Even if the first owner doesn't get to 50,000 miles, subsequent owners probably will- so there should be a gain in terms of the original battery.

The issue then becomes how long batteries last before losing too much efficiency, and to what extent can they be recycled or even reconditioned? The answers will become apparent only as time goes on.

I can now imagine a silly kind of logic which says We must get this car up to 50K miles so it can be in carbon credit - while any miles done in any kind of vehicle can't help much.

The American article refers to a comparison with a Ford F150 pick up. Not a common vehicle in the UK. How does the emissions for a F150 compare to a typical European car say a 1litre Focus? Well it seems its 488grammes per thingy compared to the Focus 118 grammes per thingy. Alan have you read any of the links from your article? It say the BEV co2 per mile is about 300co2 grammes per thingy. Which means the Focus is one third the polluter that the BEV is. Can I suggest if you want to prove your case you find a better article.

Why are you comparing a large pickup truck to a Ford Focus?

You would need to compare 2 similar sized vehicles.

It is an incontestable reality that fossil fuels are limited.

They will not run out suddenly like switching off a tap. The only question is when reduced supply and growing demand increase the cost beyond that which is economically viable.

The only issue is the point that the inevitable is explicitly recognised and action taken. The far sighted will plan for that future and may start the transition early, the denialists and ICE adherents will wait until the inevitable has already started to happen!

The problem generally is that no one ownership experience, whether in the same town, nation or country can be compared - the amount of Co2 equivalent varies so much because the weather or tiem of day varies, or the contract used by the person or external charging provider varies, meaning the amount generated by 'green' means varies all the time.

The same goes with the components - two otherwise identical cars may have some components sourced from different countries/suppliers, etc etc.

Besides, 'whole life cost' also varies because of the usage pattern and area lived of the owner. 'Green' electricity can only be generated to reasonable levels with a particular window of wind speeds and daylight, thus all those people charging overnight will either be using power generation methods that aren't green, or have to rely on very large home battery systems, where much of the components are rare, need mining (and which are not done so in an environmentally-friendly way, never mind treatment of workers doing so) and a significant amount of processing and manufacturing, and are very hard (enegery and labour intensive) to recycle.

Oil-based fuels, whilst they use a great deal of energy to extract and refine, can be done on a much larger scale per unit of energy produced. To me, unless and until wholesale changes to battery technology (including huge improvements in energy density and longevity, as well as recycling capability) occur, I cannot see how EVs can reasonably take over from ICE cars, let alone HGVs and other vehicles that use oil-based fuels and pollute greatly at the 'tailpipe' such as aircraft and ships.

I'd also ove to know how long actual EVs last, given commercially they've only been around for about 10-20 years. 'Accelerated lifescycle' testing cannot be as accurate as real world testing.

Industry 'experts' keep saying that most modern (post 2000) designed cars are effectively designed to 'last' (economically) 7 years on average, yet many of our cars, mine included, are still going strong and not breaking the bank well beyond that (mine's now 15 years old).

Sadly, I think much of the debate these days is based around biased data to make one side or the other look good for PR reasons or to convince governments and the public to stump up huge amounts of our cash to subsidise 'green' tech, but mostly goes to lining the pockets of those behind these firms, with little benfet to the average person, and especially not to those at the bottom of the pile.