Electric Vehicles - zero emissions ??

A pretty decent electric 2-wheeler. It bothers me a bit that it's advertised as a 'zero emissions' vehicle. Of course, it required energy and emissions to build it (so called 'embedded energy') and it uses electricity - where is that from? Often from Coal, some from natural gas, some from nuclear.

Using electricity to power vehicles is a great start but we must also remember how the electricity is generated currently and not kid ourselves that we are solving the big problems like this. Of course though, this is the way of the future so if anyone would like to buy me one I'd love to try it!!



Another thing that bothers me I learned from cycling. Often pedestrians rely on their hearing when crossing the road. It sounds staggering but often pedestrians, whilst looking the other way, will step out in front of my bicycle. They don't do it when I ride my motorcycle or drive a car. The silence of electric vehicles bothers me. I think, for safety, such vehicles need to make a noise, perhaps analgous to the smell that is given to domestic gas so it is detectable.