While a lot of people, including the environmental lobby, seem to have some difficulty in believing that aviation contributes a mere 2 % of the emissions thought to be responsible for global warning, the same people and many others apparently have no problem with believing the utter nonsense painted on the side of some electric cars.
Check out the latest offering from Citroen. Zero g CO2 boasts the logo and no doubt a lot of environment conscious folks will go and buy it on the strength of this message. Politicians will also not miss the opportunity to get photographed beside such a car, lending it added legitimacy.
Quite apart from the utility of such a vehicle (and even Citroen admits that this is just an early try, far from perfect), the problem with this kind of claim is that it is simply not true!
Such a car carries a load of batteries which need to be recharged. At the normal rate, this takes 6 hours and the car will run 120 km on a single charge. That equate to about 2 hours of running time.
True, the vehicle itself will not produce emissions while operating or charging… but the power station will, and lots of it too. Charging batteries is a notoriously inefficient operation and producing the electricity needed for charging is anything but environment friendly.
OK, we could assume that electricity is coming from nuclear power stations… or wind turbines… but the former are not exactly favorites either and the latter are far from having replaced power stations running on coal or gas.
In other words, Zero CO2 splashed on the side of any vehicle is a blatant untruth.
It would be much more honest to say (if they have to say anything) that there is zero CO2 emission locally and may be even paint a few smokestacks after the claim to put things into context.
Of course this is a far less exciting message commercially or politically, but far more truthful. Probably that is the problem with it, come to think of it.
Aircraft do not have inscriptions on them saying that they produce only 2 % of the harmful emissions but if we want to be believed may be we should take a clue from the makers of electric cars…
This post is both interesting and factual. Let’s see what electric car enthusiasts have to say in their defense.
I just find all these cars very expensive for the service they give. Hybrid cars are a better option moneywise.
And true enough we plug in and do not know where the electricity is coming from for electrons do not have a tag on them saying zeroCO2.
I wonder if you have looked at how much IT contributes to emissions worldwide (4%) but don’t tell anybody the next time you send an email…