So without going all ‘eco-hippie’ on you, and because I’m a bit of a petrol-head at heart, I can see only one alternative to burning through old dinosaur bones, and that’s to use hydrogen.
Now, get the image of that infamous Hindenburg airship falling to earth as a flaming wreck out of your collective heads and buckle in, I’m getting my ranting trousers on.
Electric cars are great, but are fundamentally flawed. They still run off fossil fuels, in a roundabout way, as you charge them from the national grid, which comes from a big filthy power station commissioned in the days of stove pipe hats, Brunel and typhus. Add to this the issue of not being able to go a whole week of commuting on one single charge means electric cars will become the best option for city motorists, but us folk here in the sticks will probably have to find alternative means to get around.
Hybrid vehicles suffer similar problems, although more indirectly as you top up half the tank with petrol (still) and the other half of some, like the Toyota Prius, have batteries made from nickel mined in Canada which is shipped to Europe to be refined, shipped to China to be made into “nickel foam,” then to Japan for assembly and then sent to the UK to be sold. And they say it has a minimal carbon footprint?! REALLY?! It’s not just the environmental cost of actually running the vehicle to consider, but the work that goes into putting it together. If it was human it would club baby seals. With another seal.
So what are the alternatives? I’m putting my money on hydrogen fuel cells, however much the oil industry big wigs may hate me saying so. (If you do work at OPEC and would like to discuss the matter, please email me).
Manufacturers like Honda, Toyota and Hyundai have all invested heavily into finding a way to make the hydrogen fuel cell work in a modern car, and have gone so far as to release models operating the technology, but the main problem now is supporting the oncoming fuel revolution.
Essentially, hydrogen powered cars are just the same as hybrids except they use the H2 to power their electrical motor, not petrol. And the best part is there are no carbon emissions coming out the back end. Nothing!
The down-side at the moment is if you buy one of these amazing new machines that will save the planet, you’ll be able to drive it for around 250 miles before you have to refill with hydrogen. That sounds easy, and indeed it is much easier than having to plug your car into the wall for a few hours to recharge. You can simply fill the vehicle up with hydrogen in the same way you would fill up a standard petrol or diesel car. Although this still seems to baffle some drivers at our local Sainsbury’s.
Except that would require every petrol station in the land to stock hydrogen. Which they don’t currently. In fact the UK only has four stations that have the facility to refill a H2 powered car. FOUR! In the whole country! If you’re still reading Mr OPEC, can we get this sorted?
The future is coming slowly, with cars like the Riversimple Rasa (pictured above), which is Welsh by the way, coming to take your trusty dinosaur munching Ford Fiesta away with the sands of time. Drive safe!