Bath cleans up with low-emission zone
Electric vehicles with F1 backing take on desert challenge
BATH became the first low emission zone outside London yesterday.
Vehicles such as buses and lorries were charged for driving into the city centre for the first time.
Councillor Sarah Warren said: “We know nitrogen dioxide levels in the city are too high. This comes mainly from vehicle exhausts so it’s vital we bring down the levels.”
The clean air zone (CAZ) is the first outside of the capital in England. Commercial vehicles which do not meet emission standards will pay a daily charge – £9 for commercial vans, private hire cars and taxis and £100 for HGVs and buses. Private cars and motorbikes are exempt.
Bus company First upgraded its fleet to meet CAZ standards. Boss James Freeman said: “It’s made us do things which we would have perhaps done more slowly.”
Bath & North East Somerset Council hopes to reach legal levels by the end of this year.
THE Saudi Arabian desert will next week provide a global platform for the world’s petrolheads to go green in what is billed as the “race without a trace”.
It will host the first event in the Extreme E championship – a series of off-road races pitting all-electric SUVs in environments threatened by climate change.
Seven-times Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton has a team which will compete against one led by fellow former champion Jenson Button who will be the contest’s most famous driver.
Another ex- F1 world champion, Nico Rosberg, will have a team competing in a series that will see the Odyssey 21 vehicles also race in Senegal, Greenland, the Brazilian Amazon and Tierra del Fuego in Argentina.
Each of the 10 teams will have a male and female driver, both racing over a five-mile track in cars that can go from 0-62mph in 4.5 seconds and reach a top speed of 125mph.
British team Veloce Racing’s driver is another world champion – Jamie Chadwick, 22, from Bath who in 2019 won the inaugural Women’s W Series championship.
The race locations are all off grid but the cars will be charged by a hydrogen fuel cell developed by Surrey-based AFC Energy. Unlike traditional diesel generators which pump out greenhouse gas emissions and dangerous particulates, the fuel cell will only emit water. The cars can be charged in two hours from a battery which will be topped up round the clock. Button told the BBC: “The cars are fourwheel drive monsters, and the format’s a bit like Star Wars pod racing. “In Extreme E they’ve created a product that will offer first-class racing and entertainment to the fans, but also serves to highlight the impact of climate change.
“The future will definitely be electric – you can’t have every single road car electric and have fuel-guzzling race cars.
“Owning a team makes me very proud. I couldn’t just put my name to it, I had to go and drive it.”
Chadwick, who is also a development driver for the Williams F1 Team, said: “The first time I drove Veloce Racing’s Odyssey 21, I was blown away by its power and performance – the torque and instant acceleration are eye-opening.
“This car is proof that going fast and looking after the environment do not need to be mutually exclusive. Extreme E really is something unique.”
Veloce says it is the only team to sign up to the UN five principles of electrification, environment, equality, e-sports and entertainment.
It has also joined forces with a carbon measurement and offset partner in Allcot.
Meanwhile, Britain’s car industry could be driven into a green future on the site of two now demolished coal-fired power stations.
Work could begin this summer in Blyth, Northumberland on a £2.6billion factory for Britishvolt to make batteries for the electric car market.