Transportation

The internal combustion engine dominated the twentieth century. It changed landscapes, industries, communities; it fundamentally altered the way we lived. However, its drawbacks went hand-in-hand with its benefits and the high environmental cost of motoring remains a matter of intense debate in countries across the world.

Here’s the rub; cars are machines that rely on ever-dwindling resources and create emissions, yet their use is entrenched in our societies; not driving is simply not a viable option. It’s this problem that has lead to the growth of interest in electric cars as potential solution and this month Comment Visions talks to a man who believes it is a very real solution.

Jacques de Selliers is an engineer and the founder of the European Association for Battery Electric Vehicles. While realistic over the limited impact electric vehicles have made in mainstream motoring he argues convincingly that their time will come; largely because it has to.

With cheap oil supplies dwindling and pressure on to decrease emissions, there are significant question marks over how we’re going to get around in the future. Action needs to be taken soon but in what form should that action come? Are we going to be relying on biofuels, electric and hydrogen or some other form of energy to power our vehicles in years to come? Euronews met with Dr. Oliver Inderwildi of Wadham College in Oxford, lead author of one of the most comprehensive academic studies ever published on transportation.

Dr Inderwildi’s over-riding message is that nothing will change quickly. The current fleet of cars will be on the road until 2025, so any cut in emissions will only be gradual. “There is no silver bullet,” Dr Inderwildi concludes. “We have to get a smooth transition to a new transportation system by using now in the short term more efficient smaller cars, by choosing less carbon intensive modes of transport, like public transportation and railways. That’s what we can do in the short term and at the same time we should give R&D incentives to improve novel technologies like electric cars, green electricity production and fuel cells.”