Inside the industry: Are large EVs a force for good?

Change doesn’t just create opportunities but threatens existences too.

I write this because it seems to me that it has never been more important to question the motives and context behind some of the rhetoric of the moment.

A recent example is a pivot by Transport and Environment (T&E), a long-established lobby group that campaigns for cleaner transport. Where previously it focused on combustion-engine emissions, now it has investigated tyre-wear emissions from electric cars, concluding that their heavier weight means they shed harmful particulates in greater numbers.

The report and its findings have since been dismissed by a mix of experts, the broad conclusion being that tyre particulates are bad for the environment but not so much for human health, as suggested. Both parties – each with diametrically opposed views – are now arguing it out, so it’s hard to know who’s right.

So what do we conclude as onlookers? Has T&E found a new, valid platform from which to justify its existence long into the future; or are the detractors right to say that a group created to lobby against the use of fossil fuels has slipped up as a result of a need to switch its focus to EVs to stay relevant?

Another example from a slightly different angle: Fair Fuel UK, a well-known and seemingly well-run campaign group that has earned the support of MPs and the public alike for its work in lobbying around fuel-pricing over the years, has recently changed tack to wind up its anti-EV stance to quite extreme levels. Why?

Maybe you side with its manifesto that EVs are too expensive, too damaging to the environment and more. It’s far from alone in its views, after all. Or maybe you side with those who feel a group called Fair Fuel UK is running out of road as the 2030 ban on new ICE cars approaches and is motivated by self-preservation as much as representing the views of its membership.

There are countless other examples, with fingers of suspicion pointed at everyone from car makers and fuel retailers, accused of wanting to prolong the life of combustion engines for profit, to synthetic fuel manufacturers for seeking new business opportunities and EV evangelists for overlooking any negatives in their pursuit of change.

All you can do is be alert. Sifting the noisy voices from the expert ones has never been harder, not least because few of the questions in this transition period have definitive answers. That in turn makes it easier to propagate opinions as facts, allowing opposing (and often contrary) voices to gain traction, misinformation to spread and division to thrive.