Electric car folly

Graham McCarthy (Platform, 28 July) seems to delight in the fact that 14,500 electric cars were sold in the UK compared with less than 5,000 the previous year.

He is at least honest enough to admit that they are expensive, they take up to eight hours to recharge the batteries and they only have a range of 100 miles.

If Mr McCarthy is trying to make a point about electric cars reducing CO2 emissions then there is a long, long way to go in Britain.

There are more than 35 million vehicles on UK roads, of which 29 million (83 per cent) are cars.

There are 1.2 billion vehicles in the world, and the number is expected to rise to 2 billion by 
2035.

This reinforces my view that the green zealots do not have 
an ounce of common sense when they propose that Britain 
should do this, that and the next thing to curb emissions and save the planet when the UK, with 1.5 per cent of global emissions, would not make any difference, even if we closed everything down and went back to the horse and cart.

Clark Cross

Springfield Road

Linlithgow