No loans for diesel

or petrol cars?

This is what one of the major banks in Downunder has announced in the requirement for everyone to use electric vehicles. It is yet another move in the "43% reduction in emissions" target. 

Apparently two states will be exempt from the requirement - for now. One has a very sparse population over a large area. The other has similar features and a larger indigenous population.  

It seems those involved are at least being realistic about this....but is everyone else?

A friend of the Senior Cat is devoted to the electric vehicle cause. He has spent years working on them. His wife almost divorced him over the time he spent at one of the universities working with people there. (In the end she just shrugged and went to computer programming classes instead. They now lead fairly separate lives in the same house.) 

But N.... is still devoted to the cause. He tried to enthuse the Senior Cat - with little success. For the Senior Cat a car was merely a means of getting from one place to another in a convenient fashion. The Senior Cat also believed in bicycles - and rode one to and from the schools he worked at here in the city.  When he finally gave up his licence to drive he still rode a "gopher" or "scooter". That was battery powered but it was the closest he came to wanting an electric vehicle. 

More than one person has offered to put a motor on my trike. I have resisted strongly. It is my exercise machine. I need exercise. More things can go wrong.

But these electric vehicles? I wonder whether they are really as environmentally friendly as they are claimed to be. They need to be made. The manufacture of anything is not yet environmentally friendly although I suppose it might come to a point where factories are powered by solar panels and batteries...but you still have to manufacture the panels and the batteries.

Solar panels do not have an unlimited life-span. There are environmental issues in the making and, later, disposing of them. The batteries need lithium - and the world's supply of that is limited and likely to become another issue over which people will go to war. 

And in this country people sometimes travel vast distances. Are we going to have charging stations available every hundred kilometres or so. Yes, they say there are cars that can travel 300km or more on a single charge but is that the case in this climate and under the likely conditions?  Will people be willing to risk running out of charge on a remote highway when they can take a container of petrol for the old fashioned sort of vehicle. More than once, someone has been able to give a stranger enough fuel to help? Do they have portable charging stations? 

And how long will it take to recharge on a long journey? The "rest break" might be a good thing but impatience to be on the way will also be an issue.  What happens out on the farm? What happens in the remote areas of a sheep or cattle station? (You could need more than 300km in a day in some of those places.)

A blanket ban on loans for diesel or petrol vehicles is not going to work. They might well be fine. They may work but people are not going to take the risk yet - if ever.  

What they might be prepared to do is drive diesel and petrol and plant trees and other vegetation to neutralise the impact. Everyone would benefit from that.