Just created a new thread to discuss this as I think it's quite interesting.
Indeed. Governments and car manufacturers have been foolish in the way they have portrayed electric cars as a "knight in shining armour" that will solve transport issues.
They solve point-of-use emissions, and reduce carbon footprint by means of whatever proportion of the national grid's generation comes from renewables, but they are still inefficient in terms of space and still use resources to produce, especially the batteries which are probably worse than petrol engines. They also still cause a lot of noise and road building/maintainence is still disruptive. And they're still expensive, more so than petrol cars.
Society needs to accept that while EVs are definitely an improvement they are NOT the be-all and end-all of environmentally friendly travel. EVs undoubtedly have a place, outside of cities and towns where providing public transport to everyone would be impractical. But we still need to be pushing people towards public transport where possible, especially if we're also electrifying that public transport. And - even more importantly - walking and cycling.
It's interesting that cancel culture has now spread to forums like this one. Where even the majority opinion is silenced by the woke minority, as we see in many walks of life now. The FACT remains that the massive majority of car and motorcycle users, outside of chore mobiles for work and shopping, would NOT willingly change to electric power. My recent poll on a car forum about this very thing was 89%-11%. Thank you!
People can abuse that fact and abuse and belittle my beliefs all they like, i really couldn't care less, but it's still true that one speed electric silent vehicles will never ever be as much fun as a big V twin sports bike or V12 sports car. Several friends are bike and car journalists and they have told me that it is indeed true what i have said. They get told it all the time. Obviously!
One person mentioned that turkeys don't vote for Christmas. Well by saying that he/she accidentally pointed out that people will only go electric because they have no choice! People won't vote for electric cars they will have them forced on them. Just like turkeys get no choice. You messed up there!
We produce less than 1% of the world's emissions. Confirmed by my MP from a F O I request i sent him. Thank you.
China burns half the world's coal roughly. India and Russia and America between them create infinitely more pollution than we do. Fact.
Electric heat pumps cost a fortune and do not work in very cold weather. My mate in York has one. £14,000 and useless in cold weather. How is the guy on minimum wage going to afford that, especially after all the levvies on electricity are applied?
AS for me? My interest here is mainly trains, having driven them for 25 years. I read generally rather than write. But i am also an ex motorcycle journalist, i had a motorcycle dealership for 2 years and i have raced motorcycles in 7 countries including the USA. I am a keen member of bike and car clubs and have ridden and driven across America several times as well as undertaking a journey on my GL1800 from London to Moscow in 2011. 4 of us did 8,000 miles in little more than a month.
The wokes and eco warriors are going to be SO fed up when it dawns on them that this stupid green onslaught will push millions of people into abject poverty, the country into heinous debt and people will be colder than ever in winter. They may well not even be able to run a car in the future. Turkeys are voting for Christmas!
I care about others, (i am very comfortable after 3 London house inheritances), but i'm very concerned about the poor and the cold in this country. This idiotic green ideology will destroy countless UK lives and is POINTLESS when 99% of pollution and heat is made elsewhere.
What we do matters not. It's like taking a moped off the road and leaving 5,000 lorries burning diesel in a futile attempt to go green. Totally pointless.
) to a complete ban on their use?
, thought