Amanda Vanstone | The rush for electric vehicles is a knee-jerk reaction

Of course, we don't want them doing things that will detract from the world's amenity. The oft used expression "sounds good to me" comes to mind. It means the idea gets a tick, a gold star or an elephant stamp - and not enough thought.

For heaven's sake, we don't need policies that sound good, we need policies that are good and sound. That means they need to be given plenty of thought, wide and deep consideration. We may not like them much but only children, and very young ones at that, imagine every step forward in life can be without difficulty. As the saying goes, the easiest road runs downhill.

And so it is with electric vehicles (EV). Wanting to look crazy brave, some countries and plenty of states within the USA have made plans to ditch the old internal combustion engines entirely within a decade. Knee-jerk comes to mind.

The airlines don't let you put lithium batteries in your check-in for a good reason. If they blow up, its ugly. Very.

I've had occasion to travel with a medical device that requires lithium batteries and not putting them in check-in luggage means you haul them in your hand luggage, even when you're on a short flight and they're not needed. Without any special engineering knowledge, I know that three 20x50x50 batteries will make a much bigger bang than the battery back-up for a tablet or phone.

Of course the battery in an EV will have an even bigger bang. More like a boom. I can't help wondering why we think it's safer to tell families to drive around in vehicles that use these than it is combustion engines. Accidents happen - if the battery goes bang, you want to hope your seatbelt isn't jammed.

We might smugly assert that we're saving the world by taking this risk but I'm fairly sure that's just not true.

A recent paper written by Mark Mills, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a faculty fellow at Northwestern University's McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science provides excellent insight and data on our EV fixation. The title gives it all away: Electric vehicles for everyone? The Impossible Dream.

When we consider the CO2 emissions of internal combustion engines versus EVs, we need to take into account the emissions in the construction of the vehicle and its recycling, not just the emissions per kilometre of driving.

To say the mining and processing of the minerals involved does not touch the environment lightly is an understatement. It is not just the CO2 emissions. The pollution, environmental degradation and labor exploitation are not to be ignored. The claim that EVs are certainly better overall is just not credible.

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The cost is also important. The rich can pick up their kids from private schools in enormous EVs, waving and sharing that clubby little "we are such good people" smile whilst pondering what colour or model their next piece of conspicuous consumption will be. That's not how 99 per cent of people live.

Mills points out that for average households after mortgage or rent getting around (personal mobility) is the next big expense. Few people buy things more expensive than a car. For the vast majority, this is not a flippant colour, brand, style choice. Value for money and efficiency are key drivers.

He calculates that to achieve radical emissions reductions, we will need to rush to EVs "at a scale and velocity 10 times greater and faster than the introduction of any new model of car in history". Come in spinner if you believe that will happen. Consumers are wary of battery replacement costs, generally buy the bigger battery than the efficiency calculations use and are frightened of both being unable to recharge and possibly having to write the car off because an otherwise repairable accident kills the battery. Yes, lower-income people are going to love that. The family driving holiday, eschewed by the rich who jet to Noosa or Paris now looks risky. Who wants to readjust their family holiday driving route to ensure a recharger is available? Taxpayers' money will be thrown at manufacturers and consumers to try and push things along. Whenever there's a big bucket of money, you'll find crooks and rorters and waste.

The upgrade to national electrical infrastructure for everyone to be able to recharge will be astronomically expensive. But don't worry, you can kid yourself you're saving the world.

The build up required in the mining industry to deliver the minerals just isn't there. Apparently the plans to build or expand mines are at about 10 per cent of what would be required to get to where we say we want to go by the end of the decade. Building new mines is hellishly expensive, and slow.

Sometimes we think the grass is greener on the other side. We don't look at what we have. Fuel efficiency in combustion engines has increased dramatically and will continue to do so. Mills points out that an early IEA analysis concluded that fuel efficiency gains could save 300 per cent more petroleum than we would get by adding 300 million EVs by 2040.

Why are we in this ridiculous situation? Because we don't care enough to think for ourselves. We want quick fixes. They are rarely satisfying.