It’s about time people realised the damage to the environment , mining for Cobalt in Congo is doing .
Nothing is said about that , kids scratch about for a living , just to eat , and get paid next to nothing for a days work , yet to buy Cobalt it’s about $33k a Ton
That’s life thou , I’m ok , fuc jack !!
Some people have talked about it, and it’s very much a problem. Still, something that’s going to have to be worked out along the path to becoming zero net carbon on the planet.
We have no choice.
Same with Lithium…
Anything that uses BATTERIES is a total environmental disaster…
The best way forward is with HYDROGEN - ELECTRIC, and moving towards GREEN HYDROGEN.
Funny how the Tesla etc proponents dont talk about Green, Blue, or Orange Batteries, given they are all RED…
Perhaps we can have this discussion, Roger, w/o calling those with whom you disagree pejorative names.
Yes, we need to refine and make scalable green hydrogen, along with €current* technology, to lessen the amount of carbon released into the commons of the atmosphere, which is s far greater, highly-quantifiable environmental disaster.
???
Surely your comment applies more to you, than to me…
No. It does not.
Back to the subject: batteries are not perfect, but they a necessary middle step towards lessening humanity’s carbon footprint. Scalable green hydrogen isn’t a widely available technology, at the moment. There are steps, but not yet to the size needed.
I think it admirable that, as a company, Jaguar is making the effort to solve this very real issue.
Hi Roger,
Well I cant really see pejorative, just an example of dry aussie humour 
anyway, there is a lot of talk on this topic (alternative vehicle power sources)
I and listen and read a fair bit on this topic, and it was my understanding that Hydrogen fuel cell technology was unlikely to be cost effective for small vehicles for several reasons
My personal opinion is the development of battery technology using more benign chemistry is promising
Lithium itself is a common mineral, its environmental sustainability in the long term has many questions
In addition to Cobalt, there is another rare earth or related element that is also only found in Congo and Rwanda, it is vital to the production of semi-conductors
I did not research thoroughly which one it is
I consider Roger would have expert knowledge in this field and would be happy ( for other experts) to be proven incorrect as green hydrogen is excellent in theory.
We have a Energy hub with Green Hydrogen promised for the Hunter (where most of the States old coal plants are now closing), so transmission lines and all other infrastructure already exist
GH is indeed an excellent source of energy, to power engines, but has its own set of known challenges: I am not doubting that.
What is not yet been done, on a large scale, is make GH in sufficient quantities to effect widespread and affordable amounts, not to mention a suitable storage snd distribution system.
Oddly enough, the best path forward to GG… is renewables, which many who don’t like EVs don’t like either.
Calling people ‘red,’ because one may not like their POV, goes beyond simple dry humor.
Lithium isn’t as widely abundant as one might think.
Are you for real???
No one called anyone RED, read my post again…
I used Red in the context of descending order of now common usage environmentally friendly source of energy - GOLD (naturally available Hydrogen), GREEN, BLUE, ORANGE then RED being totally environmentally unfriendly. And all BATTERIES are RED. Hydrogen ranges from GOLD (not a lot of it around), GREEN (the widely spoken target), BLUE, ORANGE based on energy/process used…
Regardless even BLUE or indeed ORANGE HYDROGEN is less environmentally damaging than all batteries which are RED - a total environmental disaster… But at least environmentally friendly GREEN Hydrogen is viable goal, whereas I have heard nothing about any environmentally friendly Battery goals…
One more time, back to the topic at hand: batteries are an imperfect step, but a necessary way one onto useful amounts of hydrogen and other sources of energy.
Battery storage is a fairly well understood technology, and becoming better and better by the day. Along that path, we will end up with a better system, but it remains to be seen if it can be done in time to solve the carbon crisis. I again laud Jaguar for jumping into that fray.
With all due respect, the only reason we’re so deep into BEV is that Elon says that hydrogen is stupid. So there’s your pejorative. In ten years, we will have wasted ten years.
But back on topic, Jaguar is a dead company. Electric will not be their salvation, especially if they their intention is to become vertically integrated. The cost, volume, and technology of battery production is beyond their grasp. I think that of Tesla as well, but at least Tesla has been at it long enough to understand the risks. Jaguar already makes cars that are as interesting as refrigerators, BEV won’t change that.
Guys, this is a news article about a new Jaguar factory, not a free for all debate. Take it to the pub or take a time-out.
Agreed, and as I did in my one post remaining, I’m trying to keep this more towards the topic at hand.
Despite the naysayers, I think it’s a very good thing that Jaguar/Tata has taken this step, because it might be the thing that makes them relevant again.
Paul, I’m in agreement on staying on topic and absolutely on building the battery plant. It’s also good to see UKgov doing the right thing by actually supporting UK manufacturing - hope that’s not too political.
With respect to you and the forum, I’ve also deleted my posts.