Like Rowan Atkinson, consumers can make up their own minds on EVS

SIR – I was amused to learn that the green lobby feels Rowan Atkinson is partially to blame for the slowdown in consumers buying electric cars because he described them as lacking in soul (report, February 7).

If consumers truly valued soul as well as function, then I doubt there would be many new cars on the road at all, as most look as if they plopped out of the same jelly mould.

Consumers are not idiots. People choose not to buy electric cars because they are relatively expensive – to purchase and insure – and the infrastructure is hopeless. Some also understand that the lithium mining process is far from green.

Michael Oak

Stirling

SIR – It appears that the Government’s EV push has been derailed by a newspaper article by Rowan Atkinson. Mr Bean would’ve been most gratified. Jeremy Thompson

Sudbury, Suffolk

SIR – I was appalled to read that Rowan Atkinson has been blamed in a report by the House of Lords for “damaging” the public perception of electric cars because he wrote an opinion piece in the Guardian about his experience.

He is perfectly entitled to his view and has a right to express it, even if it is negative. Attacks on freedom of speech belong in dictatorships.

Andrea Deakin-radkov

Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire

SIR – Only two of the 13 members of the House of Lords environment and climate change committee drive electric cars. Have the others all been influenced by Rowan Atkinson’s view? Roger Tagg

Newark, Nottinghamshire

SIR – I own a Skoda Octavia diesel. I pay no road tax due to low emissions and on a full tank it will do more than 500 miles. A friend has just paid a small fortune for a fancy EV, which at best will do half that distance, provided he does not overuse the lights and heater. And then it takes ages to recharge – if he can find somewhere to do it.

Don’t blame Rowan Atkinson for the drop in sales.

Richard Matkin Rolleston-on-dove, Staffordshire

SIR – Rowan Atkinson drove a very unusual car at the Goodwood Festival of Speed last year: a Toyota with an internal combustion engine powered by hydrogen – with zero emissions. The same principle is used by JCB, which long ago realised that an electric digger working all day is not viable.

Green hydrogen can be produced with wind power, and projects are in the pipeline for the west coasts of Ireland and Scotland. The Government should get off the electric bandwagon and pay more attention to hydrogen.

Well done to Rowan Atkinson for bringing some badly needed balance to the conversation.

David Wilkinson

Heathfield, East Sussex