Could Mr Bean be responsible for the slowdown in electric vehicle sales in the UK?
The thesis may seem crazy.
However, it is the one that the environmentalist think tank
Green Alliance defended, with the greatest seriousness,
before the House of Lords on Tuesday.
In a letter addressed to British parliamentarians, the organization identified the recent stance of the creator and performer of Mr Bean, Rowan Aktinson, as
“one of the most damaging elements”
to sales in the sector.
In a column published in June in the Guardian, the actor expressed his disappointment with green cars.
“I love electric vehicles, and I was an early adopter.
But more and more I feel duped
,” he wrote.
Electric vehicles tend to
“lack soul”
, despite their
“exceptional mechanics”
.
More seriously, these vehicles would be far from being the
“ecological panacea”
touted by environmental activists.
“It may be better to keep your old gas car than to buy an electric vehicle.
There are good environmental reasons not to take the plunge just yet.”
Among these good reasons, Rowan Aktinson cites the manufacturing process of electric cars, which consumes too much polluting resources.
To pollute less, it is better to keep your thermal car and use it as little as possible, he argues.
And this will happen until the industry makes significant progress on hydrogen engines and synthetic fuels.
"Do not rush.
Electric motorization will one day bring real global environmental benefit, but that day has not yet come
,” he maintains.
Also read: Jacques-Olivier Martin: “Driving electric, the good joke…”
“Fake news”
Many will be surprised to see the interpreter of Mr Bean and Johnny English discussing the benefits and disadvantages of electric motors.
But Atkinson is not a star like any other: before giving in to the call of comedy, the actor was destined for a career as an automobile engineer.
He also holds a master's degree in electrical engineering and an engineering degree obtained from the prestigious University of Oxford.
He has also never hidden his penchant for prestige cars, Jaguar and Ferrari in the lead.
Has Rowan Atkinson's notoriety really turned the British away from electric cars?
Difficult to establish with certainty, but the controversy is in any case indicative of the tensions surrounding the electrification of the vehicle fleet across the Channel.
In September, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak postponed the ban on the sale of thermal cars to 2035, a five-year delay from the date initially announced.
This delay will undoubtedly not be too long to overcome the excessively high prices and the lack of charging stations which dissuade many Britons from taking the plunge.
Not to mention Mr Bean's trickery...