Fact check: why Rowan Atkinson is wrong about electric vehicles

I think that's a bit sad. At best he is a second order effect on the economic realities. I love his comedy work but am I really meant to take his "I was an engineer 40 years ago" seriously, when ostensibly his lines of reasoning are this shallow? An engineer should do better homework. Steelyard the proposition. Check sources. Do the maths. Like, the maths on second hand car markets, and on repurposed EV batteries, and recycling. He appears not to understand either.

It's like he didn't actually understand what he studied, if he studied engineering.

Are EV gods gift to mankind? No. Is his line of reasoning tenable? No, it's got too many half truths and opinions masquerading as facts.

He owns many many ICE cars and if he finds his EV sterile and is concerned about their viability then maybe he needs to do some sums on cost/benefit, and consider if his personal experience really is generally applicable.

Guardian published this on his original opinion piece. He's clearly been told of considered factual issues.

This article was amended on 5 June 2023 to describe lithium-ion batteries as lasting “upwards of 10 years”, rather than “about 10 years”; and to clarify that the figures released by Volvo claimed that greenhouse gas emissions during production of an electric car are “nearly 70% higher”, not “70% higher”. It was further amended on 7 June 2023 to remove an incorrect reference to the production of lithium-ion batteries needing “many rare earth metals”; to clarify that a reference to “trucks” should instead have been to “heavy trucks for long distance haulage”; and to more accurately refer to the use of such batteries in these trucks as being a “concern”, due to weight issues, rather than a “non-starter”.