We have been swimming upstream for years here at American Thinker, arguing that conversion of the automobile fleet to electric vehicles is a mistake, harming the environment more than helping it, and utterly impractical for a variety of reasons, including charging time and an entirely inadequate electrical grid, already at the breaking point.

Yet the green image (and the subsidies) continue, impervious to the reality. With the sole exception of Toyota, the auto industry has bought in to the conversion, even as losses mount for almost everyone but Tesla.

However, there are signs that the gravity of the practical problems with E.V. conversion are sinking in. Rowan Atkinson, who has become a global icon portraying "Mr. Bean," a character Atkinson describes as "a child in a man's body," is publicly raising these questions. Daniel Y. Ting writes in the Epoch Times (paywalled but available to AT readers by special arrangement):

The actor and comedian behind the popular Mr. Bean character has called on drivers to hold off buying an electric vehicle (EV), saying the environmental benefits do not stack up.

Rowan Atkinson, a long-time motor enthusiast with a degree and master's in electrical engineering, said current EV technology was more harmful to the environment than it was worth.

"Increasingly, I'm feeling that our honeymoon with electric cars is coming to an end, and that's no bad thing: we're realising that a wider range of options need to be explored if we're going to properly address the very serious environmental problems that our use of the motor car has created," Atkinson wrote in The Guardian newspaper.

He pointed to figures released by automotive giant Volvo revealing that greenhouse gas emissions during the EV production process were 70 percent higher than building a petrol car. (snip)

"The problem lies with the lithium-ion batteries fitted currently to nearly all-electric vehicles: they're absurdly heavy, huge amounts of energy are required to make them, and they are estimated to last only upwards of 10 years.

One the prominent features of the Mr. Bean comedy was a Mini car that was rolled out for a celebration of the show's 25th anniversary at Buckingham Palace.

YouTube screen grab (cropped).

It's a small step, perhaps, but when a very popular and widely admired entertainer feels that it is safe to dissent from the orthodoxy on electric vehicles, it is a sign of progress — the kind that progressives hate.