Brydo wrote: “I think Georgie’s view is typical of many, both on the forum, and in the general public. Unfortunately our traditional “can do” attitude seems to have deserted us just when we need it most.”
Settling for something that doesn’t do what it needs to do isn’t failing the “Can do” test. It is settling for something that doesn’t do what it needs to do. It’s like buying a kettle that doesn’t boil the water but only makes it lukewarm, because using less electricity will Save The Planet. Or mercury-loaded light bulbs that cost ten times as much, last half as long (in real life, not in the adverts), are expensive to dispose of without polluting the water table and release toxic gas if you happen to break one.
We could all settle a car with no more than 80bhp, no leather seats, no electric tailgate, etc, ‘Just as long as it gets me from A to B’ but we don’t, because that’s not what we want and not what we often have to pay a lot of money for.
Don’t even get me started on the appalling working conditions of the people digging the Critical Earth Elements out of the ground in order to make batteries for electric vehicles or to manufacture Solar Panels.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/green-tech/solar/solar-energy-isnt-always-as-green-as-you-think
Also, the electricity needed to charge all these cars isn’t made by magic. I worked at AERE (Harwell) for twenty years, so I do actually know a bit about the pros and cons of ‘renewable’ energy – solar, wave, wind and nuclear.