Electric cars

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to go to an event run in aid of recruiting young people to the automotive industry on behalf of work. Initially I was amused that work would be supporting this (I work for a manufacturer of industrial diesel engines), given that the event promotes a ‘green’ electric car future – naturally I felt even odder driving a massive yank tank there in the middle of the UK countryside!

Seeing some of the other manufacturers there, it really is hilarious the state of affairs with electric cars – Peugeot were offering a ‘zero emission’ vehicle. Pitty is the way they package it; customers are able to swing into a dealership and borrow a gasoline powered car, should the electric car not be fit for purpose for a longer journey – essentially going against the whole idea in the first place! Hearing the sales bloke crack on about it to a rather educated skeptic who was having a good dig, it would seem that you would be spending a significant amount of time at that bloody dealership – the electric thing is targeted at commuters who have a significant amount of time during the day to charge the car at work.

Nissan was also there with an electric car – with a claimed range of 100 miles. The guy selling the thing clearly had a massive chip on his shoulder – accelerating the thing madly in front of people – so electric cars produce peak torque from the word go? All well and good that is – until it comes to battery life! Yep the guy ran it flat and had to plug it into a diesel generator for several hours in order just to make it home! BUT had he had a diesel engine in the car itself, it could have been running for a mere fraction of that time, and with a fraction of the transmission losses! Thing is too, in the UK market, these things would most likely be charged from the national grid – which is largely coal fired. Not really an improvement over a light duty internal combustion engine given the the compromises.!

This all got me thinking, so I did a bit of research on Peugeot’s offering – the iOn – offered new for a shade over 33k GBP with a 93 mile tank range. Interestingly you can score yourself a 207 wagon for a shade over 13k that has a diesel donk capable of 67 combined MPG – I’d be taking the up front saving and banking on that – particularly with 800 mile or so tanks! Don’t even get me started on the energy or materials required to make either of them – I’m pretty sure the conventional car uses a ton less energy and rare earth metals to manufacture.  

Overall I think this excitement over electric cars as a solution to commuting raises a very fundamental issue – the massive trend in society towards commuting. Fundamentally if resources on this planet are to be conserved this is one of the first places to look! People should not be so hung up as to where they live – driving hours per day for work to enjoy so called ‘lifestyle’ benefits is a joke – can anyone seriously enjoy these benefits during the week when they are working massive hours, and then stressing themselves driving back in the evening?

Similarly, in this day and age it is lunacy that employers in specialized industries insisit on the ‘bums on seats’ mentality – imagine if those with family lives already setup away from their new employer do not necessarily want to drive to work everyday – well it’s here folks – in most parts of the civilized world internet is now fast enough to effectively enable this – with the ability to dial into meetings, and sharing data. If we are to improve our carbon footprint – why are countries such as Australia not supporting the rollout of high-speed broadband. This nicely brings me to my next point of capital investment.

Another reason why commuting culture is so damn prevalent is the lack of viable alternatives – in countries like Australia there are no regional railways, or any other suitable transport networks to travel long distance apart from the car for commuting – In Britain it is a similar problem – even with ridiculous fuel prices, it is often cheaper to drive than take the non-subsidized public transport. What needs to happen to get public transport up and rolling is capital investment in infrastructure, and long- term government subsidized fares  It works in the rest of continental Europe, but of course Business is king in Britain, so the public naturally gets a short tax break, and otherwise raped.

Of course the best solution must be a bicycle or walking – no emissions, and a bit of exercise to boot. I’ll keep riding mine – It takes less time than the train to cover 30 miles per way, it’s less stressful than the car, and it means I can eat whatever I like. Now I just have to wait for my ankle to recover so I can start doing it again!

So for starting on electric cars, I have ended up quite a while off. In essence the very problem these things set out to solve, are already technologically solved – what needs to happen is a cultural and political shift to crack down on car commuting, to ensure that the alternatives become reasonable and culturally acceptable.