 40-mile range, something in which the company has more than succeeded.

More power is available – it is set up to run at 65% – but of course using that extra oomph would reduce the range.

Were I to own one, I might just ask EVC to turn the wick up a little further.

Thanks to the regen braking I could get by with a little less range and I like it to be me rather than my transport that decides I won’t break the speed limit up Le Dos d’Ane.