Motoring special: Buying electric cars and are insurers gaming drivers?

What’s the best new or used electric car on the market, would buying your insurance on the day you need it drive up the price, and does London’s diesel-crunching ULEZ make sense?

Those are the questions and more on this motoring special edition of the This is Money Podcast. On it, Georgie Frost and Simon Lambert are joined by deputy motoring editor Rob Hull to talk cars and money.

First up, is our exclusive on how insurers are sneakily pushing up prices for those who buy cover close to when they need it - bad news if you want to choose and buy a car and then drive it away.

The team also look at attempts to crack down on older petrol and diesel cars, such as London’s ULEZ – soon to be extended all the way out to the North and South Circular – and ask whether the crop of electric car alternatives available now are enough to tempt people en-masse.

Simon argues that one of the key problems is not how good new electric cars are (albeit they are now pretty good) but the issue of buying second hand and the limited choice and consumer concerns.

Meanwhile, Rob says that although a brand new electric car may be tempting to those committed to greener motoring, many buyers are likely to sit on their hands expecting a better choice of longer range vehicles to arrive soon.

One of those won’t carry a Golf badge, as VW is ditching its trusty model name for its new ID range of electric cars.

But before they arrive a new Golf will. The Golf is a car that has long set the benchmark for family hatchbacks, so with the wraps coming off the next eighth generation one what can we expect inside, outside, and - all importantly nowadays - in terms of tech?