Until they come up with battery technology which approaches the convenience and range of current vehicles there's no way this will be anything other than a huge problem for most of us who live in the real world, in real streets with nowhere to park let alone charge our cars. If HMG had dedicated itself to creating that technology I'd have no problem - I have no love of petrol or diesel and electric vehicles can outperform both. What I see happening though is what's already started - owners of diesels which they were encouraged to buy as a direct result of so called expert opinion, finding themselves effectively punished. I predict that the infrastructure won't be ready, the advances in battery technology won't be sufficient, the environmental problems associated with making/disposing of batteries won't be solved and we'll find ourselves being told we can use our electric vehicles as much as we want as long as it's only between the hours of midnight and 6.00am and we don't try to recharge our vehicles more than 3 times a week. NOw if HMG is honest about this we can all at least make a judgement about whether environmental issues trump our convenience but let's not pretend that argument doesn't need to be had and we'll all be able to enjoy the same freedom and flexibility we currently do.
Yes that will probably have environmental benefits and we need to weigh those up but let's not try to pretend that battery technology is going to yield the freedom we all appreciate at lower cost and with all the wonderful environmental benefits we'd all like to see. That isn't going to happen.
---------- Post added at 16:05 ---------- Previous post was at 16:04 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris
Tesla's long-term aim is for their cars to be fully autonomous. Your car should be able to rest in a remote charging station overnight and then come to your house when you call it.  |
... and who'll be held responsible when a jaywalking, mobile phone addict gets run over by it?
