Posted on 06/10/2023 7:38:38 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The actor and comedian behind the popular Mr. Bean character has called on drivers to hold off buying an electric vehicle (EV), saying the environmental benefits do not stack up.
“Increasingly, I’m feeling that our honeymoon with electric cars is coming to an end, and that’s no bad thing: we’re realising that a wider range of options need to be explored if we’re going to properly address the very serious environmental problems that our use of the motor car has created,” Atkinson wrote in The Guardian newspaper.
He pointed to figures released by automotive giant Volvo revealing that greenhouse gas emissions during the EV production process were 70 percent higher than building a petrol car.
“How so?” Atkinson said.
“The problem lies with the lithium-ion batteries fitted currently to nearly all-electric vehicles: they’re absurdly heavy, huge amounts of energy are required to make them, and they are estimated to last only upwards of 10 years.
“It seems a perverse choice of hardware with which to lead the automobile’s fight against the climate crisis,” he said.
He also pointed to current efforts to develop newer technologies, like solid-state batteries, hydrogen fuel cells, and synthetic fuels, but noted more time was needed before they became mainstream.
Atkinson said a bigger problem beyond technology was the current three-year leasing model for car ownership, where owners move onto a new car at the end of the timeframe.
“This seems an outrageously profligate use of the world’s natural resources when you consider what great condition a three-year-old car is in,” Atkinson said, saying owners could just learn to use their cars for longer instead, effectively lowering demand for new vehicles.
Another solution, he said, was for those concerned about the environment to simply drive less.
“As an environmentalist once said to me, ‘If you really need a car, buy an old one and use it as little as possible,'” he wrote.
Atkinson’s comments have sparked criticism from media outlets (via “fact-checking”), including the Washington Post.
Some experts derided the comedian for his apparent lack of recent energy expertise.
“Love it when a weird, British 90s celebrity who is notably not an energy expert spreads misinformation about EVs on @guardian. Just the best!” Leah Stokes, professor of climate and energy policy at the University of California, Santa Barbara, wrote on Twitter.
Auke Hoekstra, a Dutch EV researcher, claimed Atkinson had “cherry-picked” key facts.
“He’s complaining about current batteries and implying we have to wait for better ones. But the current ones will already last the lifetime of the car, and the car will emit 3x less CO2 over its lifetime. (Yes, I’m sure about this, because that is my actual field of study.),” he wrote on Twitter.
Atkinson’s comments come as governments of developed countries implement bans on the sale of petrol vehicles amid the global push for net zero.
The United Kingdom is considering a ban on new petrol and diesel vehicles from 2030 and hybrids from 2035. The capital London also has an Ultra Low Emissions Zone that forces drivers of cars that are not powered by either hydrogen or batteries to pay a 12.50-pound daily charge.
Meanwhile, in the United States, the California Air Resources Board is pressuring the federal government to approve a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel-powered vehicles by 2035.
While authorities in the Australian Capital Territory—home to the nation’s capital Canberra—are also moving to establish a similar “zero-emissions” zone like London.
In fact, the ACT’s pledge follows a global agreement by the C40—a grouping of the world’s biggest cities—to only operate zero-emission buses from 2025 and to establish a “zero-emission” zone within their cities by 2030. The pledge was signed by cities like Auckland, Austin, Berlin, London, Los Angeles, Paris, Seattle, and Vancouver.
The Demonrats are also trying to get everyone to put all their eggs in one energy basket, creating the most all-encompassing monopoly possible. Prices can then quadruple to fund a bigger government. A bureaucratic empire can only expand with sufficiently enslaved captives that have zero ability to vote with their feet.
Until we have portable fusion generators, electric cars are dead on arrival. DOA, worth bumpkiss.
All known to people who can read facts but the climate cultist believe emotion is far more effective.
bttt
A diesel electric car would make more sense.
It works for locomotives.
I'm not impressed.
He's still a greenie.
I'd be worried he'd support a government making damn well sure you drive less--or better yet, not at all.
In his future, you'd need permission to own your own auto, and another government allowance to actually go somewhere, explained and justified in minute detail.
Think Tesla, not Volvo
Hey dude, I was not buying electric to save the planet, I don’t believe CO2 is a toxin. It’s all bull#&&!!
I have an electric on order because I can drive a 4500+ lb truck that goes 0-60 in 3.9 seconds and stop 9mm while looking cool.
Oh, also the worlds’ fastest production car is electric (production defined as > 100K cars produced). And it’s ~120k $ while to get near that in IC is more like 350k.
I don’t care if they make it run on banana oil - I look at the PERFORMANCE vs COST. If you don’t like electric, don’t buy one. BTW, i drive an IC Sports car. I have a car and truck and the truck needs a refresh in about a year.
So a professor of "policy" claims a guy with a Masters in Electrical Engineering from Oxford doesn't know anything about energy. I wonder what the professor's degree is in? I'm betting Social Justice or Race Relations.
Having an EV is just trading one set of dubious problems for another set of real problems & few answers.
Curious to see what happens when EVs hit the used car lot. Who’s to say how much life might actually be left in that battery. With the price of the batteries, I doubt the seller would be likely to guarantee one. A lot of the lifespan of an EV battery probably depends on how it was used & how it was recharged. Put me down for “no thanks”. No bargain at any price as a used unit.
The honeymoon with the electric car is a second honeymoon. The electrics were all the rage in the early 20th century. Wonder why they died out back then?
From the context, the Dutchman is referring to the lifetime of an electric car. The lifespan of an electric car is basically determined by the lifespan of the batteries, so of course the batteries are going to last the lifetime of the car, by definition.
If an electric car dies when the battery dies, what happens to the corpse? I wonder if cremation is an option, or if the EV gets buried next to the windmill arms which will generate the E to make the V go.
The life of the car is however long the battery lasts. It's not economical to replace them. So he's right, the batteries last for the lifetime of the care because they are the fundamental limitation to the lifetime of the car.
If this "EV researcher" is trying to make the case that current generation EVs are perfect than he's a clown. These are the equivalent of those crappy CFC bulbs with the curly glass that sucked hard. Real bulbs were banned, we were stuck with those. They didn't work when it was cold, they lasted nowhere near as long as was promised, the light was cold and ugly and everyone hated them. It was terrible tech. we needed a proper low energy bulb and that wasn't it. LEDs came along and now qw have a real alternatives the incandescent bulbs. EVs need to evolve too because this current get tech is not good for all the reasons Mr. Bean states.
Spontaneous cremation is known to happen at any stage of the car’s life, or I suppose you could bury them. Burial at sea, probably not.
Seriously, I expect there’ll be some salveagable parts, and some of a car can probably be recycled. I expect most to end up in a landfill eventually.
Sheesh, l would have assumed you would know l was not referencing your comment.
EV production process were 70 percent higher than building a petrol car.
The things that slips past the ever alert mews media.
Then more power to him but I don't want to be forced to buy something I can't afford.....
EV's are nothing but a made up solution to a problem that doesn't exist.
“EV’s are nothing but a made up solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.”
Mic drop.
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