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Letter: Getting radical about electric vehicles

Published 17 July 2024

From John Kitchen, Kettering, Northamptonshire, UK

In your story about getting UK climate goals on track, economist Michael Pollitt mentions the need to reduce the weight and size of vehicles. Why would anyone who wants to protect the environment design an EV that weighs more than 2 tonnes, leading to increased energy demand and road damage(22 June, p 10)?

Far better to use wind farms to make synthetic fuel from air and seawater to run a tiny onboard generator. This would recharge a supercapacitor for an electric motor. Such a car would achieve 120 miles per gallon with no carbon emissions, and without damaging the environment to make batteries.

Issue no. 3500 published 20 July 2024

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