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You mean abatements & subsidies required to push "clean" vehicle policies that are among the most aggressive in the world? Without Tesla & CA's policies, auto
by beambot 6y ago
You mean abatements & subsidies required to push "clean" vehicle policies that are among the most aggressive in the world?
Without Tesla & CA's policies, auto electrification would be at least a decade behind what it is today... Being at the forefront of environmental policy has real costs.
- yxwvut 6y agoPerhaps the private beneficiaries of those subsidies should bear some responsibility for covering the costs?
- darawk 6y agoWhy? The purpose of those subsidies is to benefit all of us. Not to benefit Elon Musk. He's just the only one who stepped up to solve the problems for us.
- kobayashi 6y agoThat would drastically undermine the point of those, and any future, subsidies. I would also find it to be immoral.
- elindbe2 6y agoCalifornia would've had to make that responsibility known up front. They chose not to do that. And California directly benefitted from the money they spent. That benefit is electric vehicles in the hands of its population, which improves the state's pollution levels long-term.
- yxwvut 6y agoAgreed on all fronts. More of a 'woulda-coulda-shoulda' than anything.
- HeadsUpHigh 6y agoNo that should have been stated upfront. A deal is a deal.
- threeseed 6y agoParis climate targets will have done far more to push EV forward than Tesla/CA. Most governments e.g EU, UK, China all looking to curtail/ban ICE cars within the next few decades. And of course this has resulted in car manufacturers rapidly pushing EV cars.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- busterarm 6y agoAnd mass market EVs weren't really a mass-market thing until Tesla pushed the luxury brands to compete with them.
- threeseed 6y agoMass market EVs started appearing exactly after EU regulations forced them to be made. Tesla has helped but be would have EVs today even if the company had never existed.
- imgabe 6y agoIt's impossible to say what would have happened in a different timeline, but Tesla made electric cars cool. Yes, there were EVs before, they were half-assed token efforts by the big automakers to pretend that they were trying. Tesla forced them to be competitive.
- beambot 6y agoAre you talking about the same EU regulators that barely gave volkswagen a slap in the wrist for dieselgate? EU regulations had approximately zero impact on Tesla's formative years -- and Tesla was the first auto manufacturer to meaningfully commit long-term (and not lip service) to EVs. VW and others are still today talking about how they're playing catch-up.
- sonotmyname 6y agoInteresting take given that the US has made more gains on carbon emissions without being a Paris Accord signatory than most of the signatories have...
- beaner 6y agoUnpopular opinion: Electric cars & clean tech generally have made leaps and bounds because consumers want it. Climate agreements help somewhat, but they're a lagging indicator of the trend.