Electric vehicles

Sir, – Hannah Daly is correct to state that electric vehicles are not the silver bullet for fixing Ireland’s unsustainable transport system (“Road space in our cities must be given over to bikes and public transport, not private cars”, Opinion & Analysis, August 5th).

Far from it, in fact.

Those currently purchasing EVs are doing so in the misguided belief that they are helping the environment, on the understanding that their new vehicles are emission free and powered by renewable electricity.

Perusal of the EirGrid Smart Dashboard (smartgriddashboard.com) clearly shows that on August 6th, natural gas and coal from Moneypoint are producing nearly 80 per cent of our electricity against 13 per cent from renewables.

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The dashboard shows that this pattern has been replicated for extended periods over the last number of months (and years) with renewables often hovering at less than 5 per cent, closely related to high barometric pressure.

Even when the wind is intermittently active coupled with low overall demand, renewables achieve 40per cent to 50 per cent, at best, the remainder produced by coal and natural gas. Ms Daly is probably aware of recent independently verified research by Audi/Volkswagen that, surprisingly, the carbon footprint (tCO2e) of the manufacturing phase and fuel and power supply chain of EVs is almost three times that of a conventional diesel car.

The difference is largely due to the mining, processing, transport and distribution of critical declining rare metals like lithium, cobalt, manganese, nickel, lead, zinc, etc, often sourced from unstable countries, many with appalling human rights records.

The result is that EVs only make sense economically and environmentally when powered by over 80 per cent renewables, far from the situation here in Ireland.

Ms Daly might therefore like to review her statement that, “compared with conventional cars, EVs are far less damaging to the environment, cause no pollution and can be powered by indigenous renewable energy, rather than fossil fuels’'. – Yours, etc,

JOHN LEAHY,

Cork.

Sir, – Late last week a mechanical failure put my elderly diesel off the road.

I decided to invest in an electric vehicle to replace it, only to discover that all major brands in the Irish market have a waiting list of at least six months, and in some cases it is longer.

The diesel is now getting fixed. – Yours, etc,

RICHARD BANNISTER,

Kildare,

Co Kildare.