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The Environment Minister has told the States Assembly that he is very keen to ban the sale of new petrol vehicles after 2030 – despite calls elsewhere to push the date back into the mid 2030s.
Deputy Jonathan Renouf explained that a new scheme to help subsidise the purchase of electric vehicles should help Jersey achieve the 2030 pledge.
Answering a question from Deputy Steve Luce about whether the target date might have to be pushed back, the Environment Minister said: “I would be very reluctant to do that because of the signal that it would send."
“The incentive scheme that will be announced soon will look to close the gap in price between petrol and electric vehicles, which I know has been a significant deterrent, so I would like to get that in place and see how much we can achieve before we say that 2030 is too difficult,” he explained.
Pictured: Environment Minister, Deputy Jonathan Renouf.
Deputy Renouf was asked if he thought the island had sufficient vehicle charging points, to which he said he felt that Jersey was in “a reasonably good place”.
Jersey Electricity also recently announced a £600,000 investment to "future proof" the island's electric vehicle network.
Constable Kevin Lewis asked Deputy Renouf if he had considered the potential for greater use of hydrogen-powered vehicles. The Environment Minister replied that he felt that, as Jersey’s electricity supply was largely decarbonised, it was “overwhelmingly the best source”.
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The biggest problem is going to be the lack of understanding around electric vehicles (EVs).
But what about the much higher price of EVs?
The BBC showed that, although electric cars are much more expensive to buy upfront, their overall cost of ownership is cheaper than fossil fuel cars, even after just 4 years. The example they used was a Hyundai Kona which is available as electric and petrol. The EV was 42% more expensive to buy, but it's depreciation was much less, as was its cost of servicing, but the biggest saving was in 'fuel' costs, and this was before the huge increases in oil prices. And of course, if you have solar panels at home, your fuel costs can be zero!
EVs have regenerative braking so you charge the battery when you slow down or go down a hill. One EV owner found that driving down one of the multi-storey car parks in town, he gained an extra mile of range! A petrol car would have just generated more asbestos brake pad dust for us to breathe in.
But what about the mining deaths for the component materials for EV batteries?
Between 65 and 2,000 people die each year from mining these materials, the same materials as used in mobile phones, tablets and laptops, a fact often overlooked. However, a staggering 8,000,000 people die each year from fossil fuel pollution. Just think about that number.
Why not use Hydrogen vehicles?
Hydrogen-powered vehicles are highly inefficient. The hydrogen production process is only 75% efficient with compressing, chilling and transporting the hydrogen losing another 10% and converting that hydrogen back to electricity from the vehicle fuel cell is only 60% efficient. Energy losses with hydrogen vehicles are 62%, which is 3 time worse than EVs.
I'm certainly looking forward to going electric!