Rowan Atkinson is being (bizarrely) accused of hurting EV sales after saying electric vehicles are all show, no substance.

Left-wing activist group, Green Alliance UK, made the claims during a House of Lords Climate and Environment Committee inquiry.

They allege that Atkinson’s June 2, 2023, op-ed published by The Guardian was responsible for slumping sales of the expensive fashion accessories.

In point 5 of their submission to the inquiry – registered in the footnotes as ELV0099 – Green Alliance said:

‘The level of debate has been extremely poor when discussing [Net Zero] EV transition.

‘One of the most damaging articles was a comment piece written by Rowan Atkinson in the Guardian which [they alleged] had been roundly debunked.’ (parenthesis mine).

GA then complained that the June 8, 2023, Guardian rebuttal, written by deputy editor of Carbon Brief, Simon Evans – a Biochemist – wasn’t forced on the public enough.

‘Unfortunately,’ flapped GA, ‘fact checks never reach the same breadth of audience as the original false claim, emphasising the need to ensure high editorial standards around the Net Zero transition.’

 

As if to reinforce Green Alliance’s accusations, the House of Lords strongly inferred that Atkinson – who holds a Masters in Engineering – was misleading consumers.

Mentioned 11 times, the committee calls on the British government to ‘robustly counter misinformation’ in the media (p.5).

In the equivalent of calling for a ministry of EV propaganda, the committee wants the British government to stop talking about the cost of EVs, and talk up the ‘benefits’ in order to build consumer confidence (p.15).

Contrary to the accusations, Atkinson’s Guardian piece, was a testimonial.

‘Electric vehicles may be a bit soulless,’ he began.

‘They’re wonderful mechanisms, but I’m increasingly, feeling a little duped. When you start to drill into the facts, electric motoring doesn’t seem to be quite the environmental panacea it is claimed to be.

‘The problem lies with the lithium-ion batteries fitted currently to nearly all-electric vehicles: they’re absurdly heavy, huge amounts of energy are required to make them, and they are estimated to last only upwards of 10 years.’

A veteran hybrid driver, and EV owner for 9 years, Atkinson declared EVs to be a ‘perverse choice of hardware’ in the quest to stop the climate from changing.

What the leftist cacophony condemning him failed to mention was that Atkinson ended his article by saying:

‘Hold fire for now.

‘Electric propulsion will be of real, global environmental benefit one day, but that day has yet to dawn.’

Atkinson arguing for alternatives, such as the further development of hydrogen, and synthetic fuels, were also omitted.

His article didn’t rule EVs out – which is probably why The Guardian green-lit publishing the piece in the first place.

Had Rowan Atkinson been guilty of working to undermine EV sales, his words would never have made it past the Guardian Op-Ed HQ.

Overall, it’s Green Alliance 0, Atkinson 1.

Despite being thrown into the fray as a climate-denying conspiracy theorist, Atkinson seems to have been vindicated by the general gist of the House of Lords report.

That report admits the limitations of electric vehicles are problematic.

These limitations include the ‘need for rapid recharge capabilities, lower energy prices to recharge EVs, public perception vs. propaganda, debatable battery life, cost of parts, and cost of individual repairs’.

Additionally, section 7 and 8 of Green Alliance’s submission admitted that price points are a big turn-off for consumers.

‘EVs are currently more expensive in terms of upfront costs than petrol and diesel vehicles.’

To overcome this limitation, GA argued for higher taxation to incentivise EV purchasing.

Arguing for higher taxation on non-EVs, they said, taxes should be used to disincentivise petrol power.

This revenue, they said, could be used to subsidise EVs, as well as charging stations, both public and domestic.

In sum, it’s not the consumers, or car critics hindering sales, it’s the cars, and fearmongering climate catastrophisers.

Even without pointing all of this out, The House of Lords report itself is called, EV strategy: rapid recharge needed

Enough said, really.

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This article was first published in Caldron Pool.

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