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> According to Argonne National Lab, between 2010 and the end of 2021, the US had bought more than 2.1 million plug-in vehicles, including 1.3 million battery E
by bink 4y ago
> According to Argonne National Lab, between 2010 and the end of 2021, the US had bought more than 2.1 million plug-in vehicles, including 1.3 million battery EVs. That sounds like a very impressive number, but bear in mind that's out of a total national vehicle pool of nearly 276 million cars and trucks
That seems pretty straight forward. It's not that EVs aren't helping reduce carbon emissions, it's that they still make up a tiny fraction of the overall travel miles in the US.
- Teknoman117 4y agoSeriously. 0.3% percent of new cars in 10 years are electric or partially electric and drove gas usage down by 0.5%? Seems like a victory.
- thrill 4y agoThat "news" article could have easily spun it the other way and said EVs have double the influence on gas usage.
- Karrot_Kream 4y agoIMO tech pessimism sells these days in a way that optimism doesn't, so places like Ars and The Verge lean into it.
- v0idzer0 4y agoNot just tech. Pessimism sells better than optimism regardless of subject matter
- TSiege 4y agoCould be hybrids accounting for the rest
- timeon 4y agoBut is that really relevant in the end? Is CO2 decreasing?
- stjohnswarts 4y agoyes by ~0.1% +/- 0.1% (of US output)
- bastawhiz 4y agoYes, by 5.4 million metric tons: > For 2021 specifically, plug-in vehicles saved about 690 million gallons of gasoline—about two days of consumption—and reduced CO2 emissions by 5.4 million metric tons, consuming 6.1 TWh in the process. It really doesn't matter if the total CO2 decreases, just that it trends downward. If no downward trend started to trend downward, we wouldn't have any downward trends, would we?
- SideQuark 4y agoUnless over that period increased mileage in gas cars accounted for a bigger reduction, which is the far more likely explanation gives the tiny amount of EVs.
- outside1234 4y agoAnd have you seen how big the other cars are now? This is great progress in the sense that the semi sized trucks are somehow not eating all of these gains. (And the next step is to get EVs up into those semi sized trucks and tax the carbon versions to compensate for their environmental damage)
- stjohnswarts 4y agothis will never happen in the USA. they will strike if you try to make them soak up those costs; telling the average american literally everything is on hold because big rigs are all protesting and the voters will come looking for you at your home (if you're a politician). Any such measure is only doable in a country like China where the government has absolute power and even there when pushed too far regular people will starting burning shit to the ground.
- alamortsubite 4y ago> the next step is to get EVs up into those semi sized trucks and tax the carbon versions to compensate for their environmental damage Sounds good, but much better would be to get people out of their cars, ICE or otherwise.
- kyrra 4y agoIn the US, that would require an entire upending of how our country built housing and commercial space. That won't happen without a major shift. People will not want to give up their freedom of mobility.
- alamortsubite 4y agoThat much is obvious. Sadly, what's less obvious to many is that we're in for a major shift, one way or another.
- outside1234 4y agoTotally agree with you on that.