It's not about what the people want, nor about what is best, nor about what is more efficient, nor about what is less costly, nor about what the total price of the transportation system will be, including the single cost to an EV owner.
It's about the agenda. They stated it clearly, No ifs, ands, or buts. It's about the agenda. Everything else is a secondary consideration, like "businesses, consumers and jobs". Fact is that, consumers weren't really asking for the EVs, but they were being pushed on the consumer by the people with the agenda. Fact is that, businesses weren't looking for an EV infrastructure, but, it was being pushed by the people with the climate agenda. Fact is that, more jobs are created by allowing industry to find and develop the oil and coal and natural gas, which is already there, and ready for use; no need to develop a whole new infrastructure, which is a lot more costly than what is already there.
The hypocrites with the agenda have finally admitted their true goals, and it's mostly about their agenda.
Here's one in Amsterdam. If Europe could only install another 500,000 charge points, it might get a a few more EVs on the road, says climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard.
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Electric vehicle sales are slumping in Europe - not that they were ever booming. Consumers aren’t buying them for a number of reasons, including “range anxiety” - the concern that they’ll run out of juice while on the road, where charging stations are hard to find.
European Union bureaucrats to the rescue!
They want to install half a million new charge points across the EU’s 27 member nations by 2020, all using the same standard rather than the disparate technologies in use today.
“We can finally stop the chicken and the egg discussion on whether infrastructure needs to be there before the large scale roll-out of electric vehicles,” said climate action commissioner Connie Hedegaard on the EU website. ”With our proposed binding targets for charging points using a common plug, electric vehicles are set to hit the road in Europe. This is climate mainstreaming in action. And a win for the climate, businesses, consumers and jobs.”
The International Herald Tribune called the goal “the most ambitious part” of an €8 billion ($10.8 billion) Clean Power for Transport Package that also includes infrastructure for other fuels like hydrogen, liquefied natural gas, compressed natural gas, gas-to-liquid and biofuels.
“The EU proposal, which wants 795,000 charging points in all of EU by 2020, must be approved by the European Parliament and all 27 member states before it can go into effect,” notes The Copenhagen Post, from Hedegaard’s home country of Denmark.
In other words: who’s going to pay for it?
And another question: how much environmental difference will it all make if the electricity feeding these charge points doesn’t come from clean sources like renewables and nuclear? While we’re probing: what about wireless car charging?
Your answers and observations welcomed in the comments section below.
Photo: Bontenbal via Wikimedia.
More electric charges on SmartPlanet:
- EV charging stations: $1.2 billion market by 2020
- Wreck the environment - drive an electric car
- With new Tesla Superchargers travel far in an electric car
- Irish boost for electric cars: Free parking
- Electric cars stall in Madrid
- London’s electric car ante
- A Dutch cure for pollution: Free parking
Cutting the cord - two of the many SmartPlanet stories on wireless car charging:
