Thursday 24 January 2013

The EUSSR in action: EU commission orders eight million charging points for electric cars to be installed

EUSSR in action
"Their way of thinking is based on an almost communist type of reasoning: Economic laws do not exist, politics may dictate economics"
Václav Klaus

The EUSSR was again in full action today. EU Politburo member Siim Kallas announced that eight million charging points for electric cars, out of which 800 000 have to be public, must be established in the European Union members countries until 2020. 

At the press conference in Brussels today, Kallas (Commissar in charge of transportation) also announced that the Politburo has agreed a new European standard for the charging points, the Common Compulsory EU Plug.


Commissioner Kallas has estimated the cost of building green infrastructure of transport at €10bn until 2020, compared with the the EU's €1bn a day cost of importing oil.
Read the entire article here
A highly misleading comparison. The oil is used to power millions of vehicles, without which Europeans and European industry and commerce would be unable to function, whereas the reality for electric cars is this:
"To me, this electric hype is inexplicable," Fritz Indra, a doyen in vehicle development, recently told the trade magazine Automobil Industrie. The honorary professor at Vienna University of Technology and former head engine developer at Opel and General Motors still sees a good deal of "open questions" -- and no satisfying answers. 
The first electric cars that aren't DIY projects and offer acceptable crash protection have arrived in the dealerships. Most of them are no-frills mini-vehicles that cost as much as a mid-sized sedans and can only take you a short distance and back on a single battery charge if you're lucky enough to avoid heavy traffic. Of course, that's not the case in the winter, when energy-sapping interior heating significantly diminishes its range. And if it runs out of juice on the road, no jerry can will help. Your only option is to call a tow truck. 
With all the drawbacks of this type of car, you have to be a true believer in electric mobility to imagine that there really are one million people out there who want to have one.

Another realistic view:
"The current capabilities of electric vehicles do not meet society's needs, whether it may be the distance the cars can run, or the costs, or how it takes a long time to charge,"  
Takeshi Uchiyamada 
Vice chairman, Toyota

The building of the "green infrastructure of transport" in Europe will be nothing but a huge waste of taxpayers' money. One can only hope that this madness will be stopped in time. 

Natural gas and liquefied natural gas - the fuels of the future - are mentioned in Kallas's  fuel "mix", but by concentrating on underdeveloped and ineffective electric cars, the Politburo is - as almost always - betting on the wrong horse. And environmentally, electric cars do not make much sense, either.  

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