3 ms·

> How about maintenance? I do most of my own work on our vehicles. I bought an older truck because I didn't want to deal with all the electronics. Now I'm suppo

> How about maintenance? I do most of my own work on our vehicles. I bought an older truck because I didn't want to deal with all the electronics. Now I'm supposed to buy a vehicle that's not only all electronics, but has potentially dangerous batteries that I don't have the skills to touch? What your doing is great, don't change a thing. If your happy with your system, absolutely DO NOT go out and buy an EV. Your doing more for the environment by continuing to use that older vehicle than buying electric. The carbon emissions of manufacturing a new vehicle are often as high or higher than the lifetime tailpipe emissions [0], and it's a price that has already been paid. The longer we can keep existing cars on the road the better. Sure if it's a given your going to buy a new car, and EV is probably better for the environment than an something gas or diesel powered, but if your looking to really do what's best, keep that existing vehicle in good condition as long as possible. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/green-living-blog/2010/sep/23/carbon-footprint-new-car https://www.theguardian.com/environment/green-living-blog/20...

msrenee 6y ago
Thank you for understanding where I'm coming from. I consider myself an environmentalist. I was, in fact, in the biology and ecology field until I realized I couldn't afford to bounce from temp job to temp job for the 10 years before finding something permanent. That seems to be the average from speaking to my peers all over the country and I don't suck dick well enough to speed that up. I hope when I get life together enough to buy a new car, that EVs have gotten to a point where I can reasonably own one. But as of now, I'm going to keep my truck and my husband's little jerk of a Honda going and reduce my impact in other ways.
bryanlarsen 6y ago
You're linking to a article from 2010. It was wrong then, even more wrong now. Production of an electric car emits about 17.5 tonnes of CO2. Each litre of gasoline emits 2.3 kg of CO2. (Yes, the CO2 weighs more than the gasoline. If the old gas car gets 10l/100km, that's 76000 kilometers. The commenter is a rural driver, so that's probably about 2 years worth of driving.
- msrenee 6y ago
  As far as I can figure with a little too much liquor in me, I drive about 20,000 miles a year for work. Which more or less jives with the fact that I bought this truck at around 170k miles and rolled over 240k miles a month or so ago. So 76k km is a little high for 2 years, but not completely off base. Please understand though, that a new electric vehicle was supposed to cost 20k by now, but I'm not sure there's reliable vehicles on the market for that price. And even if they are available, I've been piling away the stupid amount of overtime that I'm working trying to buy a house for which the market is not in my favor and even 15k is not an expenditure I can pull off right now. Financing is a thing, I know, but the idea of paying an extra couple thousand in interest to have something right now that I can put money up to afford later is hard to handle for me, 5k? 10k? I could make it work if I had a way of charging it when I'm working 10 hour days plus the nearly 2 hour commute. Over 20k for a car, plus I have no way of charging it. Plus even if I parked it in my parents' garage, it might not have enough juice for the commute plus errands? I can't do it. My husband could get away with one, but then you're really pushing the edge of how much environmental impact an EV has vs maintaining an old vehicle. Maybe he gets an EV and I take the Honda that hates me? We still have to pay maintenance and taxes on the truck which I can't replace because there's nothing on the market for it and we couldn't afford it anyway. I do steal the car from him when he doesn't need it, which with my schedule is pretty often. You can say that I'm an edge case, but a large portion of the interior I'd the US is in the same predicament . Maybe I should move closer to work? I'd love to, but my husband works in the city. And the town that I work in is literally a valley that was underwater last year and most likely will flood more and more often because of the global warming we're trying to escape. I'd love property near there, uphill.a bit, but as of this spring and summer, we can't afford it. I guess we're between an island and a long commute. Maybe I'm just putting these posts up so that people whose living situations can afford a new vehicle or public transport realize that there's a lot of us out here in cow country that just can't afford the tens of thousands that it would take to be environmentally friendly as they see it.
  - bryanlarsen 6y ago
    Hey, if you can only afford a 20 year old truck, nobody's going to fault you for only buying 20 year old trucks. But there are tons of brand new $60K trucks in rural areas. Many of those people should be buying EV trucks when they become available at the end of the year. But many won't because of FUD, which we need to combat. So if you can convince one of your neighbours to buy one, maybe you can buy it off them in 10 or 20 years time. And keep that Honda, it's a gem. Great fuel efficiency, embodied carbon long paid off. An EV would be better, but that Honda is a close second.

msrenee 6y ago

Thank you for understanding where I'm coming from. I consider myself an environmentalist. I was, in fact, in the biology and ecology field until I realized I couldn't afford to bounce from temp job to temp job for the 10 years before finding something permanent. That seems to be the average from speaking to my peers all over the country and I don't suck dick well enough to speed that up. I hope when I get life together enough to buy a new car, that EVs have gotten to a point where I can reasonably own one. But as of now, I'm going to keep my truck and my husband's little jerk of a Honda going and reduce my impact in other ways.

bryanlarsen 6y ago

You're linking to a article from 2010. It was wrong then, even more wrong now. Production of an electric car emits about 17.5 tonnes of CO2. Each litre of gasoline emits 2.3 kg of CO2. (Yes, the CO2 weighs more than the gasoline. If the old gas car gets 10l/100km, that's 76000 kilometers. The commenter is a rural driver, so that's probably about 2 years worth of driving.

msrenee 6y ago
As far as I can figure with a little too much liquor in me, I drive about 20,000 miles a year for work. Which more or less jives with the fact that I bought this truck at around 170k miles and rolled over 240k miles a month or so ago. So 76k km is a little high for 2 years, but not completely off base. Please understand though, that a new electric vehicle was supposed to cost 20k by now, but I'm not sure there's reliable vehicles on the market for that price. And even if they are available, I've been piling away the stupid amount of overtime that I'm working trying to buy a house for which the market is not in my favor and even 15k is not an expenditure I can pull off right now. Financing is a thing, I know, but the idea of paying an extra couple thousand in interest to have something right now that I can put money up to afford later is hard to handle for me, 5k? 10k? I could make it work if I had a way of charging it when I'm working 10 hour days plus the nearly 2 hour commute. Over 20k for a car, plus I have no way of charging it. Plus even if I parked it in my parents' garage, it might not have enough juice for the commute plus errands? I can't do it. My husband could get away with one, but then you're really pushing the edge of how much environmental impact an EV has vs maintaining an old vehicle. Maybe he gets an EV and I take the Honda that hates me? We still have to pay maintenance and taxes on the truck which I can't replace because there's nothing on the market for it and we couldn't afford it anyway. I do steal the car from him when he doesn't need it, which with my schedule is pretty often. You can say that I'm an edge case, but a large portion of the interior I'd the US is in the same predicament . Maybe I should move closer to work? I'd love to, but my husband works in the city. And the town that I work in is literally a valley that was underwater last year and most likely will flood more and more often because of the global warming we're trying to escape. I'd love property near there, uphill.a bit, but as of this spring and summer, we can't afford it. I guess we're between an island and a long commute. Maybe I'm just putting these posts up so that people whose living situations can afford a new vehicle or public transport realize that there's a lot of us out here in cow country that just can't afford the tens of thousands that it would take to be environmentally friendly as they see it.
- bryanlarsen 6y ago
  Hey, if you can only afford a 20 year old truck, nobody's going to fault you for only buying 20 year old trucks. But there are tons of brand new $60K trucks in rural areas. Many of those people should be buying EV trucks when they become available at the end of the year. But many won't because of FUD, which we need to combat. So if you can convince one of your neighbours to buy one, maybe you can buy it off them in 10 or 20 years time. And keep that Honda, it's a gem. Great fuel efficiency, embodied carbon long paid off. An EV would be better, but that Honda is a close second.