Electric Cars

Sometimes I think that I am over pessimistic and that I condemn politicians far too easily. After all they are only human-beings trying to do a difficult job. But then they take another step which reveals that I may have seriously misunderestimated them - as George Bush may have said. This week, we have seen the government holding a cabinet meeting in Edinburgh - no doubt at great expense to us the tax-payers - for no other reason than to offer some soft soap to Scotland in the hope that they will continue to support Scottish Labour MPs. While enjoying, no doubt, their time up there and topping up their expense accounts, two cabinet ministers, Geoff Hoon and Lord Mandelson, went off to Knockhill race track in Fife to be photographed driving an electric Mini. The purpose of this photo opportunity was to publicise the government scheme to help the environment by giving people £5,000 towards the purchase of an electric car. Of course, with so much money involved, the government needs to set criteria that make sure that the cars purchased will be suitable for real practical use. At the moment, the total number of car models available that meet the criteria is ... err, err .............. zero. This situation will probably exist for a few years. When the required cars appear, will anybody buy them, even with the subsidy? Probably, no! Even with the subsidy, the cars will be more expensive than a conventional car, the performance will be more limited, range will be limited and re-charging will require hours and hours of waiting. If that were not enough, every few years they will need a complete new set of batteries at a cost of about £5,000. And when you become fed-up with all of this, the 2nd-hand value will be very adjacent to zero. This is a classic bit of spin. Lots of publicity and nothing to follow it up. What about the Mini they drove? The body is made in the UK but all the mechanics are made in Germany. BMW have no intention of offering this electric Mini for sale in the UK any time soon.

Electric cars may, one day, be the normal form of transport but not for a long time yet. Hybrid cars look like a better option but, even here, batteries are the problem. They are big and cumbersome and have a very limited life; this problem has to be solved before electric cars will ever be more than a gimmick. There has to be a way of getting home under all circumstances without needing hours to fill up with new electricity and the hybrid car does at least overcome this problem.

Now, what about investing our money is some real UK research into tackling the problems? It could help with our new economy based on making things again.