No. They’re a step.
They solve the wrong problem - we need fewer cars, not electric cars.
Came here to say this. Many changes need to be made, and some will be more effective than others, but we can’t afford to do nothing.
Electric cars are a solution to save the auto industry, not the planet
Electrification will happen somehow, electric cars will be part of that. But especially places like the us need to also become less dependent on cars
tl;dr ☝️
No. If you think they are, then please look up how much of the plastic in the oceans and nature in general is from car tires. Also an electric car does nothing if the electricity is produced from fossil fuels,
Actually, because of just how inefficient small scale combustion is and how much fuel goes into getting that gas to the car in the first place, even if you run an EV directly off the most polluting coal plant in the North America it’s still significantly better for the environment. Admittedly if you use a more average energy mixture, the benefit is far larger, but there is still a benefit.
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Have we ever thought they were a solution and not just a stopgap?
Until proper alternatives are fully operational, EVs are not the worst thing.
You’re undercutting your own argument here.
EVs make sense in rural contexts, but that is and will always be a niche application. We can’t afford to ignore the bigger picture - most people live in cities. There are more efficient and better options to decarbonize cities than electric cars.
As the other commenter pointed out, electric cars are a step. A lot of people living in cities are ready to go farther now though. Let’s not ignore them or get in their way.
About 56% of the world lives in urban settings. I wouldn’t call 45% of the population a niche market, however I would say that even a significant portion of the rural population could be better served with non-car transportation options. Removing fossil fuels as much as possible from our energy use will still be vital to averting a major crisis, and alternatives will need to be found for those 45%, too, especially since they will use proportionally more transportation energy than their urban counterparts.
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Until proper alternatives are fully operational, EVs are not the worst thing.
Considering that the effects of, causes of and solution to climate change has been known and attainable since the 40s, personal electric car ownership is not so much moving us in the direction of the ultimate, final end-goal as they are simply saving the car industry.
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but until those solutions are realized
Apparently I have to clarify that the ultimate, final end-goal of which I speak is actually just getting rid of cars. We could do this today, or at least severely limit its use by making it unnecessary for the common-person, instead of transitioning to another type of car which will kick the proverbial can down the road and make the problem even harder to deal with later because we’re still tearing up our cities to build parking lots at the same pace and increasing the distance between everything, electric or not.
If I can use a product of the car industry that doesn’t poison the people around me … why shouldn’t I?
Because it’s still the car industry, which is now, instead of lobbying for oil wars, employing child slaves in disadvantaged countries to work in toxic mines. Your massive lithium battery is not free of guilt, or even just less guilty than oil, and no tech-bro battery innovations are coming to save us.
… and makes some of those people think a bit more about climate issues … why shouldn’t I?
I don’t think most people care or give a second thought to the climate when they see a car accelerate quietly, rather they think something along the lines of Wow, that almost hit me! I nearly died! Anyway…
… while doing the same journeys I did with an ICE, , why shouldn’t I?
Because the point is that you shouldn’t be doing those journeys. You shouldn’t have to have the least efficient form of personal transportation to be a functional member of society. If you need something, ideally you should just put on your shoes and go get the thing on your legs or bike or take a bus, tram or train. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15-minute_city
Fix it today, not tomorrow
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One thing that the article didn’t touch on, since it was focused on input costs, is the extra pollution from using EVs.
EVs are substantially heavier than ICEs of the same class, due to the battery. This leads to extra wear on the tires, break pads, and road surface -> even more micro plastics and particulate air pollution.
We need to reduce our ecological footprint, not merely change it from oil to reactive metals.
Brake pads tend to last longer due to regenerative braking. The rest of your point stands.
The ‘substantially heavier’ is doing a lot of work there, given the change is only about 5 to 10% on average and typically EV’s are still not the heaviest vehicles in their same class. Compared to the car obesity epidemic in North America, the drivetrain is irrelevant. A European EV for instance is nearly always going to far, far lighter than a modern US gas car.
Also, becuse if the road degradation is exponentially tied to tire wheight it is almost always a function of trucks, busses, and freeze thaw cycles, cars tend to be to light to cause significant share of the damage.
Break dust is an odd thing to bring up, seeing as one of the other common gripes with EVs is that they use their breaks so extremely rarely that they corrode and might be ineffective in an emergency.
Tire dust is an factor, but again one that’s more impacted by the increase in North America’s car size than drivetrain and which is reduced by getting cars back to sane sizes and out of dense areas like cities, not pretending that a 80 to 90% reduction in one of the largest causes of climate change is somehow the same.
No.
