Electric cars: the coming revolution
The age of the traditional motor car seems to be “drawing to a close”, said The Independent. Last week, the Government announced a plan to ban the sale of all new petrolor diesel-powered cars and vans in the UK by 2040. The commitment – which follows a similar pledge from France, Norway and India, and Volvo’s announcement that it would only make electric or hybrid cars from 2019 – is part of the Government’s clean air plan. However, it represents a rather “distant” aspiration, since at present, electric car sales make up less than 1% of the market. On a number of fronts, Britain does not seem to be ready for the “electric car revolution”.
As the proud owner of an electric car, I can confirm that, said Isabel Hardman on her Spectator blog. Going electric makes you feel “smug”, but you suffer from “range anxiety”: the nervousness felt when you wonder whether your battery will run out before the next charging point. “It’s basically like driving an iphone. You’re constantly checking your battery level.” Even a rapid charge, at the new service station charging points, takes half an hour, and on my car it only adds 70 miles. Delivering the infrastructure and support needed will certainly be hard, said Richard Brooks and Jason Begley on The Conversation. At present, the UK has 6,535 charging stations. This figure will need to rise sharply, into the hundreds of thousands. And the widespread adoption of electric vehicles will put a massive strain on the national grid at a time when fossil fuels are supposed to be being phased out. Vehicle taxation will also need to change: lost fuel duty will leave a hole in the budget worth billions.
The Government’s plan has a “bold, vaguely futuristic ring” to it, said The Guardian. But it merely reflects “the current trajectory of the motor industry” – which is already going electric – while “masterfully distracting us” from the immediate problem that needs to be tackled: “the air pollution that chokes our cities”. Tens of thousands of people die prematurely each year in this country because of it; the UK has failed to meet EU air quality targets since 2010. There are some good aspects to the latest plan, with funding provided to make buses, HGVS and black cabs cleaner. But it shies away from the simplest way of tackling the problem: introducing “clean air zones”, which polluting vehicles are charged for entering. These are unpopular with motorists, and don’t sound as exciting as the Government’s vision of a “clean, green” future. They would, however, “mean purer air and healthier residents – not in 23 years’ time, but now”.