The U.K. government
recently announced
banning purchases
of new automobiles
that use fossil fuels,
including hybrids,
starting in 2035.
Formerly starting
in 2040.
The five year earlier ban
of vehicles sold with
combustion engines,
allegedly to achieve
“net-zero CO2 emissions",
will not be celebrated.
Electric vehicles (EVs)
currently cost about
£10,000 more than
their diesel or gasoline
(petrol)-powered
equivalent sized vehicles.
The U.K. government
could make gasoline
and diesel vehicles
less affordable than EVs,
with new taxes on them.
That might cause a revolt !
Consider the revolt
in France when
President Macron
tried to implement
fuel price hikes
“to save the planet”.
For CO2 emissions,
EVs are only
as clean as the way
their electric power
is generated,
and stored.
But also consider
environmental effects
of mining the materials
needed for EV batteries,
motors and related wiring:
In June 2019,
a group of scientists
led by Professor
Richard Herrington,
the Natural History
Museum’s head
of earth science,
studied the replacement
of all internal combustion
vehicles on British roads
with EVs.
The scientists estimated
the batteries needed
to meet the U.K. demand
would require:
200% of current annual
global cobalt production,
100% of current annual
global neodymium production,
75% of current annual
global lithium production, and
50% of current annual
global copper production.
And that's just for the U.K. !
Consider
the CO2 emissions
generated by the vast
mineral mining process
needed to manufacture
the vehicles and batteries:
According to Tim Worstall,
a former trader
in rare earth elements:
“VW has released
the comparative numbers
for its new electric Golf
against the diesel version.
The all-clean,
all-climate-friendly version
must do 120,000km
[ 75,000 miles ]”
to break even,
“given the emissions
required to make the thing.”