I hear UK prime minister Boris Johnson intends to ban the sale of all new petrol and diesel cars by 2030. Quite a thing, that.
Wonder if he will achieve it. I have never been in an electric car, but I believe it is almost silent. Which makes me grin because it reminds me of a story about a friend who drives an electric car. More of that later. So ja, according to the Financial Times, old Boris was originally going to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040, but he is bringing the ban forward to 2030 to “jump-start” the electric car market and help the UK get to its goal of zero carbon emissions by 2050. I am trying to imagine what it would be like to have only electric vehicles on the roads, cars with no engines but that run on rechargeable batteries. Imagine Knysna Main Road, that noisy, smelly N2 that bisects the town, (what’s happened to the N2 bypass by the way?) filled instead with silent electric cars, no noise, no smell, no exhaust particles to clog the lungs, and no climate-changing carbon emissions. How good would that be? And here’s a clever thing: in some countries they are using solar energy to recharge electric cars, and have recharging stations with rooftops covered in solar panels. So while you sit in the office, your car is plugged in and “filling up” with sunshine to power you home. While it is expensive to build charging stations all over the country, Wiki says the cost of installing charging stations for electric cars will be repaid in three years by savings on health costs because of no exhaust pollution. We know air pollution causes disease and premature death. Now scientists have found a higher number of Covid-19 cases and deaths in heavily polluted areas. Back to my friend who drove a hybrid car. One night after a dinner party he was stopped at a routine roadblock. He was immediately anxious. He knew he had drunk more than two units of alcohol, and when the traffic cop asked for his driver’s licence, he remembered he had not returned it to his wallet after returning from overseas. He is a university professor and getting done for drink-driving and no licence would be bad news. Guilty. Lucky for him the traffic cop was a car enthusiast. Before getting anywhere near the breathalyzer bit, he said: “Sir, is this an electric car?” “Yes, a hybrid actually, electric and petrol. It can run on either.” “And is it really silent when it’s on electric?” “Yes, very quiet.” He paused. “Shall I show you?” The traffic cop nodded. My friend switched his car to electric, and sailed off into the night, leaving the cop behind, staring after him. A nifty escape. Not that I support drink-driving, understand, but we did laugh. Roll on electric cars, and good on you Boris! Hope I live to see the day when a city has a totally silent rush-hour.
