Electric cars are not the future
For a city-dweller ditching a petrol car, the calculation then becomes: instead of an EV, can I buy a much cheaper, health-giving e-bike that I can charge in my flat, and supplement with the odd taxi ride? That is the trend. European and US car sales peaked in 2019. About 5.5 million e-bikes were sold in the EU in 2022, against just two million electric cars. Many car-owners now use bikes for short trips.
@Denny It’s nice to see that many have come to their senses. The whole WFH shift has probably changed the need for many as well. I guess there is some overlap between new car ownership and e-bike purchases though.
@Denny Another issue I don't see mentioned much (or maybe I've just missed it) in discussions of EVs is a consideration of how the electricity is generated. In Indiana, for example, much of our electricity is still from coal-powered plants. It's not obvious to me that EVs are better than gas engines in Indiana for that reason--though I'm sure someone has probably calculated this.
@odd WFH has changed my life for the better in so many ways--one of which is that I'm putting a fraction of the miles on my car that I did pre-COVID. I'd say 90% of my driving now is within the city limits of my small town and I'm not even driving every day. If executives could get past the narcissism of needing to see their employees arrayed around them in an office, it would save a lot of emissions.
@jabel I've not seen it discussed much. There are so many details that have been left out of the larger discussion. Another one is the energy cost of infrastructure for auto-based transport. From parking to streets to highways, expansion to maintenance, autos require far more physical space and resource.