How EU rules caused a diesel stink

The diesel emissions scandal shows how the profit motive seems always to have overriden concerns over unhealthy emissions, says James Lewisohn.

865_MW_P23_opinion-634

The Audi Q7: profitable geegaws trumped clean exhausts

This week James Dyson announced he'll invest £2bn to build an electric car in the UK (see below). Dyson's passion for vehicles dates to the 1990s, when he tried to market the cyclone technology that powers his posh vacuum cleaners as a means of removing sooty emissions from diesel exhausts. Like his hoovers, it was pretty expensive compared with the alternative (in this case, not removing emissions). Carmakers weren't interested. Two decades later, the diesel emissions scandal shows how the profit motive seems always to have overriden concerns over unhealthy emissions.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up

James Lewisohn began his career as an investment banker in New York with Bear, Stearns & Co. He went on to work as an M&A advisor in London at UBS Warburg, and was head of private equity for Lord (Jacob) Rothschild's investment group, including RIT Capital Partners Plc and the Yad Hanadiv Foundation. 

 

James currently works as an advisor to investment funds, family offices and companies, and is chairman of the Investment Committee of Poul & Erna Sehested Hansens Fond, a Danish medical and educational charity. He is also a trustee of Barry & Martin's Trust, a UK charity dedicated to HIV/AIDS prevention and care in China.