Demand for electric cars has dried up and it’s time for a rethink, says billionaire founder and Chairman of chemicals giant INEOS, Sir Jim Ratcliffe. Writing in the Telegraph, he says the “notion of a quick transition away from petrol was always barmy”. Here’s an excerpt.
The electric car is not popular today. The early adopters have all bought theirs so now the car giants are having to persuade ‘normal punters’ of the merits of going electric. And they are having none of it.
There is a rather fundamental drawback with the electric car. It simply doesn’t do what you want a car to do. It doesn’t get you from A to B reliably if you are on a long journey. And you have no idea whether you will be able to fill it up. Put it together and it’s referred to as ‘range anxiety’. And it’s very real.
Electric is fine and dandy for the short local journey, but should you decide to head off for the hills, forget it. And hence demand has dried up. Tesla is making 14,000 workers redundant. In March, German sales of electric cars collapsed by 30%. You can’t give a second-hand electric car away in the U.K.
Politicians have been dreaming of vote-winning green agendas and utopian engineering and energy switches. Dreams of course, don’t need to be real. They don’t need to accommodate the needs of the consumer, the practicalities of installing colossal new infrastructure and the small matter of where all this electricity is coming from. Coal?
Flipping transportation from fossil fuels directly to electric is not like flipping a light switch. The very notion is barmy, which is why the USA predicts electric car take up by 2050 in the USA will only be 20%. In Europe, our idealists are heading towards 100%.
Ratcliffe outlines his preferred transitional design of an electric vehicle with range extender (REX): “You can charge it in the normal manner. However, tucked away under the bonnet is a small engine and a generator. The engine powers the generator, when requested, which in turn charges the battery. The engine is not connected to the pedal, so is simple, efficient and reliable.”
“Why would you ever buy a fully electric car when you have this option of an electric vehicle with a range extender and complete absence of range anxiety?” he asks.
Worth reading in full.
In the same newspaper, Matthew Lynn says “the electric car carnage has only just begun”: “Ford has just confirmed what has long been feared: that the latest quotas are punitive for U.K. consumers and a gift to China.”
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Surely by their own description, given the reported number of “cases” and “deaths” we should be at level two at least.
So much for data not dates.
Agree, by their own definition we should be in level 2, I cannot see how we can be in level 1 EVER.
You can’t expect them ever to declare that we’ve reached level 1 – that’d be too much like Turkeys voting for Christmas!
Precisely. Anyone but a dimwit would recognize ‘Level 2’ as the most accurate factual description, even if you don’t succumb to the general idiocy of the ‘Levels’ for a virus that – even at worst – actually never reached the level of an ‘epidemic’ as defined by the GP monitoring system.
Conclusion : those making the statement are ‘dimwits’, even if slightly less so than the government.
They’re not dim. This is deliberate.
It’s so clear Rick, how can you not see it?
They know zero Whu-flu is impossible.
Don’t worry, the conniving evil b’s will bend the ‘rules’ and move the goalposts again and again to suit themselves. “Scary” new variants is one such tactic, to convince enough of the spineless public that we all must remain cautious. So be very wary of who you choose to hug ( But not before the 17th, mind!), because the Great Plague lurks everywhere, waiting to pounce on the unbelievers. “Data” is a flexible commodity, just like lies, damned lies and statistics.
Level 1 is unattainable. So they can always justify some restrictions. Fucks sake.
For money’s sake. For dictatorship’s sake.
Unless or until we the UK gets its own DeSantis this will never be over.
The overall mindset of the rulers is to control and keep controlling as they have some very unpopular legislation about to be put in place to help ‘save the planet’.
And there is this: Who among our “public health officials” or political leaders will now admit they were wrong? Apparently, even when one knows the policies he endorsed caused more harm than benefit, he is not going to admit this. Instead, he will be much more likely to “double down” on his past prescriptions, and indeed try to censor any information that might show he was wrong.
It’s much worse than that.
You’re a nice person, like much of the country, and you wouldn’t risk known harm to the vulnerable.
That’s not how the NHS thinks. Remember the Liverpool “Care” Pathway? They are capable of ruthless action in ordinary times.
Remember the deliberate shunting of the old to nursing homes at the start? They knew that would kill. Remember the GPs writing round asking the frail to sign Do Not Resuscitate notices? Remember the nurses visiting and leaving such DNR notices on display against the wishes of the elderly? Remember the same happening to the disabled?
And the pharmaceutical companies hiding research showing their products led to death or addiction which led to death?
For them it’s part of the job.
We the concerned ordinary folk are all scrabbling round at the margins of incoherent systems like VAERS and Yellow Card, trying to work out the death rates and harm rates. But Pfizer and the rest, and the NHS, already have the full facts – on the short term effects. They know people are dying and being injured. A minority, sure, compares to the number jabbed, but deaths and injuries which could be prevented by careful recording, investigation and a precautionary approach.
And it’s very clear that they don’t care at all.
UKColumn is now presenting the govt’s Yellow Card stats in a much more accessible form so go there, understand the reality and share!
I’m married to a beautiful, tall, leggy blonde who’s 10 years younger than me. We have 5 model children. I retired at 40, 5 years ago and we live in a 200-acre vineyard in Tuscany. I own 10 sports cars, have my own private helicopter and a 400-foot yacht on Lago Maggiore, not to mention 500 million pounds in bitcoin. Oh yeah, and there’s a pandemic.
These people are either nuts or they mean us harm. How can it possibly be higher than level 2?
The could be nuts AND wish us harm.
In fact, no one sane and sensible would do what they’re doing.
I’d heard of the “irreversible” “road map” back to normality, with its estimated completion date of 21st June. However, I now see (perhaps rather belatedly) that the declared “data not dates” rider (which I’ve long appreciated doesn’t cut both ways) will poleaxe the midsummer watershed, since SARS-CoV-2 won’t be “not known to be present in the UK“.
How has Boris been able to get away with touting his road map to normality without attention being drawn to the insurmountable hurdle he’s built into it?
It has been pointed out on LS months ago.
Everyone else is studiously ignoring it.
Are the cmo’s being led down the same path as us mere mortals? For a minute, I thought they were being “supported” by the wef/gates/who gang. However, perhaps there is hope that they realise something is amiss, when it is as clear as a bell to the guy down at the pub, that all restrictions should be lifted weeks ago. Shame on them for not being more vocal.
It should be lowered to level 2 and the “pandemic” declared to be over.
Yes we should be in level 2 of course but the pandemic can not be classed as over until 2023 or the vaccines can no longer be given! They are on emergency use approval until then, so no emergency means no vaccines. Not going to happen.
How low has it got to go? Do they require dead covid people to be resurrected?
Keeping a permanent state of emergency gives the excuse to keep the v@x programme live indefinitely. (I know other posters have mentioned this, but it bears repeating). By these alert definitions, we’ll never be back to any recognisable “normal”. Adapt and survive, friends.
Why are we still listening to these idiots?
Ditch the masks and back to normal.
This guy is coming to the rescue apparently. Give him your support.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/mW6hK9j7wCRZ/