Who would have thought the man behind the Alfa Romeo, Fiat Chrysler and Ferrari would not know the current trends in the automobile industry. Even though currently he is one of the powerful heads of the automobile industry, his remarks about electric cars while receiving an honorary degree from the University of Trento last week, Sergio Marchionne made it clear that he knows almost nothing about vehicles. He stated that
“It was always believed that electric cars save anything like the amount of CO2 but, before we assume electric vehicles are the ultimate reply, we need to reflect on the cradle-to-grave lifecycle.”
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Recently, top companies like BMW, Ford, Mercedes, Toyota, Honda, etc. are planning to switch towards the electric cars within coming 15 years. This planning was stressed upon when governments around the globe especially China, France, Germany, UK and even India announced that they will ban the vehicles using internal combustion by 2030.
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But Marchionne, on the other hand, says that the government should ban the electric cars. He firmly believes that these electric cars will make CO2 pollution worse leading towards more dangerous climatic conditions. He further stressed his objection saying that coal is used to produce electricity and if we use this electricity to recharge the electric cars then it’ll lead to the high emission of carbon in the air. The high carbon concentration in the atmosphere will further pollute the environment leading to the global warming. He also stated that Fiat loses up to $20,000 on each 500e it sells.
Marchionne is not entirely wrong about carbon pollution, and the world would be a better place if vehicles utilize natural gas. But, natural gas like methane would further pollute the environment by emitting more hydrocarbons in the environment and which are even more harmful than carbon dioxide since it contributes more towards the greenhouse effect than Carbon dioxide.
Marchionne also forgets to see the fact that the world is changing and it is now focusing on renewable resources like wind and solar panels to get electricity instead of the non-renewable resources like coal. China is the best example where coal- electricity power plants are closing down, and a record number of wind and solar power plants are being installed throughout the country.
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The world is changing at a rapid pace and is accepting the new technologies in automobile industries in a very welcoming way. Therefore the heads like Marchionne and others should accept the change as well. Just like in the case of electric cars which in future will not be overtaking the internal combustion engine automobile but, will also be eco and environment-friendly.
