Sir, – Twenty years ago a diesel car was more expensive than its equivalent petrol model. This attracted motorists incurring high mileage but also a cohort of civic-minded folk who were concerned about carbon emissions and global warming.
The price relativity abated and in 2008 a significant road tax reduction (typically €500) for newly registered diesel motors was introduced. This knocked thousands off the value of existing diesel cars and effectively proactive CO2 conscious drivers were heavily punished. A second counter-productive effect is that perfectly good pre-2008 diesel cars have become worthless and are now being scrapped prematurely thereby further aggravating our impact on global warming.
The same is going to happen in the electric car industry. The one disadvantage with electric cars today is the limited range obtained from EV (electric vehicle) batteries. It is believed this will be overcome in a matter of years as research and technology improves to address this drawback.
The ethically correct approach would be to design the next generation of longer life batteries so they can dimensionally fit into today’s electric cars, but I understand this is being avoided. So again, in time we will be also prematurely scrapping unwanted limited range electric vehicles.
Perhaps our international world leaders might focus on this issue and not just rely on restricted financial incentives, taxes and fines. – Yours, etc,
EOIN O DUNLAING,
Knocklyon, Dublin 16.