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StygianKohlrabi No, that is not a reason against electric cars as such, but is dangerously sloppy design by one manufacturer.
Liquified natural gas is used in some vehicles but it's not really a substitute for petrol and diesel as it still creates carbon-dioxide and some nitrous-oxide, though no soot, when burnt in an engine. Modern Diesel-engine vehicles are fitted with catalytic-converter exhausts and particulate filters, as the NOx can be reduced back to N and O by urea solution. I don't know if the fluid is added to the fuel or used in exhaust treatment.
(I can't speak for other countries, but in the UK at least it's the pale blue liquid sold under the 'AD-blue' brand in filling stations.)
Many people ponder using hydrogen. The exhaust would be water-vapour and some nitrous-oxide. Whether it's really feasible for cars I would not like to say. It seems not but it is being developed for heavy vehicles like earth-moving plant and potentially, railway locomotives.
Perhaps the main problem with hydrogen is that it needs a great deal of electrical energy to produce.
In any case natural-gas and petroleum are finite, with their deposits becoming harder and costlier to find. They have probably passed peak availability and peak fuel use; and are being eased out. They will still be necessary for some years to come, but will run out eventually.
A "
step back in" engineering?
Maybe, but perhaps not as you might be thinking?
Battery-electric cars and light commercial vehicles were being manufactured in the UK, USA, France and Germany way back in the 1900s - 1910s! They used lead-acid batteries, but those were heavy and bulky for their electrical capacity.
These vehicles were typically used for local, urban deliveries; but lost to the rapidly developing, new-fangled petroleum-spirit engine offering (at the time) greater power, range and refuelling ease, even before the widespread use of filling-stations.
