IT’S taken a national treasure to expose the hole at the heart of net zero.
Rowan Atkinson, comedian and notorious petrol-head, has admitted that he feels ‘duped’ by electric cars.
Like many, he was seduced early, enthusiastically embracing this brave new world.
Just plug in and off you went, cleanly and efficiently.
Rashly, in my view, our leaders decided to ban new petrol and diesel cars by 2030.
Yet the alternative, foisted on an unsuspecting public, is turning out to be expensive, polluting, overweight and inefficient.
Electric vehicles are on average, 30 per cent more expensive than conventional cars.
And they seem to cost the earth, literally.
In 2021, Volvo released data showing that building EV’s produces 70 per cent more greenhouse gases than petrol cars, partly due to their batteries, which use rare earth metals and expire within 10 years.
Those same batteries are so heavy that engineers now fear that older car parks and bridges could fail, while EV tyres leave more rubber particulates on roads.
And anyone who has suffered ‘range anxiety’, battery failure in cold weather, or the alarming shortage of charging points, understands the shortcomings all too well.
As for larger vehicles, like lorries, farm machinery and diggers, the weight of a giant battery is prohibitive, nor could it generate the power needed.
JCB’s Lord Bamford has long called for hydrogen-fuelled machines and cars.
This fuel can be used in the internal combustion engine, which has proved itself over 200 years and is surely the sensible short-term solution.
Meanwhile, there are new developments on the horizon for alternative propellants which produce no greenhouse gases.
Wouldn’t that be nice but, for now, I concur with Mr Atkinson.
Stick with your old vehicle.