First sighting of an electric car for hire - David Hughes writes

Seen on the Lakes Estate near Broomfield Park my first electric hire car.  And a natty little number it was: bright orange, clean as a new pin, no health-damaging emissions and whisper quiet.  It was love at first sight, and make no mistake this was an important moment.  Electric power is very likely to be the ‘fuel’ of the future, and because private ownership of cars is becoming increasingly problematic as traffic clogs our streets and squabbles over scarce parking mount, more car-sharing is inevitable.   This car is a harbinger of the future.

Traditional oil is an amazingly flexible source of power but it’s running out – not tomorrow, even the day after tomorrow – but consumption has exceeded new finds since the 1970s and the peak may already have passed. It’s dirty too, from the cancer-causing particles called PM10s to Nox gases with their ozone and eutrophication effects, to the carbon emissions it’s bad news at the scale of its current use - at the point of use electricity is a better bet.

For the moment electricity is largely produced from fossil fuels so all these disadvantages will take place somewhere whatever fuel we use in our cars, but just as my sighting near Broomfield Park is a harbinger of change, so the production of electricity is on the cusp of becoming renewable and nuclear.  This is a symbiotic change; good for the climate, good for our health, good – with its silent motor and smooth progress – for the experience of urban living.  

Car ownership has doubled since the 1980s!  I’ll repeat that: car ownership has doubled over roughly 25 years, and it’s still rising.  Soon enough, now that gardens have become car parks and streets clogged, a limit will be reached.   Car-sharing, whether by hiring or through car clubs, is an obvious way of ameliorating the problem, which is why I applaud the orange hue and strident information of my sighting.  This car announces a new age.

I just couldn’t resist speaking to the family who had hired the car.  Turned out they were an English/Spanish family with local connections on holiday from Madrid, and they had hired the car to help their daughter with a school project.  It seemed apt: a young person choosing a car and way of doing things which herald a new age.

David Hughes

5 Sept 2010