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Auto execs are coming clean: EVs aren't working (www.businessinsider.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 50 points 2 years ago (13 children)

So we can start focusing on real solutions to climate change. Like building cities that don’t depend on cars for transportation. Right… right?

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  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago

    It's already hard to convince people to use EVs, convincing them to use public transportation is even harder. It's completely understandable why they don't want to use public transportation tho: it kinda sucks in most countries. Here in germany it's simply unreliable. If you use it to get to work, you can expect to get there late quite frequently and the same goes for the way home. Fixing the issues public transportation has and making cities less car dependent takes time and we don't really have that much anymore. EVs aren't perfect but it's a compromise.

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  • [+] 13 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)
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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    Industrial and manufacturing processes Electricity and heat generation Transportation (with vast majority being bunker fueled chips, and agriculture.

    Unfortunately I don't run an industrial manufacturing process or shipping company... so there's not much I can do there other than prefer to buy products/services that involve fewer emissions.

    I've installed solar on my home... and some day I'll probably add a battery (when they're cheaper), but that's about all I can do.

    So for me at least, this stuff isn't a huge priority. I'm already doing everything I can.

    Me getting 25mpg versus 30 ain’t moving the needle on the emissions

    Huh? That's almost a 20% reduction in your vehicle emissions and private transport is a major contributor to greenhouse gasses. It'd definitely "move the needle".

    I’m not saying everyone has a part to play

    I am. Might be a small part for some, but it's a part. It could be as simple as using LED lighting instead of incandescents (10x lower emissions, and 10x lower power bill) or cooking with induction instead of gas (4x lower emissions, boils water 2x faster, and cheaper though how much depends on your gas prices).

    Those two changes I suggested don't even cost any money. They save money.

    A lot of other changes also save money - green hydrogen, for example, was $4/kg two years ago and is $3/kg today... it was projected to be cheaper than gas some time between 2027 and 2040... but thanks to Russia's war it's already cheaper than gas now in some parts of the world. Suddenly the industry is scrambling to accelerate that transition.

    The liquid natural gas industry has no long term future and not because of emissions - it's just not going to be const competitive for much longer.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    "building cities"

    Well, one can attempt to make it easier going forward but this isn't sim city where you can just demolish your entire infrastructure and remake it to suit your needs.

    Doing so will take decades to even start to have an impact on personal vehicle usage. Decades we don't really have.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago

    We used to lift cities up to support sewer systems and now adding relatively simple infrastructure seems out of reach. Neoliberalism has completely ruined our ability to invest in public infrastructure

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago

    I’m not really saying it can be done overnight. But imagine if all the money (heck even half the money) that went into trying to build electric cars went into building some good transit systems supported by strong transit oriented design. It would have done way more to tackle climate change than making cars EVs. It’s a long term process but one that far more likely to make a difference than EVs.

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  • [+] -7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    What about banning all trade shipping?

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  • [–] 21 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Trade shipping is incredibly efficient when it comes to moving large quantities of goods. Transportation, as a whole, consumes about a quarter of the world's energy output. Meanwhile industry verges on near 60%. A large portion of that is refining and manufacturing coupled with new construction.

    While I understand that people's immediate reaction is that we need more EVs or, on the extreme end, somehow restrict cars. People also need to understand that's not the sector that is going to have the most corrective impact on the coming climate disasters.

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