MR. BEAN ARTICLE ON EVs
Recently I have seen from various sources an article on EVs by Rowan Atkinson, famously known as Mr. Bean. Many people might not know that the legendary Mr. Bean, real name Rowan Atkinson, got an Electrical & Electronics engineering degree before he ventured into drama and later the comedy that made him world famous. In the article written in June this year, Rowan says that he was not convinced about the positive environmental impact of electric vehicles and advised motorists to hold on to their ICE vehicles for the time being. I totally love the copius laughter medicine Mr. Bean has given me & the world over the years, but the technology insight by Rowan Atkinson needs some scrutiny.
Here is the article https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-12171473/ROWAN-ATKINSON-honeymoon-electric-vehicles-hang-old-petrol-motor.html
Let me start with what he got right. EVs are great to drive and cheap to run. They have zero emissions. They are quite expensive to buy. They have twin challenges of distance that can be covered with full charge, and very limited charging infrastructure. The goal of EVs is not to replace every ICE vehicle, but to reduce the reliance on private cars for transport. Synthetic and bio fuels will help a lot to reduce the emissions of the existing ICE vehicles. He concludes that EVs are not ideal for every use case, but that is definitely changing as we move into the future.
Let me go to what he got wrong. He says that many governments efforts to ban ICE vehicles have only considered operation emissions and not production emissions. The truth is that scientific studies have proven that EVs have way lower total production & operation emissions than ICEVs. Let us even assume that EV production emissions are marginally higher, this is one off compared to ICEV operation emissions that are for the life of the vehicle. Something that Rowan does not mention completely despite his strong engineering background, are the huge production emissions of fossil fuels, a topic which ICEV proponents and oil marketers never seem interested to talk about. He says that new vehicles have a 3 year replacement period and EV battery packs have a 10 year life span. Well, nowadays the vehicle replacement period is approaching 5 years on average especially in a post covid world with supply chain & capital constraints. Battery pack lifespan is between 10-20 years depending on use, after which they are repurposed to energy storage systems or recycled for materials which reduces the production emissions of the next EV even further.
He gives solid state batteries and hydrogen as possible alternatives to the current heavy liquid electrolyte battery packs. These two technologies are frequent and favorite fall back phrases from the anti-EV brigade, they are often an indicator of people who already have an opinion, then are looking for data to support their position rather than the other way around. Some basic research will show you that Toyota has been promising the world solid state batteries from 2012 but to date have never launched a single vehicle with this supposedly superior EV technology in terms of short charging times and long distance covered. That is where the scepticism of e-mobility proponents comes from, we have heard these announcements several times before but nothing to show for them. I would be happy to see solid state batteries boosting EV adoption, but for now it remains a hollow promise.
Now on hydrogen, where do we start with this train wreck in slow motion as I often call it? Hydrogen has low energy density, high pressure safety dangers, is very costly to operate and has a far poorer refuelling network than EVs. Virtually every hydrogen fuel cell vehicle project around the world is closing down one after another. Yet EV battery costs are coming down every year and EV sales are growing exponentially despite the high purchase cost. EV operation costs are about 75% lower than ICEV, what will happen in a few years when EV purchase costs will match or even beat ICEV purchase costs? Your guess is as good as mine, Mr. Atkinson.
Here are links to my previous articles explaining the factors that are making the EV transition inevitable.