Apropos electric cars, I don’t think there has been any in-depth thought gone into the dates set by Government as to when diesel and petrol vehicles will be phased out. These dates are:

l 2040 to stop them being sold

l 2050 all off the roads.

Both dates are a long way off but has any real thinking gone into what a switch to electric vehicles actually means?

In March 2018 there were 37.9 million vehicles on our roads, mainly cars but with a considerable number of HGVs.

In the rush toward ‘electrifying’ there has been no mention, yet, of how a 40-tonner will be electrified!

Then there is the vast amount of power which will be needed to charge the batteries up. This charging will be a constant: that vast amount of power will come from where? All governments seem hell-bent on getting rid of conventional (coal/gas/nuclear-fuelled) power stations and relying, instead, on wind and wave power. They could not cope.

Will all the above problems be addressed by 2050? Using HSR2 as a bench-mark, I would doubt it!

Philip Roe,

Roman Avenue South,

Stamford Bridge, York