Forget fear, embrace change and let electric cars drive us into a cleaner future

I have been driving my electric car for over two years now and was amazed at the flood of naysaying articles and letters in The Scotsman which greeted Westminster’s proposal to phase out internal combustion engines by 2040, then Holyrood’s intention to end new petrol and diesel by 2032. Seems to me like simple fear of change! Electric cars are more pleasant to drive, especially in stop-start driving, and emit no poisonous gases or particulate pollution.

The latest worry is about where we will get the electricity from, and a request for some figures from Ivar Colquhoun, (Letters, 20 November). Here are some. I have been doing about 4,000 miles a year, using about 1 Mwhrs/year of electricity on the separate meter, mostly at night, supplemented by occasional use of public chargers on long journeys.

This is about 20 per cent of my household consumption, so we had better stop building houses if we can’t cope with such an increase. A single 3MW wind turbine provides enough electricity for 8,000 electric cars like mine.

Worried that I am not using enough tyre rubber, I asked at the Mercedes garage, the marque of predilection for those who drive long distances. I was told that most of their customers drive about 5,000 a year also, but some do 20,000 and a surprising number around 70,000. The RAC figure is 7,000 a year average over all four-wheeled vehicles, 150 per week. Those driving much more take the median to probably about 5,000 a year, 100 miles per week. The BBC documentary on the A9 stated that most car journeys are about three miles. Mine and Ivar’s are a bit more as we have to cross the Tay. Most journeys are to work, school, shops, recreational facilities.

So 90 per cent of us can switch to electric cars with no supply problem. One or two nights a week plugged in at home or a few hours a week in a council or office car park will mostly suffice. GEORGE SHERING

West Acres Drive Newport on Tay, Fife

May I supporting your correspondents Ivar Colquhoun and John Cameron on electric cars?an enormous amount of new power stations will be required but one point is not mentioned. Every time energy is used for a different purpose there is an inefficient energy loss. Fossil fuels are burnt, creating heat which is converted into motion in electric dynamos to create electricity. Cars and lorries then convert this to motion again. Vehicles today convert fossil fuels directly into motion. Thus electric cars have an extra step of inefficiency. Therefore they increase the production of CO2 compared with present practice. They are, of course, better for the atmosphere in cities.

Can we help politicians to learn to count? The UK emits 0.13 per cent of world greenhouse gases – shutting down Scotland will make no difference. CO2 has been demonised by computer models and numerous scientific papers do not support this.

Agreement with experiment is the basis of science. So perhaps more CO2 is not a bad thing – my spin-off company sells many CO2 sensors to Dutch greenhouses for better growth! As Dr Cameron says – you couldn’t make it up. (PROF) DESMOND SMITH

FRS, FRS Scottish Alliance for Science

Gillespie Road, Colinton