Should Manufacturers Pull The Plug On Electric Cars?

(Un)surprising news this week has revealed that electric cars might not be as environmentally friendly as once thought. Most of them are soulless and expensive, we know, but now there's an even greater chance they're killing off the global polar bear community.

Scientists at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology have discovered that greenhouse gas emissions increase massively when using coal in electricity production. To be fair, even I could've told you that. But what this means is that those smug eco-warriors might actually be causing more pollution than they think. The Norwegians have gone as far as to say that in some places, electric cars are no less polluting than petrol or diesel vehicles.

It gets even worse. Electric car production creates double the pollution of a normal vehicle, and also produces all kinds of toxic minerals that you don’t get when making the internal combustion engine.3

So what does this mean for petrol heads?

Simply, we no longer have to feel guilty about buying a car with a big engine. Used ones are pretty cheap too. There are plenty available for a few grand on sites like www.s1cars.com. Yes, you might have to fork out a fair bit on fuel, but at least you won’t feel like you’re the only one causing global warming or acid rain; everyone’s doing it now. Fancy a Jaguar V8, or maybe even a 6-litre Mercedes V12? Go for it. You’ll have a lot more fun in one of those than a Nissan Leaf.

Of course, tongue-in-cheek aside, not all electric cars are monsters. The Tesla Roadster is obviously pretty swish, as is the upcoming Mercedes SLS AMG Electric (E-Cell), but for the most part, they have quite a bit of catching up to do before they’re truly practical. Otherwise you'll be needing to hit up SGS Engineering Solutions to buy that car jack to figure out what the hell's up with your broken e-vehicle.

So the next time you get a disapproving look from the driver of an electric car, consider that you may in fact have the higher ground. Long live the internal combustion engine.

Disclosure: this is a sponsored post