It was the beginning of the fifties. We lived next to the Delmas mansion, at the top of the alleys of the Mail, behind the war memorial, occupied by the American colonel who commanded the NATO base of La Rochelle and its region. My father and mother sometimes ate there.

   This colonel had a daughter. The same age as me. Cynthia. I remember, I was already in love.

   Cynthia had lots of toys and games; they were kept in a special room. This cave of Ali Baba amazed me. We watched cartoons projected on a big white screen. A car parked there that I particularly liked flashed its headlights at me. It was different from our pedal car, or wooden box with roller skate wheels. An electric limousine! Yes, it was.

   So my brother and I argued about whether we should drive it around the park in front of Cynthia's admiring eyes. Meanwhile, our parents were discussing the future in the castle lounge.

   Electric, of course we had to charge it or change the batteries, I don't remember, otherwise we had to push it. It wasn't difficult. Scale model, even with the driver at the wheel, the strength of our six or seven-year-olds managed to move it.

   Not like today! Imagine a full-size electric car, a Tesla or a Dacia, without juice, on the side of the road. To die of laughter or suffocation.

   I don't know what kind of stupid, that is to say ecological, who that thinks it is necessary to encourage his contemporaries to buy such machines, but all other things being equal, and notwithstanding the current shortages, partly due to the Muscovite celluloid dictator, there will be risks of setbacks inherent in the system. With hitchhikers on the roads, carrying an empty battery in a wheelbarrow like a canister under their arm.

  
   I recently received an advertisement from Dacia. The new 100% electric Spring. Now it looks like a car! Up to 305 km of autonomy, we are told. As long as you drive slowly, in town, in summer, during the day, in good weather, without a radio. Otherwise, at 125 on the motorway and 5°C below zero, that's 59 km of range, even without a radio, without GPS, without windscreen wipers or headlights. Figures given by their simulator. A clown.

   By comparison, the Tesla Model 3 claims a range of 602 km. Presumably in the same conditions that the other. In other words, almost six times less on the motorway, at night in winter, in snow or rain, with the radio blaring. But be careful, the brand's website does not offer a simulator to get an idea of the progress. A joke.

   In short, you will have understood that electric cars are good for children who have fun with them. The rest is just fun.

   Unless you have a trailer full of spare batteries, or you invent a revolutionary battery, the future of a decent electric motor belongs to hydrogen, nuclear fusion or some other yet-to-be-discovered energy source.

   Our good old fossil fuel pumps, which are far from empty despite strikes, wars and speculation, remain the only acceptable ones.

   With all due respect to doomsday prophets and degrowth advocates.