Charging stations and battery-electric cars will be developed thanks to us

In recent weeks, the massive oil spill flooding the Gulf of Mexico has once again put the urgency of bringing as many electric cars to market as possible (battery-powered cars, as someone pointed out to me) back on the table, as if global warming and the oil spill had anything to do with each other. As a final point, something few of us had considered: battery cars and their infrastructure will be paid for out of our own pockets.

While all governments are providing money to set up companies that help build infrastructure, and subsidies so that people buy electric cars, the money comes from nothing other than the taxes we all pay, while the battery car has still not matured enough.

The flood of electric cars, almost useless in many cases due to their short range with the exception of a few that are yet to arrive, is costing us just as much money, or more, than the same taxes we pay when we fill the car’s tank with petrol. Except for a few brands, all the others are caught in a reckless race to see who can produce the prettiest, least polluting car first, with ever more expensive batteries.

Whether their benefits will really materialise in practice, as they claim, remains to be seen. Meanwhile, I fear that we will go on subsidising battery cars for many years to come, and keep treating the car as an excellent source of tax revenue.