Electric vehicles have a new detractor: Mr. Bean
Electric vehicles are on the up, offering increasingly attractive benefits. Among those who have adopted them, a majority would not wish to go back, while some are no longer so convinced.
You can add to the second group the name of Rowan Atkinson, best known for playing the famous Mr. Bean on the small screen.
Trained as an electrical engineer, the British actor is a car enthusiast. He bought his first hybrid 18 years ago and his first 100% electric car in 2014. Although he praises the speed, silence and economy of battery-powered models, he says he feels "fooled" and doesn't believe these vehicles represent "the environmental panacea we're being told they are".
In an opinion piece he sent to the British website The Guardian, Atkinson cites a Volvo study published in 2021, which stated that producing an electric vehicle generates almost 70% more greenhouse gases than a conventional gasoline-powered vehicle, due to all the energy expended to manufacture lithium-ion batteries.
"What's more, these batteries are absurdly heavy and last barely more than 10 years, which strikes me as a perverse solution for the automobile in the fight against climate change," he writes, while blaming an industry and society obsessed with novelty and rapid consumption.
Affirming that "the honeymoon is over", the actor remains hopeful about the new generation of batteries, those with solid electrolytes, which will be more compact, lighter, more efficient and longer-lasting, not to mention faster recharging.
Like some carmakers, including Toyota, he advocates a diversity of technologies and alternatives, such as making vehicles ever more efficient, including those already on the road. In his view, synthetic fuels have real potential. He also believes that hydrogen is a good way forward, provided we find a truly eco-responsible way of producing and distributing it.
"If hydrogen wins the race to power heavy-duty trucks, and consequently all filling stations offer it, it could become a popular and accessible choice on the car side," he adds.
In Quebec, the government has set itself the goal of having 2 million electric vehicles on the road by 2030, and of banning the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035.
