Similar to the decision on diesel a few years ago. The better mpg was the excuse until the NOx problems that were known about suddenly became an issue. Short term decision making at it’s best/worst.
Seems like another political posturing episode where it looks like good decisions are being made yet the background is not as rosy. Use political posturing to appear to be climate concerned without full understanding or choose political expediency.
Surely the current generation of diesel cars with Plusblue addative to reduce NOx emissions have largely resolved that problem. I am surprised at how few full hybrid and plugin hybrid cars have diesel engines. In fact, off the top of my head I can't think of one.
I still believe that the future is in hydrogen fuel cell cars. We still have a long way to go to manufacture an distribute sufficient green hydrogen, and lithium batteries will still be required, but not to the degree of a BEV. The ideal future is perhaps something like a plugin fuel cell hybrid. Short trips made on pure battery and then the "range extender" fuelcell cuts in, even while stopped in traffic or parked for a coffee, to top up the relatively small battery pack. Then, when available, or overnight, the car is plugged in to bring it up to full charge.
For us petrol heads there will probably be a pretty valid bio petrol before long.
