KW: The government here in New Zealand proudly held up a booklet supposedly a well researched planning document for future policy and direction for kiwis to help save the planet and do our bit to redusce carbon emissions

But what all these documents seem to do is ignore the other side of the equation and this article quoting Akio Toyoda the grandson of the founder of Toyota Motor Company, Kiichiro Toyoda, sheds some light on the real cost of scrapping your petrol car and going to battery powered cars.

‘ Studies detailing the carbon emissions necessary to manufacture an electric vehicle reveal that on a net basis, there are more emissions for vehicle bought and used for its expected lifetime, than would be generated by buying and using a conventional gasoline-powered vehicle.’

Thats not in green philosophy!

https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/battery-fairy-other-delusions-race-replace-gas-powered-cars

Correspondent Brian A writes and questions:-

There are a number of other important issues that New Zealand needs to consider too:

1.      If we import significant numbers of used electric vehicles do the prospective purchasers of these vehicles really understand that the batteries might already be half way through their life, and that the cost of a replacement battery could be way beyond their budget expectations.

2.      How do we mange to dispose of the ensuing mountain of used batteries. Some suggest that used batteries can be re-purposed. Frankly, that is a nonsense. If we have a fleet of, say, 100,000 EVs in New Zealand, then we should expect 10,000 batteries to be disposed of each year. The electrical and mechanical properties of EV batteries, and the fact that many are liquid cooled, make it extremely difficult and expensive to convert them to some other practical use. Re-purposing them as storage systems in solar installations is simply a suggestion from someone’s over-vivid imagination.

3.      Presently the Government enjoys a very significant revenue stream from the taxes on fuel and road user charges. EVs, for the moment, are exempt. What is going to replace this revenue stream as the fleet of petrol and diesel vehicles is replaced by electric vehicles.

4.      Today the Lithium Ion technology used in EV batteries also requires significant quantities of cobalt. The most abundant source of cobalt is the Democratic Republic of Congo, where cobalt is mined under atrocious conditions. What is the environmental impact of that?

Will electric vehicles really lessen the overall environmental impact on our planet, or even reduce CO2 emissions ? I think that is debatable.