The Liberal Democrats have issued a press release saying
petrol-engined vehicles should be phased out by 2040. They want a
major upgrade of the rail network, a new north-south high-speed
rail line and a wholesale move to renewable energy sources such as
hydrogen fuelled vehicles.
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The Liberals last governed this country in 1915. Whilst there are
some very astute and capable people in the party and they certainly
do rather well in local government elections I wonder why they have
bothered to come out with this announcement now. Was this just a
silly-season press release to get them a headline? Their
announcement came just 24 hours after the Independent on Sunday ran
a major piece saying that world oil supplies are running out faster
than expected and that consumption cannot be sustained at current
rates. Which means that the Lib Dems’ announcement is a bit
superfluous really: If we won’t have any petrol we will have to
power our vehicles with something else.
Hydrogen is more than hot air
The smart money is on hydrogen being that ‘something else’. The
hydrogen-powered buses running around London right now are proof
the technology works. The problem is that currently you can choose
to have your hydrogen produced cheaply or in an
environmentally-friendly way, but you can’t have both at the same
time.
There are some other fuels available in abundance, but all have
their disadvantages: natural gas is cleaner than oil but not much
cleaner, and bio-ethanol is environmentally friendly but uses
valuable food-producing land.
All of which is a little frustrating, really. My personal favourite
of all the different alternative fuels is little spoken about these
days. There are in fact two ways to deliver hydrogen to a car. You
could fill up your tank with pure hydrogen, which means you would
need to convert all the petrol stations into hydrogen stations at a
cost of billions. Or you could add a hydrogen-generator to a
conventional car, so that a very small petrol engine would hum away
and generate hydrogen on-board. You would fill up with say a litre
of petrol and that would be sufficient to extract enough hydrogen
from the air to drive you hundreds of miles.
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By GlobalDataConsumption of petrol would reduce sharply, the environment would
benefit hugely and the costs would be relatively low. Another
advantage is that you would not have to carry a large very highly
pressurised cylinder of hydrogen on board every car, which would be
better from the safety angle. I wonder why no-one is pursuing this
option?
I just have enough space left for a quick change of subject. When I
chaired the BVRLA Training Committee we worked with Nottingham
Business School to introduce an MBA course specifically for the
vehicle leasing industry. I have been proud to see the graduates of
this course rolling off the production line. The next course starts
this October and there are still some places available. Do you have
bright people who might benefit from an MBA qualification? If so
contact Nora Leggett at the BVRLA on 01494 434747 for more
info.
Colin Tourick MSc FCA FCCA MICFM, www.tourick.com
