Are electric cars the answer?

There was a recent report suggesting that by the year 2040 in the UK they want every single new car to be electric.

Speaking on the Drive program, CEO of the Electrical Vehicles Council of Australia Behyad Jafari says the reasons for it to happen are obvious.

“We now can start driving cars that are healthier to have on the roads, they’re cheaper to get from A to B on,” he told Tom Elliott.

“Why keep petrol cars that have smog that comes out at the roadside level where we breathe air?”

However Tom Elliott has raised a flaw in the idea.

“Where will the electricity be coming from? It was only earlier this year that we shut down the Hazelwood power station,” he said on the Drive program.

“90% of our electricity comes from burning brown coal, so all we’d be doing is swapping the burning of one fossil fuel, petrol or diesel for another fossil fuel, coal to generate the electricity needed.

“I don’t see in terms of pollution or greenhouse gas emissions we’d be any better off.”

Click PLAY to hear the interview