I love electric vehicles – and was an early adopter. But increasingly I feel duped

I love electric vehicles – and was an early adopter. But increasingly I feel duped | Rowan Atkinson

Sadly, keeping your old petrol car may be better than buying an EV. There are sound environmental reasons not to jump just yet

Electric motoring is, in theory, a subject about which I should know something. My first university degree was in electrical and electronic engineering, with a subsequent master’s in control systems. Combine this, perhaps surprising, academic pathway with a lifelong passion for the motorcar, and you can see why I was drawn into an early adoption of electric vehicles. I bought my first electric hybrid 18 years ago and my first pure electric car nine years ago and (notwithstanding our poor electric charging infrastructure) have enjoyed my time with both very much. 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 facts, electric motoring doesn’t seem to be quite the environmental panacea it is claimed to be.

As you may know, the government has proposed a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030. The problem with the initiative is that it seems to be based on conclusions drawn from only one part of a car’s operating life: what comes out of the exhaust pipe. Electric cars, of course, have zero exhaust emissions, which is a welcome development, particularly in respect of the air quality in city centres. But if you zoom out a bit and look at a bigger picture that includes the car’s manufacture, the situation is very different. In advance of the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow in 2021, Volvo released figures claiming that greenhouse gas emissions during production of an electric car are 70% higher than when manufacturing a petrol one. How so? The problem lies with the lithium-ion batteries fitted currently to nearly all electric vehicles: they’re absurdly heavy, many rare earth metals and huge amounts of energy are required to make them, and they only last about 10 years. It seems a perverse choice of hardware with which to lead the automobile’s fight against the climate crisis.

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Jannarelly Floats The Idea Of An Electric Design-X1 Roadster

With 2017 now drawn to a close, automakers around the world, big and small, are looking towards the new year ahead. That includes Jannarelly, which is floating the idea of an electric version of its Design-1 roadster. The Jannarelly Design-1 is the work of the same Anthony Jannarelly who designed the Lykan Hypersport and Fenyr Supersport for W Motors (among other projects ). The minimalist sports car draws inspiration from classic roadsters, powered by a 3.5-liter V6 mated to a six-speed manual transmission. The project dubbed the Design-X1, however, would do away with the internal-combustion engine in favor of an electric powertrain of undisclosed specifications. The version pictured – in a neon tint akin to the new Aston Martin Vantage's with a red grille frame and grey stripes – also features a single-seat cockpit, with the rest of the cabin covered by more bodywork. At this point, Jannarelly and company are gauging public opinion to see whether they should proceed ...

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