[thread drift]
Although this is admittedly a "thread drift", I've got to admit that I think the future of transport is electric regardless of the logic, politics will make it so. I also think we'll be driving far less than we do at the moment and our generation (I'm including every Europa petrolhead in this, regardless of actual age
) will probably be one of the last to recognise the fun value of cars/motoring.
I watched the video Dakazman and yep, I agree with everything the guy states, EVs will not save the planet. Never in a million years.
Like the recent UK push to diesel engines claiming they are "greener" (huh, don't these guys do any thinking ?) I reckon in 10yrs time we might well be looking back and thinking "hmmm, now why did we do this ?". At the risk of even wider thread drift, we might even be looking back and thinking "why on earth were we so hung up on CO2 ?" (dons Nomex suit, retires stage left)
But.... if you do a high mileage, especially in cities or other densely populated areas, EVs will cut down on local pollution. So I could see compulsory EV bus/taxi & smaller delivery vehicles. That's the thin end of the wedge, if you want to drive in towns you get something that doesn't pollute locally. Heck 50yrs ago when I was a kid, every milk delivery float in our town was electric !
I won't disagree that electricity needs generating and regardless of how it happens, it's causing some negative pollution. But that will never be in the agenda; a bit like the UK diesel push, fuel density and non-CO2 emissions were never mentioned at the time, "it's lower CO2" was all we saw.
In one way it's a bit sad because petrol engines have come on enormously. My missus changed back to a Suzuki Vitara for her latest car, a 1.6 petrol engine and nominally the same capacity as all the Vitaras she's had. A 4wd "soft" roader, again like all the others. But this one switches automatically between 2wd/4wd when it's needed (and yes, it does work) with the result that for 99% it's in 2WD and doing 50mpg. (Imperial gallons of course) Her previous ones were also 99% in 2WD with the manual box but struggled to 30-35mpg so to my eyes there's been a massive improvement. (and I don't mean or care about CO2 !)
Personally I don't think it's about Petrol vs EV or saving the planet, it's about oil and where it comes from. We can all shove up a nuclear plant and generate electricity in our back gardens if we want to, but getting oil depends on where our back garden is. I don't even think it's about Peak Oil or it running out, it's all about energy security....
[/back on topic!! ]