THE government is forcing manufacturers to only produce electric cars and telling the public that this will make a significant reduction in carbon emissions.

This is not true.

In fact, initially, the production of electric vehicles will cause more carbon to be pumped into the atmosphere than at present and an electric car will only start to benefit the atmosphere when it has reached 70,000 miles.

Using an average yearly mileage of 10,000 miles that will take seven years.

Given that there will not be only one year's production of these cars we are talking decades of more carbon being pumped into the atmosphere than is currently being pumped in.

There are lots of people who do a lot less than 10,000 miles a year.

My wife, for instance, only does 2,000 miles a year.

It would take 35 years before the benefit of owning an electric car would kick in and who owns a car for 35 years?

So there is a case for small mileage users to have the option of internal combustion engines perhaps using very low carbon fuels.

Also the most sensible solution would be hydrogen-fuelled cars which the Japanese and Germans are investigating.

Our own government is looking into using the vast North Sea wind farms being used to produce hydrogen during the night when demand for domestic use is low and they have been in talks with the Germans about building pipelines to Germany, why?

We should be looking to pipe it to Britain and use it here to perhaps have a network of hydrogen fuel stations to power cars that would be far more environmentally-friendly than electric cars.

It seems to me this government would rather Germany get the benefit than the British.

Paul Dakin

Kidderminster