Are Electric Cars Really The Way To Save The Environment?

Thursday, 23. July 2009

Considering the latest announcements relating to electric car production and the government emphasising its efforts to support electric cars by increasing incentives it was a bit of a surprise to hear Bosch announce that petrol and diesel cars will be by far the most dominant vehicles for the next 20 years. They went on to explain that this would be due to planned improvements that are due to take place in the internal combustion engine and as a result of an insufficient understanding of technology which has led to unrealistic forecasts about electric vehicles. Dr Bernd Bohr, chairman of Bosch Automotive group, predicted that fuel consumption from a mid range diesel would climb to 80 mpg with emissions down to 99g/km. Various factors will bring this about, new combustion processes, precise injection technology, tubocharging and stop-start. However, Bohr believes that the way forward is via hybrid technology which he sees as a bridge to full electrification. Bosch are currently working with Samsung to produce lithium-ion battery cells as part of their commitment. He went on to make the point that most electricity is generated through non renewable sources and still includes coal fired stations. He estimated that an electric car still effectively emitted 120 g/km after taking into account the power created to drive the cars from CO2 emitting power stations. Watch this space. By Graham Hill