Giving up petrol and diesel will destroy the income of pension funds

SIR – Outlawing internal combustion engines in favour of electric cars would choke the environment with electric cables, supply sockets and pylons (Letters, August 1). Other consequences would include a big spike in the price of copper and an increase in the amount of plastic created from oil.

It would be better to find a way of taking microscopic PM10 particulates out of the tailpipes of diesel engines. The diesel equivalent of a catalytic converter would preserve our preferred economic lifestyles and keep pension pay-outs, which are dependent on dividend income from automotive fuel oils, in good health.

Sue Doughty

Reading , Berkshire

SIR – The sudden enthusiasm for electric cars is the result of better marketing rather than superior engineering.

Motorists may be able to say how much petrol their conventional car burns on a given journey, but in general they are unaware of how much petrol (or its equivalent) was burned in generating the electricity needed to make the same journey in an electric car.

Michael Rolfe

Cape Town, South Africa

SIR – A battery in a high-powered electric car is rated at 70 kwh. With fast charging, it is only 50 per cent efficient (half the electricity used is dissipated as waste heat).

It will therefore need 140 kwh of electricity for a single charge. The Drax power station uses about 0.31 kilogram of coal per kwh generated.

The coal used for a single charge therefore equates to 43 kilograms. A petrol car will require about 20 kilograms of petrol for the same distance. It follows that the electric car generates more than twice the CO2 of a petrol car.

Terri Jackson

Bangor, Co Down

SIR – Electric vehicles are currently quite expensive compared to internal combustion engines, as their batteries are made using rare metals. Does this mean such cars will only be affordable for more affluent people in the short term?

Josie Byrne

Leamington Spa, Warwickshire

SIR – Electric vehicles are so silent that I believe they will be a significant danger to pedestrians and cyclists alike.

Years ago, Tufty urged us to look and listen before we crossed the road. Listening won’t help now. These cars sneak up from behind, catching the pedestrian or cyclist unawares.

Catherine Appleton

Bushey, Hertfordshire

SIR – Given the important and potentially extremely damaging proposal by the Government to ban petrol and diesel engines by 2040, why was this measure not included in the Conservative election manifesto?

Norman Jones

Colwyn Bay, Denbighshire