Our public transport systems need massive investment and should be heavily subsidised, to the extent that it's so cheap, you'd be bonkers to consider driving. Unfortunately, rather difficult to cover with our escalating population growth,
This already exists. Sadly it is confined mostly to our cities as these are the only places with high enough population density to make it viable. Or, I should say, viable with the current ownership model. I know many local councils are contemplating investing in driverless EV vehicles. (I even heard of one council that were trying to get funding for a pilot scheme of passenger drones.) These will have much greater flexibility than current public transport solutions, and, in the long run, more economically sustainable as they only travel when they are in use.
Well said, field's of old batteries a non recycling
legacy ?
Not recycle-able ... yet. You must remember, the ICE was very different in it's infancy to what it is now. It is now a technology that has been developed for more than 100 years and had billions of pounds spent on R&D. With the same time and investment, battery technology will see a marked improvement, too. EV's are a much quieter, much cleaner technology. Far better for the health of the individual and the planet.
Thus far, investment in battery technology at both an industry or governmental level has been disincentivized due to fuel duty, sunk costs and the absence of service revenue. This is changing with the rise of China's battery production as European markets don't want to be left behind. One result of this is 'The Faraday Institute'
https://www.faraday.ac.uk/. One of the goals of this project is to improve the life cycle of batteries. I have friends working on this research - it is very promising.
Lead acid batteries weren't recycled for the majority of their usage in ICE. This wasn't a concern then. And with motivation and investment this has changed (thanks
@spike ).
Whilst I accept that it is a valid concern, we have to decide as a society whether the short term impact of 'fields of old batteries' are worse than the long term impacts of global warming. Personally, I think the latter is more pressing.
Back to the original post,
@JavaGreen, I think it's great that you're saving another A2. Good luck! Aluminium is an extremely energy intensive metal to manufacture and given that the A2 is so well designed it is such a shame to melt them down.
I agree with
@ashley7715 whole heartedly. The space frame is waiting for cheap batteries and a nice electric motor to come along. Here is hoping it's sooner rather than later. (Maybe we should start a crowdfunder for it!).
