Long road before EV motoring is practical

THE UK Government has set a target of banning the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 as part of its zero-carbon green agenda.

Now while I appreciate the need to cut CO₂ emissions, can someone please explain how this is achievable? Supposing I buy an electric car, I’d have to fork out about £30,000 for one of the cheaper models (that’s three times more than I’ve ever paid for a car). But that’s the easy bit – because how do I keep the vehicle charged?

I learn from WalesOnline that Cardiff, which currently has fewer than 100 charging points, will need about 10,000 by 2025, and 40,000 by 2030. Looks like they’ll have to get a move on!

This is probably not a disaster for those with a drive or garage as they can install their own charging point, but like many thousands in the city I live in a terrace house, so where will the charging points go in our street? Will we have electric cables poking out of our letterboxes and trailing out over the pavement (surely a trip hazard and messy to look at)? What if I can’t park outside my house (quite often I can’t even find any free spaces in the street)?

And has anyone worked out how we’ll supply the energy needed to charge millions of vehicles? If most people use their car during the day, presumably a massive surge of power will be needed to charge vehicles overnight. I can’t see how the likes of wind power will meet this need. As we’ve moved on from coal-fired power stations, it looks like the future is nuclear.

The cost of electricity to charge vehicles is currently fairly cheap, but as the Treasury begins to lose the billions of pounds it raises from taxing the petrol and diesel we buy at the pump, how will it make up the shortfall? Expect punitive new taxes on electricity supply.

I’m not even sure the move to electric will be that good for the

environment. How will we dispose of the millions of used car batteries when they “die” and what about the precious metals that have to be mined to make them?

Going green doesn’t look like the Utopia some people like to make out.

G Hartley Roath, Cardiff