Boris is showing just how clueless he is now. Bringing forward the ban on fossil fuel cars by 5 years is fine but until then people can still go out and buy gas guzzling SUVs which will still be on the road after that time. Why aren't all MPs being made to buy electric cars with their own money to show leadership and support the growing industry? Lets see HS2 scrapped and the money used to fund British made electric cars and improvements to public transport and work from home infrastructure.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Knee jerk reactions rarely work well. Britain was first with industrialisation and infrastructure changes like the railways and road networks - but the problem is that things change and evolve. We're now constricted by the width of our roads forced by bridges and urbanisation, ditto for bridge height with trains - and in general crumbling, decades and century old, infrastructures.
So before pushing people into battery driven cars - and ignoring what happens with how those batteries themselves are recycled and how the the metals are initially mined - and learning from the lesson of pushing people into diesel cars (that seemed like a good idea at the time) - is battery the right way and do we have the capacity in our energy systems to be charging N million cars every day? Hydrogen cells - fast induction cars..there are other options that may appear in the intervening years that may supersede pure battery. It needs some detailed thought and planning eh?
BUT surely the question to answer is 'Why Are People Travelling Anyway?'
It would be interesting to know by how much car use would be reduced if everyone who could work from home,did. Obviously it would be necessary for co workers to meet face to face at intervals, but not every day. Also less clothing etc would be needed as you could work in your dressing gown. Buckets of high calorie designer coffee would not be so readily available so there would be health benefits too.😉
Maybe if the big utility companies were fined for wastage, that would help.
Maybe the government might consider giving everyone with a suitable roof, British made solar panels to generate their own energy?? on no, they've scrapped the feed in tariffs instead.
If everybody is driving electric vehicles, where is the extra power to charge them coming from. Wind and solar power aren't a consistent source of supply. That would suggest that either nuclear or fossil fuels will still be required by power stations, possibly even more than now. I'm certainly not against electric vehicles but the logistics of the move does not seem to be being thought through. Sadly, that's no surprise looking at how well previous Government initiatives have been thought through and implemented. No political party can claim to be faultless in that respect.
I do agree, that as a start point, the Government needs to demand that all official vehicles are replaced with electric when they are replaced. That would make the reality of using electric vehicles very clear to them.
One question to which nobody seems to have an answer is how those living in rows of older terraced houses are going to have access to charging points. Many older terraced properties are only wide enough to park one car in front, and many have no parking available adjacent to the property. One family I know has 4 cars, and all are used on a daily basis because their shift patterns and work locations preclude the use of public transport. Would the power supply to a domestic home even have the capacity to charge all 4 at one time?
One question to which nobody seems to have an answer is how those living in rows of older terraced houses are going to have access to charging points. Many older terraced properties are only wide enough to park one car in front, and many have no parking available adjacent to the property. One family I know has 4 cars, and all are used on a daily basis because their shift patterns and work locations preclude the use of public transport. Would the power supply to a domestic home even have the capacity to charge all 4 at one time?
let's hope the lifts work, they're flippin' heavy those batteries. google search says "Most electric auto batteries used right now weight 230 kilograms, but a 50 kWh one would weigh 380-600 kilograms." they're hardly "portable" lol
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Also less clothing etc would be needed as you could work in your dressing gown. Buckets of high calorie designer coffee would not be so readily available so there would be health benefits too.😉
Maybe the government might consider giving everyone with a suitable roof, British made solar panels to generate their own energy?? on no, they've scrapped the feed in tariffs instead.
google search says
"Most electric auto batteries used right now weight 230 kilograms, but a 50 kWh one would weigh 380-600 kilograms."
they're hardly "portable" lol
Mind you, the potential for mindless vandalism needs to be catered for ...
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.