I'm in the process of buying a new car, which has been made more complex and distressing by the ever-deepening VW emissions-fiddling scandal. Most of us feel vaguely guilty about buying cars, though most of us – especially those with families – find it impossible to do without them.

But what to choose? I've tended to buy Volkswagens for reasons I don't quite understand anymore. Something to do with their supposedly green “Umwelt” diesels of 20 years ago. Has ever a vehicle been less appropriately named? Diesels emissions are now recognised to be, if anything, worse than petrol emissions.

And this is not just about VW’s “defeat devices” that disguise the true levels of NO2 in government tests. We've known for many years that diesel cars emit harmful particulates in their exhaust which are invisible and contribute to thousands of deaths every year.

One of the reasons I've largely given up using my bike around town is the awareness I am deep-breathing a toxic stew of carcinogens. The other is that cars and buses have become so damn big – and aggressive - that there just isn't space for bicycles to travel in safety anymore. Now I go by bus – which of course also emit vast quantities of diesel fumes

Car manufacturers insist they're cleaning up their act. The petrol-driven cars I've been looking at have much smaller engines than in the past,with “eco” modes. That very word has become suspect in my book.

They have cruise control and other devices that make them more efficient. The engine cuts out automatically you stop at traffic lights – which can be disconcerting for people like me who always thought this meant something was wrong.

But none of the fossil fuel-using cars are truly low emission. Indeed, as the VW scandal proliferates, it's becoming clear governments have been conniving with the big car manufacturers to perpetuate the illusion cars can be clean.

Politicians want car manufacturers to locate their factories in their countries. They also need to be seen to be doing something about pollution. So they say to the manufacturers: you pretend to clean up and we'll pretend to monitor you.

Thus we have all those emissions tables and tax breaks and VED exemptions which are meaningless because the tests have been rigged. They are public relations not pollution control. It is in the nature of the internal combustion engine that it emits poisons into the atmosphere, as well as using up valuable non-renewable fossil fuels.

But I think the VW scandal will be seen as something of a turning point. We sort of believed German engineers were on top of the problem. But they weren't. They were covering it up, and no one will believe them ever again.

Now, I'm not one of those people who say cars are intrinsically bad. I think one of the mistakes the environmental movement made was to suggest that, in some way, personal transport was evil. That we should walk, cycle or not go anywhere.

But cars remain hugely popular. Think of the leisure activities that would be impossible without them – from ferrying children to football to bagging Munros. Yes, everything could theoretically be done by public transport, but not with the flexibility and fun of a car.

Some commentators, like George Monbiot, believe private vehicles are morally wrong because they encourage individualism. But we live in the age of individualism, and the car has always been the an important expression of personal and even sexual liberation.

That's why Bruce Springsteen sings about 57 Chevies and not buses. The car is what made Jack Kerouac’s On The Road the most influential lifestyle guide of the baby boom generation.

But whatever your view of the car, one thing is undeniable: we can't go on polluting our cities just to get around. And we really don't have to. The internal combustion engine is a 19th Century technology, like steam. Diesel deserves to be in a museum.

Electric cars are far cheaper, cleaner, simpler. The best and fastest cars around now are all electric. The quickest four door production car on the planet is the Tesla SD which goes from nought to sixty in under three seconds. Petrol heads like Jeremy Clarkson really are dinosaurs, literally left behind.

I won’t be buying a Tesla however because I live in a flat and can't afford £90,000. “Cheap” EVs are still expensive and have very limited range. There's no way to “fill up” or recharge your electric car on longer journeys unless you live in Norway.

People say the limited range is a killer but it isn’t. It's a matter of infrastructure. It would be quite possible to have a battery exchange systems – rather like bottled gas – where you don't buy the batteries themselves but only the energy inside them.

You would stop at a petrol station, dump your dead battery and slot in a live one. It would take seconds and would be far less troublesome and unpleasant on a cold day than filling up a tank. All that is lacking is distribution network and the political will.

Governments would have to plan for petrol stations to become charging stations over a period of a decade or so. As petrol cars gradually wore out, everyone would change to electrics and discover to their amazement that they pay pennies instead of pounds to fill up.

In the meantime, there are “super-charging” devices that can charge electric cars in about 30 minutes which could be set up anywhere – and are being set up in America where they'll be in range of 90 per cent of the population by the end of the decade.

Electrification, like housing, is not a difficult technical problem. The Scottish Government has just spent billions building a new road bridge over the Forth - it can certainly turn Scotland electric.

Of course, it would be difficult to do this in Scotland alone. It would be awkward if you couldn't travel over the border without risking being stranded on the M74 overnight. But already in Scottish islands like Orkney and Shetland, where shorter distances are the norm, electric cars are becoming a practical reality.

Only inertia and lobbying by a short-sighted motor industry has prevented internal combustion going the way of the traction engine. Electrification could be one of the great sunrise industries that would generate the engineering knowledge base we need to rebuild our manufacturing industry.

Electric vehicles do have environmental negatives – the electricity is often generated by fossil fuels; they have to be built somewhere. But they use up far less renewable energy and most importantly they don't poison the air. They are more durable and recyclable that the poisonous smoke-pots that we drive today.

Public attitudes change. It seems scarcely believable now that, only ten years ago, we allowed cancer-causing cigarette smoke to pollute our public places. In 20 years we may look back in amazement that we fumigated our city streets with an even more dangerous poison.

But in the meantime, what toxic car will I buy? Well, I'm attracted by the cheap and cheerful Dacia Maximum Capacity Vehicle, the Ikea of automobiles. It's Jeremy Clarkson's least favourite car of all time. What better recommendation could you have?