What we really should fear about the green cars is how little we know about them

Sir, John Gapper writes “Carmakers are turning green with fear” January 15, arguing the dangers for Detroit, GM, Ford and others to sit on the sidelines in the production of more environment friendly cars. This might indeed be true but the real surprising and fear-inspiring fact is really how little we know about how efficient these green cars are in tackling our global warming problems. Yes, they do indeed consume less petrol per mile, but, at what costs? These new green cars could just be postponing some more fundamental changes that are needed; they could be creating new environment problems, for instance with the more intensive use of batteries; there could be many much more cost efficient solutions, etc, and so those on the sidelines might turn out to be the real final winners. Also, since for instance in Europe all these green cars are not sold on the basis of how much petrol the save but because of how much tax on the consumption of petrol they save then, if the society wishes Detroit to behave differently, perhaps it should be sending clearer signals, hopefully in a more timely fashion.