Will we all be driving electric cars?
BMW hosted a debate – and showed off their gleaming Rolls Royce Phantom electric prototype – to explore the prospects for electric vehicles.
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Encouragingly, BMW trials showed that battery life and capacity were not such huge barriers in practice. People soon realised that most journeys are relatively short and that charging at work or overnight was straightforward.
A pessimistic note was sounded by Stephen Glaister of the RAC Foundation, who argued that the multiple subsidies on which the roll-out of electric cars depends (such as purchase incentives, charging exemptions and not paying fuel duty) would simply be unsustainable as the numbers of vehicles increases. The Chancellor, for one, is not going to accept such as huge tax hole in his finances.
The general conclusion - which chimed with the findings of our recent Megacities on the Move project - was that there isn’t a silver bullet technology. Yes, electric cars will take a chunk of the market, but we’ll also see hybrids, electric bikes and huge improvements in the internal combustion engine.
Comments
I'm 56, have never owned a car, for the last 35 years have travelled up to 2.5 hours a day to and from work by bike, am an insurer's dream and still do with ease all the things I did at 20. No diets, no pacemaker, no viagra, no addictions. Just my own health, and that of my family and friends. These were conscious choices made having grown up in parallel to the hideous roads network of industrialised central Scotland.
A recent MIT study predicts at least 4 serious nuclear incidents worldwide by 2055, a trend that will certainly not be helped by the eThis and eThat fads. The eCar and eBike -toys for people who just can't really be bothered changing- are no better than the last fad, rape oil, which destroyed the livelihoods of a good number of indiginous peoples throughout the world.
Regardless of the ECO label, keep in mind too that much of this junk is, like rape oil, being transported many thousands of miles using the environmentally filthiest of diesel fuels. Pure hypocrisy.
The earliest settlers deflowered a paradise on earth. We rape it faster. The ravaged face it now presents is worlds away from what it could have been. This is mankind's profound loss, and a tiny elite's short-lived gain.
Why the addicted to novelty? Happier for it? For what little of worth that is left, there is and was ever only one answer - material restraint. Live with less, focus on your fellow humans and what little quality time the fear at the heart of the world's economic system allows.
Even if haven't driven an electric car before, I think the future will be in them as I have read many articles that stated that their number are increasing year by year. Toyota is even going to introduce 10 more models so I really don't think that this can be stopped...or at least I hope so!
Yes, no question that there will be more of a mix in future including electric bikes - as a previous resident of a very hilly town, Hastings, I can tell you that these are a real blessing in helping out tired mucles on uphill roads. Unfortunately people see them as quite expensive (about £1200 for a really good one) but in comparison to other modes of carbon-free transport actually this is a bargain.
Nick Hanna
Director
www.solarclubs.com
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