I agree with everything you just said (and even on principle will only ever buy a used car) - except we're not talking about buying a new car. We're talking a

I agree with everything you just said (and even on principle will only ever buy a used car) - except we're not talking about buying a new car. We're talking about using uber/lyft. If that uber driver is does uber-driving full time, and they charge their car using a suitably green power source, then the electric car might be seeing enough use/mileage that the emissions savings make a net win after a year or so on the road. Maybe uber-consisting-of-only-cars-at-least-10-years-old would still be better. But you're never going to get uber to implement that. And of course taking the bus is better, but sometimes extremely inconvenient (for some definition of "extremely". ---------------------------------- Separate line of thought - I have in the past reasoned thus: In the year 2025, millions of new cars will be produced and sold. There is nothing that a couple of curmudgeons like you and I can do about that. But the fraction of those cars that are electric vs petroleum-powered is going to depend on the number of people who by electric cars between now and then. Consumer behavior does influence the set of products that vendors make available to consume in subsequent months and years. So maybe these brand-new-electric-car-buyers are actually helping in an indirect (and impractical-to-quantify) way.