To ask if you have an electric vehicle? Would you recommend it?

[LordGribeau]

Just that really. We are looking at replacing our current mitsubishi outlander with an EV. Possibly a Kia Niro or Peugeot 2008. If you have one, would you recommend it? Are they good as a family car? DC are no longer in booster seats, so fit a bit more comfortably in the back.

Yes, what misinformation?

I like the idea of going electric but we live in a terrace with no off-road parking, and neither of us have parking available at work either (we live in a city and both walk to work). Anyone have any idea if there are any future plans for how those of us without off-road parking can regularly charge up?

@VanGoghsDog

Basically there are five elements on car pollution. 1) Making the car 2) Making the fuel for the car 3)Running the car for it's lifetime and 4) Scrapping the car 5) how long the car lasts for

EV's generally have between 1/5 and 1/3 of the pollution of ICE (petrol and diesel) vehicles when adding together the first 4 things.

Mr Atkinson is just talking about 1).

The BIG one is actually 3) as running a vehicle for it's lifetime is the biggest polluter and EV's are far better.

Basically 1) ICE vehicles are best 2) EV's are best by far 3) EV's are best by far and 4) jury is out, but if the model of reusing batteries as storage works, they are about equal. 5) jury still out BUT we are seeing EV's at 250k+ miles still completely usable and with good batteries, which definitely wouldn't be the case with ICE. Probably generally EV's are going to last longer than ICE.

Within a few lines he claims they're marketed as a panacea, which is wrong. Most people know they're not a silver bullet because, duh, manufacturing anything requires resources.

He then goes on about tailpipe emissions being the main consideration when the CO2 throughout manufacture has already been looked at. BMW manufactured the i3 using green electricity for instance.

He then bangs on about batteries and mining. Conveniently neglecting, as an electronic engineer, that the devices he uses are responsible for far more lithium mining than electric cars. Battery technology is moving away from lithium anyway as you can't get the density required for low mass, long range.

I read the article with interest but it's just the usual nonsense.

In answer to Rowan Atkinson's Guardian article here is a debunking Guardian article. 😮
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/08/fact-check-why-rowan-atkinson-is-wrong-about-electric-vehicles