In 1972, the record-buying public made Johnny Nash’s song, There Are More Questions Than Answers, a big hit. The song always pops into my mind when discussions of electric cars take place.

The latest aspect of that discussion, is the lack of public charging points for these horrors. In the north west of England, owners of electric vehicles are getting particularly grumpy, as queues to charge them are ridiculously long. There is, apparently, only one charging point for every eighty-five electric cars, whereas in London, there is one charging point for every eleven such vehicles.

Despite having a degree of sympathy with the view that if things are going well in London, nobody seems to care about the rest of the UK, I have no sympathy for those who are unable to find charging points for their vehicles. They were foolish enough to let themselves be gulled into parting with inordinate sums of money, so they must learn the full extent of their errors.

There are two arguments in favour of electric vehicles. Both of them are false.

Firstly, they are quiet, which has to be better than those permanently noisy internal combustion engines. Nonsense. Yes, they are very quiet, but that poses a significant health and safety risk. If an approaching car is silent, it necessarily follows that only those who can see it coming will be aware of it. This means that blind and partially sighted people, as well as the careless, risk life and limb whenever they cross a road. One could argue that the careless only have themselves to blame, but their carelessness could prove harmful to the driver, not to mention any passengers. There is a legal requirement for electric vehicles to have the facility to produce a continuous sound, but absurdly, there is no requirement that it should be used.

The second argument is that they reduce environmental damage. Again, this is utter nonsense. On the face of it, they do, as there is no smelly exhaust. However, there are numerous other considerations. And it is here that we must return to Johnny Nash’s point. Here are just a few questions.

How is strip-mining the world’s lithium for car batteries, most of which is either under rainforests or mountains, any better for the environment than drilling for oil? Batteries have a limited lifespan, so how are they to be disposed of safely? What materials are to be used instead of plastics, which are made from oil? If every vehicle is to be electric by the middle of the next decade, how will all of the additional electricity be generated? Who is to pay for the necessary upgrades to the existing electrical infrastructure? Must people be killed by silent cars before sound production at all times becomes mandatory? If so, how many? Given the fact that these vehicles are controlled, at least in part, by phone apps, do we really want to risk cyber car crimes? How can the same people who condemn our forefathers for exploiting peoples and places in the name of the onward march of Western civilisation, justify the continued exploitation of those same peoples and places in the name of “clean” cars?

The song is right. There are, indeed, more questions than answers. In fact, neither I nor anyone I’ve heard of have received many answers. And those that have been offered have been fatuous. Electric vehicles are simply an expensive form of virtue signalling. But the virtue is nothing more tangible than an illusion.

Having hybrid vehicles makes a degree of sense. As does the use of hydrogen as a fuel. But using these overpriced, overgrown children’s toys does not. They are nothing but a lucrative way of fleecing the gullible.