Toyota Exec: Electric Cars 'Make Little Sense'
A Toyota executive made the statement this month that electric cars 'make little sense' unless the power that motivates them is drawn from a 'clean' source. This comment was reported by Responding to Climate Change, and while the individual in question, Didier Stevens, isn't one of the bigwigs at the Japanese giant, but he does represent the company in Europe in the government and environmental affairs departments. This gives his words more credence than one might typically assign to a corporate mouthpiece.
Stevens was speaking specifically about a world where electric cars are in the mix with gasoline vehicles to the tune of 1 million or more. European countries which derive much of their energy from coal could be looking at increased emissions due to this influx of battery-powered vehicles.
In Canada - and specifically, Quebec - electrical generation is quite different. Quebec, for example, relies almost entirely on hydroelectric power, which does not generate greenhouse gases, but which does cause environmental destruction in other ways. These include the flooding of vast tracts of land in order to create reservoirs, as well as the alteration of river ecosystems through the construction of dams.
