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If electric cars are truly the future and will win outright, why the heavy handed approach to ban alternatives? The people most effected by this will be those w

by koolba 5y ago

If electric cars are truly the future and will win outright, why the heavy handed approach to ban alternatives? The people most effected by this will be those with lower incomes who are less likely to have a home with space to charge an electric vehicle. And they’ll feel it a few years after the ban when the used car market dries up.

version_five 5y ago
Canada is getting ready for an election, this sends the message the government wants to send
solraph 5y ago
I can't speak for the Canadian government - but to me this isn't about the better technology, it's about not cooking the planet. Given that 82% of electricity [0] is from Hydro, Nuclear, and other renewables, it's a pretty easy move for Canada to make. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_Canada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_Canada
- jeffreyrogers 5y ago
  I think we'll burn most of the oil regardless of electric car adoption. It's just too convenient of a power source not to use.
- eyivghh 5y ago
  The Canadian electrical market is deeply integrated w/ the US’, so you have to average the US’ energy mix in. Furthermore, you have to consider that an extra electrical vehicle is charged on the margins. In some energy markets, even if they’re 80% renewable, that could mean the electrical car runs 100% on coal (much worse than gas). [1] In BC theres no problem because they have a certain type (easy to store) of hydro, but Im not sure about Ontario. And coal in the margins is very common, even though coal is dying. Coal and heavy oil plants have a huge advantage when it comes to stabilizing the grid - its easy to store thousands of tons of the stuff on-site. Therefore, in places like the N. East, very high CO2 emitting thermal plants are used in the winter to stabilize the grid (in the winter the NH4 pressure in the pipelines drops because of ppl heating their homes) [1] This is the same reasoning why flying across the world dead-head is basically zero-emission: the flight is flying anyway and your added weight is negligible. This is not the case for paid seats since airlines will switch planes, add new ones, depending on the tickets sold.
olyjohn 5y ago
And people with higher incomes will just continue to buy "commercial" trucks like they do now and bypass this whole thing. Every time they ban cars, and not all vehicles, the car makers reclassify whatever they are making to fit that definition. Small SUVs/CUVs and even some station wagons are considered "light trucks" to evade EPA and safety requirements. There's a reason Ford and others doesn't make sedans anymore. It's not just because people all want CUVs, it's because CUVs were cheaper as they didn't have to meet all the same requirements. So they marketed the shit out of their CUVs because they had higher profit margins. If they don't ban commercial trucks too, I see Ford, GM and RAM releasing more and more 'commercial' trucks, and people buying them as family haulers.
guerrilla 5y ago
Presumably because they don't believe it's safe to leave the fate of the species in the hand of the market (or at least they want to appear that way.)
PoignardAzur 5y ago
> why the heavy handed approach to ban alternatives Because we're all stuck in a gigantic tragedy of the commons that directly leads to the end of human civilization as we know it, and it's fucking time we start acting like it.

by koolba 5y ago

version_five 5y ago

Canada is getting ready for an election, this sends the message the government wants to send

solraph 5y ago

I can't speak for the Canadian government - but to me this isn't about the better technology, it's about not cooking the planet. Given that 82% of electricity [0] is from Hydro, Nuclear, and other renewables, it's a pretty easy move for Canada to make. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_Canada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_Canada

jeffreyrogers 5y ago
I think we'll burn most of the oil regardless of electric car adoption. It's just too convenient of a power source not to use.
eyivghh 5y ago
The Canadian electrical market is deeply integrated w/ the US’, so you have to average the US’ energy mix in. Furthermore, you have to consider that an extra electrical vehicle is charged on the margins. In some energy markets, even if they’re 80% renewable, that could mean the electrical car runs 100% on coal (much worse than gas). [1] In BC theres no problem because they have a certain type (easy to store) of hydro, but Im not sure about Ontario. And coal in the margins is very common, even though coal is dying. Coal and heavy oil plants have a huge advantage when it comes to stabilizing the grid - its easy to store thousands of tons of the stuff on-site. Therefore, in places like the N. East, very high CO2 emitting thermal plants are used in the winter to stabilize the grid (in the winter the NH4 pressure in the pipelines drops because of ppl heating their homes) [1] This is the same reasoning why flying across the world dead-head is basically zero-emission: the flight is flying anyway and your added weight is negligible. This is not the case for paid seats since airlines will switch planes, add new ones, depending on the tickets sold.

olyjohn 5y ago

And people with higher incomes will just continue to buy "commercial" trucks like they do now and bypass this whole thing. Every time they ban cars, and not all vehicles, the car makers reclassify whatever they are making to fit that definition. Small SUVs/CUVs and even some station wagons are considered "light trucks" to evade EPA and safety requirements. There's a reason Ford and others doesn't make sedans anymore. It's not just because people all want CUVs, it's because CUVs were cheaper as they didn't have to meet all the same requirements. So they marketed the shit out of their CUVs because they had higher profit margins. If they don't ban commercial trucks too, I see Ford, GM and RAM releasing more and more 'commercial' trucks, and people buying them as family haulers.

guerrilla 5y ago

Presumably because they don't believe it's safe to leave the fate of the species in the hand of the market (or at least they want to appear that way.)

PoignardAzur 5y ago

> why the heavy handed approach to ban alternatives Because we're all stuck in a gigantic tragedy of the commons that directly leads to the end of human civilization as we know it, and it's fucking time we start acting like it.