Is it all Mr Bean’s fault?
Rowan Atkinson has been blamed for poor sales of electric cars in a new paper from the House of Lords.
The actor, who is best known for his iconic role as Mr Bean, wrote an opinion piece for The Guardian last year that deemed EVs ‘a bit soulless’.
Although the actor did pay heed to EVs’ ‘wonderful mechanisms’, the piece was overwhelmingly negative about green vehicles.
“But increasingly, I feel a little duped,” he wrote. “I’m feeling that our honeymoon with electric cars is coming to an end, and that’s no bad thing.”
Atkinson’s comments were met with anger from the green community, who bashed his comments as a misrepresentation of EVs.
“Mr Atkinson’s biggest mistake is his failure to recognise that electric vehicles already offer significant global environmental benefits, compared with combustion-engine cars,” Simon Evans of Carbon Brief wrote.
However, the latest update on the tale comes as the Lords’ environment and climate change committee was told of Atkinson’s detriment to the reputation of EVs.
“One of the most damaging articles was a comment piece written by Rowan Atkinson in the Guardian which has been roundly debunked,” the Green Alliance pressure group told peers.
Baroness Parminter, who is chairing the committee’s inquiry into EVs, said: “Surface transport is the UK’s highest-emitting sector for CO2, with passenger cars responsible for over half those emissions.”
“The evidence we received shows the Government must do more – and quickly – to get people to adopt EVs.”
The comments come amid the government’s plans to completely phase out new petrol and diesel cars by 2035.
