Mythbusting the world of EVs: will they eliminate freedom?

Myth: EVs WILL ELIMINATE FREEDOM

I stumbled on a TV clip of a protest by drivers in 1966 against the new 70mph speed limit. A fellow called Graham Arnold stood up to rail against “speed limits, parking restrictions and all the petty privations that have been put on motorists” by “successive governments”. I dunno, don’t parking restrictions help drivers? Otherwise the roads would be blocked. It also now turns out that camera-enforced speed limits on busy motorways actually reduce journey times because they smooth the flow.

These days we’ve a new set of hot buttons. People are furious about an urban 20mph limit that mostly just reduces your wait time at the next red light and doesn’t affect trip times discernibly. Ultra low emission zones are another. They penalise demonstrable polluters, yet if you swap to a petrol car newer than 18 years old, you swerve the charge. Seems reasonable. “Petty privations”, aka the “war on motorists” is now part of the wider culture wars. And here EVs get dragged in. We saw it in the Uxbridge by-election, where resistance to the ULEZ was conflated with a mandatory timetable for new cars to be zero emission.

It doesn’t help that the word ‘emissions’ crops up in both measures. To be clear: ULEZ is about toxic emissions, particulates and NOx, which cause cancers and asthma. ZEVs are about reducing CO2 emissions because of the climate crisis. Different things. Only culture warriors benefit from the confusion.