Is electric the road ahead?- Response (6)

I would have to disagree with Mr. Moroney regarding several points. I disagree with his belief that the Irish government’s recently announced target of having 10 per cent of all registered vehicles running on electric power by 2020, "seems a little far-fetched." I believe that it is entirely likely that by 2020, over 10% of the world's vehicles will run on electric power. This seems quite a reasonable goal considering that electric cars are already available and will continue to become more economically priced over the next 11 years. I think that once electric cars are affordable, people will quickly adopt them.

I think that it is only fair that electric car owners receive the most tax breaks as they produce the least carbon emissions. I also believe that electric cars are the most promising. Hybrid vehicles still produce carbon emissions so they do not deserve equal tax cuts. Biofuels cause the price of food to escalate because they have farmers devoting land to fuel-production instead of feeding people. Fuel cell cars are the most expensive and difficult to produce of all. Hydrogen production also requires fossil fuels and produces greenhouse gases.

Moroney also suggests that the electricity to supply electric cars comes from plants run by fossil fuels and therefore offers no great advantage over gasoline-powered cars. I think that there will be an increasing supply of renewable energy as technology advances and facilities increase in size and number. This includes large wind farms and large solar installations.

Overall, I think Moroney underestimates the advantages of electric cars over the other alternative vehicle types.