Despite increasing in popularity annually, electric cars still have one major downfall and that’s the fact that they’re simply not zero-emissions cars like often claimed.
While the process of actually driving an electric car may not produce any emissions, the gases produced to create the electricity which powers electric cars is just as bad, if not worse for the environment than traditional internal-combustion engines.
And in a recent interview, Maserati’s boss Herald Wester vented his frustration with electric cars stating that the emissions emitted at power stations simply defeats the purpose of electric cars.
“All this discussion about zero emissions is nonsense. Nobody talks about the efficiency of how the battery is charged. It varies strongly from region to region, depending on how the energy is produced, nuclear, coal and so on, but even the best is not ahead of the internal combustion engine,” he said.
Wester then went onto reveal that it’s likely Maserati will have to adopt hybrid technologies in the near future to meet new emissions legislation in regions such as the U.S., but insisted that diesel and compressed natural gas powered cars still remain much more viable and efficient options.
“It looks like something we will have to, but the only reason to do it is to meet regulations. We don’t see it as a significant business.
“Diesel and CNG are the more obvious answers if CO2 is the focus. Both are more viable answers than hybrid. If they gave us a CO2 target instead of imposing technology then we would go that way.
“If we want a realistic solution to emissions then the regulators need to be more honest in how they calculate emissions. Electric cars are not the answer,” he concluded.
[Via Autocar]
