Monday, January 10, 2011

More BBC electric car nonsense

I don't know why the BBC feels the need to dumb down some of its news articles to pre-school level.

This article - which has been mistakenly filed under 'technology' rather than 'CBBC' - can be summed up in a five words: "there aren't many charging points". Brian Milligan says nothing of value and quite a lot that's misleading or irrelevant.

"what is electric motoring actually like? Does it bear any resemblance to the smug self-satisfaction of those who glide along in petrol-lubricated luxury,untroubled by the fear that they might not actually reach their destination?"

Petrol-lubricated? Your car won't get to the destination if you lubricate it with petrol. Top tip: use oil as the lubricant. How you lubricate luxury is another question, the answer to which probably involves massage parlours, so I won't go there.

"it is still not easy to drive an electric car any further than the supermarket and back."

Supermarket and back? That's easy enough, unless you live a long way from a supermarket. Why don't you just quote a range instead of confusing the reader?

"the BBC decided to try to drive an electric Mini the 484 miles from London to Edinburgh..."

Why? Even if it can be done in theory, it isn't practical if you don't want the journey to take 3 or 4 days. Anyone can figure that out from the car's range and its charge time. You don't need to actually do it, staying in hotels at the license-payers' expense.

"won't potential owners want to know that if they wanted to, they could drive it from London to Manchester and back at the weekend, to see uncle and auntie? "

 These potential owners already know it can't be done, unless they're completely innumerate.

Come on, BBC, tell those of us that didn't skip maths and science lessons at school something we don't know, and stop wasting license-payers money on daft stunts.



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