Ferrari president: I don't believe in electric cars

There's been a lot of talk recently about electric cars - and this blog is no exception. As new models are introduced sporting larger ranges and smaller price tags, EVs are likely to become a market fixture, if not a dominating presence, in years to come.

So it is all the more curious to see the president of a major car company, Ferrari, publicly declare his skepticism about the battery-powered vehicles. In a recent interview with Engadget, the Italian automaker's president, Luca di Montezemolo, made it clear that there is no electric Ferrari in the works.

"You will never see a Ferrari electric because I don't believe in electric cars," Montezemolo said, "because I don't think they represent an important step forward for pollution or CO2 or the environment."

Indeed, electric cars are not a perfectly sustainable alternative to gasoline-fueled vehicles. Widespread use of EVs will put a strain on electrical grids, and unless large-scale renewable energy projects are developed throughout the world, most EV owners are likely to be powering their cars using coal-generated electricity. Still, electric vehicles are widely seen as our best bet towards cutting the use of fossil fuels and reducing our carbon emissions.

So it seems extreme for the head of a major automaker to unequivocally oppose the development of an electric vehicle.  But Montezemolo did say he believed hybrids were the way forward, and that he hoped to see a Ferrari hybrid in a few years.

Watch the video of his interview here.

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com