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EV sales soar in main European markets as drivers shun expensive petrol
- measurablefunc 6mo agoThese are just flashes in a pan. The material math for EVs is not viable.
- jqpabc123 6mo agoI'll bet your math conveniently ignores the fact that the supply of petroleum is inherently limited and subject to disruption for political and other "non-material" reasons..
- measurablefunc 6mo agoIt's not a political statement, just basic physics & chemistry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEkIh2PcSYE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEkIh2PcSYE
- diablozzq 6mo agoYour own YouTube link refutes your conclusion. in the first few sentences he states “The problem is not with EVs it’s with mandates” EVs are fine, yes they are still limited in some cases.
- measurablefunc 6mo agoThe mandates won't fix the fundamental physical & material problems so I'll repeat what I said. EVs are never going to work at the scale of ICEs, the numbers don't work out. Regardless of any political "incentives", there is only a finite amount of copper & only finitely many cars that can be made w/ that amount of copper which has to be extracted & processed using non-renewable resources.
- barbazoo 6mo ago> Regardless of any political "incentives", there is only a finite amount of copper & only finitely many cars that can be made w/ that amount of copper which has to be extracted & processed using non-renewable resources. > the numbers don't work out What are the numbers? Are we running out of any of those? Are we not recycling enough materials?
- vel0city 6mo ago> there is only a finite amount of copper There is only a finite amount of oil as well. There is only a finite amount of aluminum and iron. There is only a finite amount of everything on this planet my dude. > has to be extracted & processed using non-renewable resources Technically speaking these don't always have to be entirely non-renewable processes. But let's also think: when the copper windings on some EV's motor are toast it can be recycled pretty much infinitely. How many times does that gallon of gasoline get recycled? Seems strange to have the copper be the thing so uniquely focused on. You're so focused on like 200lbs of copper that will be in the car the entire life of the car and can then be recycled after the life of the car, being so extremely concerned about how its such a finite resource. Meanwhile you just ignore than a 25mpg ICE car over a 200,000mi life will burn ~48,600lbs of gasoline, none of which is recoverable, and is also a finite resource. Which one should we me more concerned about using up? The one that's easily recyclable or the one that's not and will be consumed >240x as much? https://internationalcopper.org/sustainable-copper/about-copper/cu-demand-long-term-availability/ https://internationalcopper.org/sustainable-copper/about-cop... > Current copper resources are estimated to exceed 5,000 million tonnes That's ~50 billion EV cars worth of copper we roughly know about. There's probably more than that out there, we just haven't found it yet. It also just ignores all the copper we've already mined and is in the circular economy.
- wao0uuno 6mo agoCopper is a widely recycled metal. Is there not enough copper on earth to replace all ICE cars with EVs? Can you post some sources? And those numbers you keep talking about so I can verify if your calculator is working alright.
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- zug_zug 6mo agoI don't think "material math" applies to things that are huge luxury/status symbol purchases. Otherwise we'd all be driving 2005 corollas. And as status-symbol or identity statement, being anti-oil (or anti beholden on America, Russia, Iran, etc) seems like a pretty good one.
- measurablefunc 6mo agoI am not making any political statements, it's all basic physics & material science: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEkIh2PcSYE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEkIh2PcSYE
- zug_zug 6mo agoI've watched plenty of youtube videos, I'm not gonna watch a 10 minute video from somebody I've never heard of and treat is as a good source. It's bad form to post that here multiple times instead of just citing whatever actual published sources. Especially when EV vehicles are already working and taking over the market.
- ZeroGravitas 6mo agoThe man in the video has a history of questionable claims, for some fairly obvious reasons: https://www.desmog.com/mark-p-mills/ https://www.desmog.com/mark-p-mills/ > Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and a Strategic Partner at Cottonwood Venture Partners, an investment firm focused on technological advancements in oil and gas production
- wao0uuno 6mo agoEdit: Just checked the guidelines so: Man, what a terrible person. I hope he steps on a lego block.
- onraglanroad 6mo agoThere was no physics in that. It was 10 minutes of incoherent rambling. How do people find this convincing? Is it a new fashion?
- peterlada 6mo agoGeez, Hillsdale College. Worldwide authority on all economics from the theological perspective. Congrats on picking information sources.
- measurablefunc 6mo agoDo the math & then post your own video to explain why he's mistaken.
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- jqpabc123 6mo agoThe big winner from the Iran war thus far --- China. Whether Israel is a real winner is yet to be determined. There is no significant, strategic benefit to the USA despite spending at least $50 billion thus far --- not counting the cost of inflated fuel prices.
- kylehotchkiss 6mo agoWell, we stopped hearing about the files. That's kinda a benefit to some people?
- Symbiote 6mo ago> Last week the German automotive trade body said restructuring in the industry and new investment was paying off, as every second electric car sold in Europe was now made in Germany. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/20/electric-car-ev-sales-mainland-europe-petrol-prices-iran-war https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/20/electric...
- whatevaa 6mo agoChina has been winning since Trump took office second time. They are winning by doing... nothing :)
- slaw 6mo agoChina is advancing for the last 25 years, Trump or no Trump.
- jesterson 6mo agoI wonder what way of thinking these people exercise. They think electricity prices are somehow shielded from price going up?
- triceratops 6mo agoIn places where electricity generation is primarily nuclear, solar, hydro, wind, or geothermal? Yeah pretty much. In most countries electric utilities have either regulated rates or are public-owned. They don't increase prices willy-nilly.
- ZeroGravitas 6mo agoIf you have an internet connected charger, which is standard in some countries, you can be decoupled from gas prices long before the gas gets phased out of the grid by charging when the grid is cheap and clean, even if gas is still being used for peakers. A simple timer will also often do the job, but you get even lower prices if you help the grid out by letting it dictate the exact time to start charging.
- barbazoo 6mo agoICE cars use energy from close to 100% oil. As long as your electrical grid is more diverse than that, you're already better off.
- peterlada 6mo agoWhat? Where? In face that statement is not true pretty much everywhere. 50% of electricity in Hungary is nuclear. 80% in France. 50% coal in Poland, 30 % solar in Spain.
- supercheetah 6mo agoYou should reread their post. You're proving their point.
- 0cf8612b2e1e 6mo ago
- a_shovel 6mo agoThe next administration needs to mandate the big American auto companies produce more EVs in more models in order to save them from the irrelevance they seemingly desire and arguably deserve.
- melling 6mo agoYou’re part of the problem, not the solution. There’s an entire political backlash against EVs because of mandates. The Trump Administration actually prevented California from having EV quotas. Simply let in EVs from China and let American car companies go out of business.
- a_shovel 6mo agoThere's a political backlash against vaccines because of mandates too, and I think we shouldn't listen to them either.
- melling 6mo agoNo, there really isn’t.
- smithoc 6mo agoThere's a political backlash because Fox News and some Russian propaganda social media accounts told people to get angry and they did. We have mandates against leaded fuel and excessively tinted windows and for child seats. We have mandates for airbags and seatbelts and bumper heights and crumple zones and turn signals. EVs are better than gas cars in every way - less noise, less pollution, less dependency buying oil from the Middle East. Our policies, regulations and incentive structures should mirror that.
- melling 6mo agoIf they’re better, you don’t need mandates.
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- johnwhitman 6mo ago[dead]
- ManuelKiessling 6mo agoI say this as someone who owns two EV cars, zero ICE cars, and loves everything about owning and driving EVs: it baffles me how quickly and noticeably consumers shift their preferences; I think I read something along the lines of „for the average German commuter, the petrol price spike means 6 euros plus per week in spending“ — and that is enough for so many people to go „okay screw it I’m switching to new technology for my planned purchase“? I mean, great that it happens, but yeah, I‘m baffled.
- bamboozled 6mo agoIt’s the stress around it, not the current price. That’s what people are replacing. If I’m trying to plan for the future in a world where conflicts this destructive are permanently on the menu, I’m not going to ever buy an ICE car again. No one wants to be at the mercy of anyone else where possible and as someone who only owns ICE cars, it’s been very stressful few weeks.
- ManuelKiessling 6mo agoI think you are on to something here. But it would mean that sentiment could change on a whim: a serious blackout somewhere in Europe that makes continent-wide headlines, and EV demand might crash.
- ben_w 6mo agoCould be, but depends on the behaviour of PV. Given the lack of blackouts around here, I've not bothered to investigate if home PV systems can still charge batteries, or if the inverter dependence on the grid for phase-locking the AC prevents that. There's already been news stories about people powering their homes from their EV during blackouts, the oldest example I know of this from 2012 albeit with a hybrid and it was burning petrol: https://cleantechnica.com/2012/11/10/man-lights-house-with-toyota-prius/ https://cleantechnica.com/2012/11/10/man-lights-house-with-t... More recently, this: https://electrek.co/2026/03/13/yes-an-ev-really-can-power-your-home-if-its-one-of-these/ https://electrek.co/2026/03/13/yes-an-ev-really-can-power-yo...