I refer to the article by George G. Debono (Getting real on green technology… and electric cars, TMID, 31 December). First of all I’m not writing this in order to put down the idea of electric cars. I’m just trying to be realistic. We keep forgetting that the electric car is not a new concept as the first one was built in the mid-1830s. So they have had around 170 years to get it sorted and so far they haven’t come close to the efficiency of a petrol car.

Let’s just compare the two for a moment. If we take an average tank containing say 40 litres of fuel it will have a weight of around 40kg, 30kg for the fuel and around 10kg for the tank. One litre of petrol contains around 9.5 KWh of effective energy. Unfortunately the petrol engine is not the most efficient beast in the world and only returns around 30 to 35% so at the wheels we have around 3250 Wh of effective mechanical power per kg of fuel. Gross energy contents of a fully-charged, new battery varies from about 40Wh/kg for lead acid, to about 200Wh/kg for lithium. Even considering the greater motor efficiency of around 80%, this means that at the wheels we get from 32 to 160Wh/kg. That’s 20 to 100 times worse than petrol.

I agree with the point about Malta’s traffic pollution problem and how the electric car would certainly reduce that but only at ground level. We still have the problem of how the electricity we are putting into the car is generated. If we are using heavy fuel oil then we are simply shifting the pollution problem from our back yard to someone else’s. Coal gas and uranium are no better as they are all from non-renewable sources. We can consider hydroelectricity as renewable but that’s not an option in Malta. Tidal, wind and solar are all available but unfortunately use a lot of fossil fuels in their manufacture and in some cases cost more to produce than they will ever generate.

As Mr Debono writes, oil prices will continue to rise but we will continue to pay for it. When I began driving, I can remember putting £1 of petrol into my car on a Monday and it took me back and forth to work until Thursday. Don’t we all wish those days were back? Fossil fuels will end up running out at the present rate but when that happens we will shift over to synthetic fuel made from vegetable oils or alcohol. Again this is not a new idea as the Germans were using such fuels in the 1920s.

The main problem with present day cars is that they are too heavy. We only have to look at Formula One racing to see that it is possible to build cars lighter and stronger so instead of having a big heavy car we can have a small light car with a smaller more efficient petrol engine doing the same job. To sum up I would love to be able to buy a small electric car for the same price as a petrol car with the same range and the same efficiency and a promise that it would always be charged from sustainable resources and a battery pack that wouldn’t need renewing. Unfortunately I’m not holding my breath.

■ James A. Tyrrell

Larne

County Antrim,

N. Ireland