Peter Vosper: Could the motor industry do more to help the planet?

Since the introduction of electric cars questions have been asked about why electric was chosen and more importantly why other power choices were ignored. 

At one stage hydrogen was the most likely power source and, although an over-simplistic statement, could have been stored in petrol tanks and accessed in a similar way. 

The cost of making hydrogen safe, and the costs involved in production were probably why governments and manufacturers went the electric route. 

Did anyone consider how long motorists would continue to drive fossil fuelled vehicles as well as the size of the cars and the amount of emissions involved?  

Once again it would appear governments take short-term decisions which rely upon the big headlines to ensure a return at the next election and are more important than long term decisions which would give lower or nil emissions. 

I have questioned before whether we all need SUVs, s or whether it would save money if many of us ran a smaller car and rented a larger one for the odd day when necessary. 

Do both family members need a large car? Many motorists cannot live without a motor car because of poor, inadequate, and inconvenient public transport and the government admits this, but we can have a more responsible attitude to global warming by considering emissions when we make our purchase.

Just how many vehicles running on combustion engines will be around after 2035? Probably at least 20 million which suggests it will be way beyond 2050 before the majority disappear, unless future governments plan to tax them out of existence.

What is the government doing to encourage the development of alternative fuels such as hydrogen or e-fuels as we know we do not have enough electric power capacity to deal with the whole car and commercial market. 

The German government has agreed to help finance the infrastructure for hydrogen and some manufacturers are already offering products which run on this fuel. 

There are only 131 hydrogen fuel cell buses in the UK but this is likely to expand with the investment by one of Britain’s most successful companies, JCB.

It's also time the government found ways to get the price of public transport down. 

At the least, they promised to reduce the VAT payable on public chargers of 20 per cent to the five per cent we pay on domestic energy as this is an unfair benefit to those with houses who can have a wall box fitted. 

This combined with the new vehicle excise duty rates announced in the budget would encourage motorists to look at either electric vehicles or low emission vehicles in the future.

It is also good to see new plug-in hybrid vehicles with much bigger electric range combined with the security of petrol or diesel power to make it easier to charge at home or on public chargers.