Electric Vehicle Honeymoon Ending. Keep Petrol Motor

I like electric automobiles, and I was one of the first to have one. However, I am starting to feel deceived.

It's a shame, but your old petrol car might be better than an EV. Don't hurry to switch yet, there are good environmental reasons.

I should know about electric motoring because of my degree. My first degree was in electrical and electronic engineering. I also have a master's in control systems.

Because of my love for cars and my academic background, I became interested in electric vehicles at an early stage.

18 years ago, I got my first electric hybrid. Nine years ago, I bought my first pure electric car. Despite the bad electric charging setup, I really liked both.

The picture shows Rowan Atkinson with his 1952 Jaguar MkVII. He was at the Goodwood Motor Circuit in West Sussex in 2002.

I should know about electric motoring since I studied electric and electronic engineering in university. I even got a master's in control systems.

Electric cars are fast, quiet and used to be cheap to run. They don't have much personality though. However, the more I learn, the more I feel misled about their environmental benefits.

The Government wants to ban new petrol and diesel cars by 2030. But there's a problem. The plan only focuses on the emissions from the exhaust pipe.

Electric cars don't emit exhaust, which is good for city air quality. But when you look at the bigger picture of making the car, things change.

Volvo recently shared data showing that creating an electric vehicle results in almost 70% more greenhouse gas emissions compared to making a petrol car. This news comes ahead of the Cop26 climate conference taking place in Glasgow next year.

Why is that? Electric cars currently use lithium-ion batteries that are very heavy and require a lot of energy to produce. These batteries also have a lifespan of only about ten years.

Using this hardware to fight climate change in cars seems like an odd choice.

People are working hard to find something better. It is not surprising.

We are working on creating new batteries called solid-state batteries. These batteries will be lighter and charge quicker than the batteries we use now. However, they won't be available for purchase anytime soon. This means many electric cars will continue to have heavy and outdated batteries until then.

Hydrogen is becoming an alternative fuel, but it's not really "green" yet. We can use it to power a hydrogen fuel cell, which is like a battery. Toyota has invested a lot in developing these fuel cells.

This system is light. It's half the weight of a lithium-ion battery. Cars can be refuelled with hydrogen fast, just like petrol.

Heavy trucks for long distance haulage may not be suitable for lithium-ion batteries due to their weight. Some people worry about this. One solution suggested is a new kind of piston engine that uses hydrogen.

The company JCB creates yellow diggers. They've made a lot of progress with hydrogen engines. They plan to start making them within the next two years.

It may be better to keep an old petrol car than buying an EV. This is sad news. The reason for this is that EVs may not be environmentally friendly. They require a lot of resources to produce. The production of an EV may release more carbon dioxide than a petrol car. Even though EVs do not release carbon dioxide during driving, they still have an environmental impact. Buying an EV may not be the best choice for the environment.

Yellow digger maker JCB progressed in hydrogen engine technology and plans to produce them soon.

Hydrogen may become popular for cars if it wins the race to power trucks. This is because every filling station will then have it available.

Let's step back and look at the full life of a car.

The car industry has been using a 'fast fashion' sales culture for many years. This is a big problem we must solve in our relationship with cars.

We tend to sell our cars after only three years. This is because of the popular three-year leasing trend.

Using up so many natural resources for a three-year-old car seems excessive.

As a kid, five-year-old cars were considered old and rusty. But now things have changed. By spending £15,000, you can create a durable car that can last for three whole decades if properly cared for.

If people held onto their cars for five years instead of three, less cars would need to be made and less CO2 would be released. This is a saddening fact.

We can still move around, even if we use older cars.

We should appreciate the cars we have right now. There are almost 1.5 billion around the world.

These cars did harm to the environment during production, but it's still worth considering how we can keep them while reducing their pollution. Using them less is an easy way to do this.

An environmentalist advised me to purchase an old car and use it sparingly.

Synthetic fuel is a good idea. It's already being used in car races. The fuel is based on two ideas. The first is that petrol is bad for the environment, not the engine. The second is that we can make anything in oil some other way.

Formula One will start using synthetic fuel in 2026. Porsche is making fuel in Chile. They are using wind power to make it. The main things in the fuel are water and carbon dioxide. People have different opinions about this.

It can be used in all petrol-engine cars with further development. This will make their use virtually free of CO2 emissions.

People are starting to realize that electric cars aren't the only solution to environmental problems caused by cars. We need more options to properly address these issues. The honeymoon with electric cars is ending, but it's not a bad thing.

We need to focus on hydrogen and synthetic fuels. We can use them to keep old cars running longer. This means we don't have to throw them away too soon. We also need to change how we think about buying cars. Instead of buying new cars often, we should use them for longer. New cars can last a long time, but people don't consider this often enough.

My eco-friendly friends ask if they should get an electric car. My advice: if you drive an old diesel and mostly in the city, you might want to switch.

Wait for a while before making a decision. Electric propulsion will bring a significant environmental change worldwide but it still hasn't happened yet.