this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2024
508 points (97.9% liked)
Degrowth
755 readers
25 users here now
Discussions about degrowth and all sorts of related topics. This includes UBI, economic democracy, the economics of green technologies, enviromental legislation and many more intressting economic topics.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I once had a person unironically tell me they wanted to help curb climate change but didn't want to drive an electric car that looked like an egg.
You could just slot that right into one of these comics and it would fit.
I would question the engineers behind an egg shaped train car as well.
What. Electric cars look like...an egg? Was he from a different planet‽
Nissan Leaf, Chevy Bolt, Toyota Prius, and the early Honda insights are all rather round. Especially the earlier iterations of the cars.
Yes, exactly these models, they were the ones available in the early iterations. I love my 2019 Chevy Bolt and hope to get 5 more years and 200,000 more kilometres out of it, I love it for it's insane practicality and low costs, but it does have a sort of oval shape to it that I don't prefer to a sedan or crossover.
I remember we deliberately didn't buy an EV because there was one frequentish (regular holiday destination) road trip that we did that an EV couldn't do in a single charge. Things have changed though
We had that discussion in my household. We travel regularly (2-3 times a year) 1000KM round trip and the Bolt gets 420KM in absolutely ideal weather. So we must charge. We would never had bought an early, pre-2018. 250KM range EV but the BOLT EV and it's 400km+ range was a game changer for us.
We had to have an attitude adjustment over it, for long trips, to learn to roll with it and be a little less in a hurry. Also to think more holistically about our car use. I wake up every day with a full (well, 80%) charge that will take me anywhere I need to go in a normal day. Sure, we need to stop and charge on the infrequent long trips, but we never have to goto a gas station. So no self-pay ads, no pumping gas in bad weather, no tempting gas station taquitos and energy drinks, no waiting in line to pay inside, and no impact to my budget by fluctuating gas prices.
Instead we park the car to charge, head to a restaurant, the library, the community swimming pool, the boutique chocolate stores and deli shops. We enjoy the trip, enjoy the downtime, and make good use of it. Sure, we would appreciate a car with more range for this trip, but we aren't about to let a small percentage of our driving experience dictate the rest.
The range we needed was 80 miles. Maybe the time is now. I think the break on such a long trip is healthy.
Thanks to California regulatory changes, you might be able to get a plug in hybrid with that kind of range in the next model year or two.
Probably he was thinking of something like a Twike.
I would drive that any day ngl.
I would drive that if American roads weren't so crowded with oversized pickup trucks and SUVs.
They are super expensive unfortunately
So car manufacturers did not want EVs as they would require radical changes, but they wanted to show governments that they are also exploring the idea. So they purposefully made ugly looking cars with very low mileage then reported "see? No one wants EVs"
Tesla really changed that image and showed that EVs can look attractive and be practical.
Elon did something right for once 😂
Actually, I secretly like how he bought twitter and nuked the platform as well. It was a toxic hellscape before he bought it and it still is now.
Starlink is kind of cool. So is paypal. And spacex.
Okay, I've got a lot to thank Elon for. Even though he is bonkers.
Although he also incited race riots in the UK and encouraged war in Ukraine... yeah nothing to get too excited for
Valid
To be fair I never really got why companies couldn’t bring themselves to make hybrid vehicles that just looked like normal cars. They did everything they could to make sure that electric cars remained kinda niche. This modern trend of just making existing, familiar models come with electric options is great. Even the weirdos who buy trucks are going for the Ford Lightning.
The thing I don't like about electric cars is how they're all automatics