Routes is pleased to partner with the RGS and the Financial Times to showcase the winner of their 2021 school essay competition.

Electric vehicles — the political cop-out

Winner of the Royal Geographical Society/FT student competition

Most people believe the future of transport is electric vehicles. Their uptake has been increasing rapidly and governments are starting to create policies to encourage their use. But they are a cop-out which avoids difficult decisions by governments. From a political standpoint, EVs are very easy to implement. They require no change in culture, comparatively little investment from central government and use existing road infrastructure. Most importantly, their adoption makes governments seem environmentally friendly.

Read Cameron Allen’s full essay on the RGS website here.