Comments on: Brown just doesn’t get it – it’s official.

By: Peter Wognum

Peter Wognum — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 10:29:57 +0000

Question: Happy to take this further off-line. In the meantime, I can recommend an excellent documentary made a few years ago, called “Who killed the electric car?” (http://www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com/)

By: Question

Question — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 10:41:37 +0000

Peter: I will be happy to accept your argument if you have evidence or could point out evidence of industry wide collusion between car manufacturers and the oil industry…. It is often talked about and speculated about because it does make sense. But - is there hard evidence?

Surely there can be no doubting the market share to be gained from a purely ‘green’ car.

I do agree with your point on batteries- why the hell have they not developed more efficient batteries!!!!!

By: Peter Wognum

Peter Wognum — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:50:43 +0000

[response to Question]: unfortunately, the point I was making about the Automotive Industry is that they had electric car technology as far back as the 1970’s. The reason the technology sat on a shelf gathering dust is because they were doing very nicely, thank you very much, colluding with the oil giants, so there was no need to dust it off.

They have had cars that can drive themselves and reduce traffic accidents to 0% since the late 60’s, but there is more profit in charging extra for airbags and parking sensors… and every crash write-off means another registration to replace it - trust me, they were just waiting for a govt. injection of cash to bolster flagging sales revenues before they agreed to take the old technology off the shelf - remember, if the battery in your cell phone can now give upward of 200 hours standby time, why haven’t they leapfrogged to a slim cell instead of putting large acid battery lumps into car floors?

[response to Peter Ridley]: At the risk of being labelled the world’s greatest cynic, why would I, as an energy company senior exec, use the research money for research into technologies that already have a proven track record (wind, wave, lightning, solar, etc.), when my CFO can play balance sheet merry-go-round and ensure that my profit statement still looks good enough for million pound bonus? Just a thought…

By: Pete Ridley

Pete Ridley — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:03:49 +0000

Peter Wognum hit the nail on the head when saying “… and just how long did the automotive industry sit on these ‘innovations’ before dusting them off after being promised our hard-earned tax money to ‘develop’ an alternative ..”. This is precisely what the energy companies are doing over the development of energy sources to replace fossil fuels. They have known for decades that these will run out eventually and would have to be replaced with alternatives in order for them to survive. There’s no great rush for them to invest much at the moment because theres still plenty of fossil fuels around for decades yet (Natural gas and coal in particular) but with the opportunity to get government funding for the research that they would have to fund themselves in future, why not get moving now. They have everythinmg to gain and nothing to lose.

Regards, Pete Ridley, Human-made Global Climate Chnage Agnostic

By: Question

Question — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:31:12 +0000

Sure I am also skeptical about the issue of where the electricity for the cars comes from and this is an issue that must be dealt with.

But there is a huge advantage to going electric if green power generation continues to develop. I firmly believe carbon capture will eventually come right and less carbon will be burnt in the future for each KwH. If it does and power generation becomes a lot cleaner then phasing in electric cars will have been completely justified. And this country will have come out on top for having invested its manufacturing in this area. What are the alternatives for personal transport, (bicycle???)

With regards to your last point - like any industry the economic incentive was not there to invest in new technologies. A company with a bit of foresight would be sitting very pretty now - there is no reason a car company should sit on green technology when that technology would give them a market advantage.

By: Peter Wognum

Peter Wognum — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:02:36 +0000

May I refer the honourable member to the Toyota Prius v Humvee life cycle cost fiasco (which was discussed here) and can be read in detail here.

Additionally, are electric cars just an electric dream; after all, where does the juice come from if not from more carbon intensive power generating stations (even if Miliband is supporting the carbon capture story)? Even the hydrogen cell car needs a power station to create the fuel…

… and just how long did the automotive industry sit on these ‘innovations’ before dusting them off after being promised our hard-earned tax money to ‘develop’ an alternative (18 years working with the OEMs can be quite enlightening as to just how much technology they are still sitting on!).

Additional feedback welcome!

By: Question

Question — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:40:31 +0000

But what about all the work that has been done in the auto industry?

Last week it was announced that Nissan will produce electric car batteries at its Sunderland plant, Toyota will start producing petrol/electric hybrid version of the Auris in the UK, Vauxhall, meanwhile, may yet win the contract to produce General Motors’s new electric car, the Chevrolet Volt. All this is a massive testament to UK manufacturing, saving and creating jobs.

Taxpayers money is also being spent on a lot of green infrastructure projects, including electricity charging points, a test track in the north east, and an R&D facility linked to local universities, and a training centre for electric cars.

A lot is currently being done that we can’t discount.