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To be fair, electric vehicles are generally unprofitable and people who buy cars prefer not to pay more money for less impressive capabilities. Spending money
by fennecfoxen 7y ago
To be fair, electric vehicles are generally unprofitable and people who buy cars prefer not to pay more money for less impressive capabilities.
Spending money to develop products that you can't sell at a profit is not generally a winning strategy, which is why the EV market is sort of a waiting game, in which automakers try to time their investments against various government subsidies and regulations — knowing that the moment it really is a more profitable approach, your competitors will all be flooded with capital and trying very hard to seize the same markets that you are after. (Heck, if you do too well against them, you could see government intervention to prop up your competitors in the name of saving jobs, whether the US government or otherwise. See also: the Renault/Nissan merger proposal that made Ghosn a political target. They were trying to do joint work on EVs to keep costs down, and the merger would be the next step — but Nissan is Too Iconic and Important to Japan™ to allow it.)
- Enginerrrd 7y agoThe real kicker is it's not even all that an effective way to counter climate change. It's more feel good BS than anything else.
- senordevnyc 7y agoI would get an electric car even if I didn’t care about climate change at all. I really don’t think that’s why most people bought Model S cars worth six figures...
- megablast 7y agoWell of course. You can’t care about climate change, and buy a car.
- Scoundreller 7y agoThis is why I prefer carbon taxes over EV subsidies. An EV that largely sits in the driveway doesn’t accomplish anything toward any climate goals.
- clarry 7y agoWell damn. Guess I need to stop walking and cycling and make sure to drive the car more.
- Enginerrrd 7y agoA Carbon tax done right would have WAY more efficacy than EV subsidies, dollar for dollar.
- tonmoy 7y agoCan you please provide some evidence for your claim? My quick research showed that about 29% of GHG emissions is from transport and a significant part of that is from cars and trucks
- kortilla 7y agoIn the US it’s 29% of GHG, 59% of which is light vehicles (i.e. the candidates for feasible electric replacement). https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/fast-facts-transportation-greenhouse-gas-emissions https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/fast-facts-transportation-... While helpful, a 100% replacement is only a reduction of ~20% GHG, and that depends on 100% renewable charging the cars.
- adrianN 7y agoWell yeah? A 20% reduction is absolutely massive! I don't think anybody expected replacing ICEs to solve the climate catastrophe single handedly.
- fennecfoxen 7y agoMost electricity in the US isn't carbon-free, and isn't likely to become so in the near future. From a climate perspective, living close to work, and carpooling, bicycling, or riding a motorcycle are all much more effective than buying an electric car. Heck, even in a city like New York with a good (electric) mass transit system, the main climate savings is that people are close together and go shorter distances. (The carbon emissions per passenger-mile are not very impressive.)
- tonmoy 7y agoThe efficiency of Internal combustion engine is about 25%, whereas a combined cycle power plant can be around 60% efficient. Even with transmission, storage and electric motor inefficiencies, EVs come ahead. Add the fact that more and more percentage of power is come from renewables each day, I’d say EVs are more than feel good BS. Sure, staying closer to work may be a better idea, but we can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
- gibolt 7y agoElectric cars (mostly via Tesla) is a middleground to scaling battery (and eventually solar) production. All those cars displace the use of fossil fuels before EOL, and then go on to become grid storage, reducing reliance on peaker plants and making renewables even more viable. Making battery development a cost/density competition is what will help us escape fossil fuels.