Wasn’t the whole point of electric vehicles supposed to be to civilise our cities, making them safer and less-polluted places to live? I just wonder what the mung bean-eaters who act as cheerleaders for the industry are making of the latest performance by Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla. Launching his latest vehicle, a £150,000 ($200,000) roadster which apparently does 0-60 mph in 1.9 seconds, he was asked what the point of the vehicle was. He replied: “to deliver a hardcore smackdown to gasoline cars”.
A hardcore smackdown, eh? I am not sure that is quite what environment secretary Michael Gove had in mind in July when he announced that, as of 2040, no new conventional petrol or diesel cars would be sold in Britain. Electric vehicles are evolving in exactly the opposite direction than many of their chief advocates envisioned that they would. They are being marketed as rich men’s playthings, their chief advantage being their rapid acceleration.
Motor cars have brought all manner of problems to the environment, human and otherwise.
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