David Twohig82 • DECEMBER 2021
THE ELECTRIC REVOLUTION: WHAT'S NEXT?
fighting climate change are at risk.”
William Todts, executive director
at Transport & Environment, told
me: “If we're serious about global
warming we need to go electric fast.
To speed up the transition we need
ubiquitous and easy charging not
just in Norway and the Netherlands
but all across Europe. EV charging
targets per country are a great
way to make that happen and the
Commission should stop dragging its
feet over this.”However, are we all so focused on
perfecting battery technology that
we may be missing out on other
ways of keeping our cars but cutting
our emissions? Toyota, currently the
world’s largest and most successful
car maker, is still betting heavily on
hydrogen as the fuel of the future—it
can be used in a hydrogen fuel cell
(essentially a big chemical battery
that you fill up with hydrogen instead
of charging it with electricity) or
even burned in highly-modified
combustion engines. Equally,
Porsche is currently working on
e-fuels, which mix hydrogen made
from renewable electricity with
carbon dioxide taken from the air to
produce an alcohol-like liquid fuel
that is, in theory, carbon-neutral.
One man who possibly has a
better idea than most of what future
cars will be like is David Twohig.
The Irish-born engineer has been
instrumental in creating two of
the most important cars of recent
years—the Renault Zoe, currently
Europe’s best-selling electric car,
and the Alpine A110, one of the most
critically acclaimed new sports cars
of recent years. He reckons that the
cars of the future will be, just as thatWE CAN ADDRESS
THE ENVIRONMENTAL
ISSUES AND HAVE A
HECK OF A LOT OF FUN
DOING IT