The Mad Dash to Net Zero Continues to Cause Chaos Across Europe

Last October, the EU agreed to ban the sale of all petrol and diesel cars in Europe from 2035 as part of their push to make us all drive battery cars. The 27 EU countries agreed that carmakers must achieve a 100% reduction in C02 emissions by 2035 which would make it impossible to sell a new car that used petrol or diesel.

The UK, now outside the EU and able to make its own laws, passed laws in 2020 that petrol or diesel cars would be banned from 2030 (10 years ahead of the previous schedule). Then a year later it brought in more laws on all forms of transport as part of a broader package of green initiatives aimed at achieving net zero emissions from all forms of transport ten years later. This was really all about Boris Johnson wanting to look super green at the UN’s COP26 climate change conference in Edinburgh later on in 2021. But Boris was even more net zero demented than most. He pushed plans to create a net zero rail network by 2050. He even launched a consultation to make all planes in Britain run on batteries or windmills or nuclear so that domestic aviation would have zero emissions by 2040.

Last week it suddenly dawned on the UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, that 2030 was an impossible date to force everyone into battery cars and he announced that 2035 was now the new cut off date. You can imagine the chaos and confusion of car companies who need stability to plan ahead.

Meanwhile in Europe, we found out that new post Brexit laws in the EU to protect them from cheap imports would add billions to the cost of pushing everyone onto electric vehicles. Yesterday the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) announced that trade rules covering electric vehicles could cost European manufacturers £3.75bn over the next three years. The problem is, as always, our clueless politicians. They make laws without any thoughts to the consequences and this is a perfect example of that incompetence. In short Europe does not have the production capacity for batteries to meet this deadline and will therefore have to import batteries from elsewhere and pay a 10% import tariff.

It is almost comical that in the rush to net zero lunacy, nobody thought where the batteries would come from for all these electric vehicles. Once again it is the customer, who finds themselves as a pawn in the EU’s game, will be forced to pay even more.

Lets take a poor green zealot who has, foolishly, believed the climate change lie and bought a brand new electric car. How easy it is to charge their car depends greatly on the European country they live in. If they are in the Netherlands they will have 50 chargers per 100 kilometres. If they live in Germany they will only have 20 chargers for every 100 km. And if they venture further east to Romania or Greece, they will not be able to find even 1 charger per 100 km of road. It will be the citizens of these countries who have been forced to buy an electric car, who will be calling roadside recovery very often to bring a battery pack and give them a boost.

In the US it is no different, with Biden’s goal of having electric vehicles representing half of all new vehicles by 2030. But today the charging network does not exist and many multifamily units (just like Europe) , especially in urban areas, have become charging deserts. If only the automotive industry was more vocal about the net zero madness. But sadly they have bought into this lie, despite the damage it is doing to their own industry. Common sense is once again sacrificed on the altar of ideology.