Electric Cars in the Spotlight Again...
In the current economic and environmental climate, the electrical industry in general needs to be strong and not bend to marketing pressures when selling its products and services. There isn't a giant step to take from claiming a product is more energy efficient than its predecessor to then producing a direct link between its purchase and the welfare of polar bears. So far this hasn't been the case and hopefully things will continue in that way.
This week yet another CEO of a major car firm has stuck his white collar out and committed his company’s future to producing viable electrically powered cars. The latest is Carlos Ghosn, chief executive of the Renault-Nissan partnership. Rather alarmingly, he announced: "We must have zero-emission vehicles. Nothing else will prevent the world from exploding."
Now, I’m not going to quibble with his Independence Day vision of global warming, but although it is clear that electric cars are performing increasingly well in terms of their mileage per charge, are they really as emission-free as their green image suggests?
The history of electric cars goes back to the very beginning of motoring when they were level pegging with the development of internal combustion engine vehicles. It was only when the electric starter motor was invented, thus negating the hand crank, that ICEs became the norm and electric transport was limited to quirky city-based contraptions, trains and trams.
The electric car always had advantages over the ICE, being quieter and quicker to accelerate, but their Achilles heel, range, has repeatedly foundered attempts to bring it back to the popular marketplace.
So what’s new?
The recent past and the possible future of electric motoring appears to be linked to the public’s love affair with technology on the move. Despite most people’s experience of phones running out of charge within a day or having to keep a laptop permanently plugged in, the fact is batteries have got smaller and more powerful at an incredible rate. So, although public interest in electric cars has barely simmered over the past few decades, it could be this piggy-backing on consumer technology that brings the concept back from the C5 graveyard.
The electrical industry in general needs to be strong and not bend to marketing pressures when selling its products and services. There isn't a giant step to take from claiming a product is more energy efficient than its predecessor to then producing a direct link between its purchase and the welfare of polar bears. So far this hasn't been the case and hopefully things will continue in that way.
Carlos Ghosn and Renault-Nissan are pinning their hopes on the development of lithium-ion batteries as opposed to the nickel metal hydride type, which they claim will deliver the necessary longevity allied to weight advantages. Lithium-ion also has no ‘memory effect’ and loses very little energy when not in use, which has obvious benefits to its use within a vehicle.
But then there is the question of where the energy that powers these batteries comes from. We have all been told not to leave TVs on standby and use low energy bulbs, so how does charging a car up on electricity generated in a power station fit into this? For any sensible debate on the environmental credentials of electric cars, you have to take into account the whole life cycle impact of its production, use and destruction; the ‘dust to dust’ equation. Otherwise it’s very easy to look at the lack of exhaust fumes emanating from its rear and be blissfully unaware that the odd-looking car you’ve forked out for in the hope of being environmentally conscious is actually more toxic than a small family ICE car.
Perhaps the problem with the statement from Mr. Ghosn is that he’s misjudging his audience. The ‘zero emissions’ phrase seems to have been wheeled out quite carelessly of late, rather like seeing ‘100% Natural Ingredients’ emblazoned across a bottle of luminous orange ‘fruit drink’. Producing a zero emission electric car is so far over the horizon as to be a pointless short term target. Even using electricity produced from a biofuel power station will have a huge detrimental impact on the environment through the cutting down of forests to produce palm oil farm land.
It’s about time we had a reduction of environmental hyperbole from the likes of Carlos Ghosn and engaged with the public on a far more level headed basis. People are interested in cutting their use of fossil fuels, and electric cars or hybrid models are certainly capable of doing this. By being up front from the start and not making outlandish claims about their total purity or saving the world from disintegrating into a fiery ball we remove the risk of a backlash further down the line when people realise the true nature of what they have been sold.
Enjoy the newsletter,
Richard Scott
Editor