Greenpeace: Electric Cars Are a Bust

We've all witnessed, in the past two years more than ever, how electric vehicles are slowly tightening the grip on both the consumer's imagination and on the automotive world alike. Even if, for now, there are only a handful of more or less successful models available, the promises made by EV will begin to be fulfilled this winter, when the first EV for the masses, the Leaf, will be launched.

Despite all the excitement and expectations however, disbelief comes from a very unlikely source; Greenpeace. The organization which for decades has been synonymous with the active fight against pollution (at times, excessively active) now says the electric vehicle as a concept is a bust.

At least this is what one of the organization's representatives believes. In an interview which was published in German publication Stern, Wolfgang Lohbeck says electric vehicles are a failure. Now, Lohbeck was not very specific about the reasons which led him to believe this, but he mentioned that EVs are a failure because of the lack of subsidies and the slow implementation of a required infrastructure.

Lohbeck is perhaps one of the biggest opponents to individual electric transportation, having already stated his position at the “The New Automobile" conference on May 6.

If you have been with autoevolution for the past year or so, then you know by now that Lohbeck' belief is, for now, just an opinion. Several countries are already offering subsidies for the purchase of electric cars, while work on creating the required infrastructure (read charging stations) is evolving faster than we can report about it.

Add to that the fact that countries like Germany and the US have already stated their intentions to turn electric in terms of transportation, the billions invested by carmakers in developing new electric vehicles and the five-ten EVs presented each year and decide for yourself if electric cars are a failure.