Electric cars are all very well, but surely this advert (and you can forgive Renaut for not mentioning this) misses a couple of key points?
Firstly the kids' toys, and some of the appliances. A good solar battery charger (annoyingly my Father has stolen mine and I've not seen it since) and decent rechargeable batteries will sort out that little issue. You still have the same issues with recycling the batteries when they kark it, but recycling is a hell of a lot better than it was 15 years back. They also last 4 times longer (I've been using the same Energiser AA batteries for about 6 years now).
Secondly there's the issue of where the power is coming from in the first place. It comes from a power station. Many of which are still being run on fossil fuels (up to 2 thirds worldwide). This means in layman's terms that the vehicle is effectively still the cause of some carbon dioxide production, and other air pollutants.
Does that mean we should give electric cars the miss?
Absolutely not! Power points are expanding, they can be powered from a solar panel over a couple of days (Robert Llewellyn's excellent blog reveals how he charges his), and they emit a damn sight less pollutants and noise than regular oil-based cars.
One of the things they wont tackle is congestion and health issues. That's where bicycles really come into their own.
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