The electric vehicle (EV) was last month given a real rundown by the Ifo Institute for Economic Research, one of Germany’s largest economic think-tanks, which stated that an EV produces more carbon emissions than a diesel car. Sparks flew during a subsequent polarised EV and battery debate on the issue of there being smoke, even when nobody can see the fire. Add the ongoing use by EVs of electricity that is generated by a coal-fired power station to the energy intensity required to make one of their batteries and the EV’s decarbonised curriculum vitae is taken away. This gives new credence to the statement made by Anglo American executive head of market development Benny Oeyen at last month’s Platinum Group Metals Industry Day, in Johannesburg, that hydrogen is the sole route to 100% carbon-free driving and that platinum is, in turn, at the centre of hydrogen.