2 ms·

It's good to have options.

aaroninsf 5y ago
In an ideal world I'd love our car (and everyone else's) to be pure EV; in the current one, we opted for a plug-in hybrid with a decent EV range (~40+ miles) because it allows us to be 100% EV in local driving, but not worry about charging schedule/availability on longer trips. We're a single-car household in the US and we do a lot of camping and wilderness trips; for those there is currently no good EV option. Even if you stage a full charge at the bottom of a mountain, vertical climbs kill your range... and you end up in locations getting a drive-in emergency recharge may be entirely infeasible. I am sad about the complexity of our car. Lift the hood and laugh out loud. But as long as it's reasonably reliable, I would happily pay a serious premium for carbon-neutral gas for the ICE part. 2-3x even. Because then I would sleep easier; and we have the luxury of only burning that in the 5% case. All for the YES-AND.
- surfingdino 5y ago
  I am skeptical (but willing to be proven wrong) about EVs. I am really interested to see long term reliability and safety reports. FYI. I sold my ICE car this year and have not replaced it, yet. The constant semi-lockdowns and decent public transport where I live made car ownership pointless for me at this time.
AtlasBarfed 5y ago
I think there are huge quality of life and health improvements that come along with EV: the air pollution death numbers are likely understated, and I suspect there are carcinogenic and micropollution effects from ICE emissions that are being hidden by our addiction to gasoline and industry-sponsored denialism and suppression. It also smells like a lot of the forced hydrogen hype, a FUD, delay/distraction, undermining of EV popular support, etc by the oil industry that once they get a crack they'll drive a truck through. Hopefully EVs and solar/wind/battery continue their price curve improvements, to make all these distraction projects ludicrously economically infeasible. It is a triumph, dare I say miracle, of modern technology and (sigh, I hate praising economics) economics that we now have a switchover path from dinosaur heroin to something that is EVEN CHEAPER.

In an ideal world I'd love our car (and everyone else's) to be pure EV; in the current one, we opted for a plug-in hybrid with a decent EV range (~40+ miles) because it allows us to be 100% EV in local driving, but not worry about charging schedule/availability on longer trips. We're a single-car household in the US and we do a lot of camping and wilderness trips; for those there is currently no good EV option. Even if you stage a full charge at the bottom of a mountain, vertical climbs kill your range... and you end up in locations getting a drive-in emergency recharge may be entirely infeasible. I am sad about the complexity of our car. Lift the hood and laugh out loud. But as long as it's reasonably reliable, I would happily pay a serious premium for carbon-neutral gas for the ICE part. 2-3x even. Because then I would sleep easier; and we have the luxury of only burning that in the 5% case. All for the YES-AND.

surfingdino 5y ago
I am skeptical (but willing to be proven wrong) about EVs. I am really interested to see long term reliability and safety reports. FYI. I sold my ICE car this year and have not replaced it, yet. The constant semi-lockdowns and decent public transport where I live made car ownership pointless for me at this time.

AtlasBarfed 5y ago

I think there are huge quality of life and health improvements that come along with EV: the air pollution death numbers are likely understated, and I suspect there are carcinogenic and micropollution effects from ICE emissions that are being hidden by our addiction to gasoline and industry-sponsored denialism and suppression. It also smells like a lot of the forced hydrogen hype, a FUD, delay/distraction, undermining of EV popular support, etc by the oil industry that once they get a crack they'll drive a truck through. Hopefully EVs and solar/wind/battery continue their price curve improvements, to make all these distraction projects ludicrously economically infeasible. It is a triumph, dare I say miracle, of modern technology and (sigh, I hate praising economics) economics that we now have a switchover path from dinosaur heroin to something that is EVEN CHEAPER.