Rowan Atkinson may not seem like the right person to speak about climate change and electric vehicles but he published an opinion piece recently declaring that “our honeymoon with electric cars is coming to an end” according to a Yahoo news report.
In a Guardian piece, he said, “Electric vehicles may be a bit soulless, but they’re wonderful mechanisms, fast, quiet and, until recently, very cheap to run. But increasingly, I feel a little duped. When you start to drill into the fact electric motoring doesn’t seem to be quite the environmental panacea it is claimed to be.”
Atkinson contends that manufacturing electric vehicles produces more emissions than gasoline vehicles. He also says that given the environmental harm caused by rare-earth mineral for the lithium ion batteries used in EVs, it would be better to wait for the development of hydrogen-powered cars and trucks and keep using gasoline in the meantime.
Interestingly the United Kingdom is also considering a ban on the sale of gasoline cars by 2030 in order to cut greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change.
According to the International Energy Agency, 14% of new cars sold were EVs, up 9% from 2021. In China, roughly 1,400 EVs were sold in 2010, compared to 5.9 million in 2022.
Professor at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands Auke Hoekstra said that Atkinson’s view was incorrect. She tweeted the following statement;
“It seems like the @guardian these days is all about blowing every negative aspect of climate solutions out of proportion, while shielding readers from the calculations that show what works and what doesn’t. Instead of making readers informed, the make them complacent.
“To summarize:
Atkinson is a great comedian but doesn’t understand the environmental impacts of EVs
The @guardian quality control should have picked this up.
EVs emit 3x less CO2 over their lifetime currently.
EVs sold in 2050 will emit 10x less.”
According to the Environmental Protection Agency website, “the greenhouse emissions associated with an electric vehicle over its lifetime are typically lower than those from an average gasoline-powered vehicle, even when accounting for manufacturing.”
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