Tuesday, September 18, 2007

It isn't just the wheels. It's what turns them.

Inspired by the Lib Dems' 'only carbon-free cars by 2050', and the notion that this would be via electric or hydrogen without being too clear on where these fuels came from, I dug out my Sunday clippings.

Listen up, there’s an electric buzz in the air

Great. I look forward to it all coming to pass.

But please, while the localised pollution advantages are clear, let no one pretend that there are no carbon emissions. The exhaust pipe is just in another place. OK, there's nuclear or renewables, but I don't think we are there yet.

And I'm not sure we will be even by the Lib Dem's 2050 cut-off for fossils in the tank.

It takes energy to get energy in a usable form into a car and to the wheels. You can't cheat nature.

Power cut — the stop-start history of the battery car

And just to be un-PC, let me pop in the lastest JC - The sausage dog with rottweiler bite

While I can't get with the shock-jock ratings digs now he is richer than Croesus and doesn't need the extra, I still believe him to be a good journo. So when he says such as this 'Another thing that’s beyond doubt is that you won’t be driving round in a hybrid, such as the Toyota Prius. These use just as much fuel as normal cars...' I take note, while I read this '.. and are designed only to assuage the guilt of people whose opinions come from a man so hopeless he couldn’t even beat George Bush to the White House' and think message vs. messenger. Whilst giggling a tad despite myself.

He's also not a big fan of electric. It's like he knew the other stories were coming out.

Forbes - Least Fuel-Efficient Hybrids - For balance. What worries me is the trend down as buyers find they don't live up to the hype. You wash with bad quality green, you get a stain.

Marketing Week - Car industry in uproar over cigarette-style ad controls - And it's all worked so well with fags. Should be interesting to see how this falls out.

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