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Global sales of combustion engine cars have peaked

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111–120 of 360 posts

Re: Global sales of combustion engine cars have peaked

#111

I have an EV (Kia Niro EV 2024). I don't want ever to go back to gas. Reasons: * the driving experience is just much, much better: punch & acceleration, stability, quietness, etc. * if you charge at home it is a lot cheaper than gas * it is so easy to "fuel": you plug it in when you arrive home and unplug the next morning Edit: also, after I installed solar cells at home, I drive almost for free!

Hertz forced me to take a Kia Niro EV as my rental. "We have no other vehicles left, it is a higher class vehicle than the compact you reserved". Like hell it was! Never again! I had plans that involved driving 8 hours each way. Electrify America chargers were all broken. Luckily, CircleK chargers "worked", slowly. An hour and 30 min to go from 10% to 90%. Had to charge twice each way. Time I will never get back. Aft…

EVs should definitely not be rentals, especially in countries with poor charging infrastructure. The use cases between renting and daily ownership are vastly different and EVs simply don't suit most rental use cases. I see quite a lot of understandable anti-EV comments due to rentals but it's rare to find an EV owner who goes back to ICE. EVs don't need to charge in 3 minutes, they need to charge where you park them, which is easy for owners but very difficult for a short term renter.

Re: Global sales of combustion engine cars have peaked

#112
post #23

Even in cities that are pretty hostile to bikes, electric bikes/scooters are an amazing middle point between walking and all the expense of a car (purchase, loans, fuel, maintenance, insurance, registration, tickets, etc.).

Nope. Is as horrible as it gets. They silently swing by the pedestrians with over 20mph, many drive drunk or don't know/avoid traffic rules and there is 0 enforcement. And if you get hit by them good luck getting compensated for your hospital bills.

As horrible as the 41’000 that die year from cars in the US? Even after billions and billions are spent on their infrastructure?

How safe would cities with micro mobility be if we spent the same on them?

Re: Global sales of combustion engine cars have peaked

#113
post #23

Even in cities that are pretty hostile to bikes, electric bikes/scooters are an amazing middle point between walking and all the expense of a car (purchase, loans, fuel, maintenance, insurance, registration, tickets, etc.).

Nope. Is as horrible as it gets. They silently swing by the pedestrians with over 20mph, many drive drunk or don't know/avoid traffic rules and there is 0 enforcement. And if you get hit by them good luck getting compensated for your hospital bills.

Scooters should ride on the road. There is huge backlash in the Netherlands on the growing amount of scooters and especially fat bikes [1] riding on the bicycle paths, often ignoring speed limits and increasing risks by 10x.

The conversation really should be centered on “normal” e-bikes with light pedal assist, but these monsters are imported at extremely cheap prices and becomes first choice for teenagers and anyone on a budget.

[1] low-rider bikes with very wide tires, basically an electric motorcycle where you barely have to pedal

Re: Global sales of combustion engine cars have peaked

#115
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want an electric bike but I want to go places with it and I’m worried about it getting stolen when I lock it up outside a shop. Do you have one?

I don't. Theft risk and storage is definitely a challenge. A lot of commuters find somewhere to stash them at work. The problem might get better as ebikes become more common and lower in price.

Unfortunately, I doubt that. Where in live, bike theft has been rampant for ages, even before electric models were a thing.

Re: Global sales of combustion engine cars have peaked

#116

Seems unlikely that we'll ever totally move away from combustion engines, simply due to sunk costs plus the advantages of energy density and quick refilling. I expect we'll see net-zero carbon emission gasoline and other hydrocarbons sold at the pump within the next few decades, produced with either solar or nuclear energy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer%E2%80%93Tropsch_proces... https://www.youtube.com/watch?…

CNG/LNG have been around for a while and are yesterday's future. Synthetic zero carbon fuel simply loses too much in conversion to be economic, compared to direct EV. I think China is in the process of demonstrating what the transition looks like.

There will probably be a rump of difficult to convert use cases and long lives specialty vehicles. I imagine tractors will be the last holdout. And military uses.

Re: Global sales of combustion engine cars have peaked

#118

Can I just ask - forgive the potential ignorance - if EVs have been proven to be less net carbon emitting with their manufacturing and expected disposal emissions factored in?

Yes. The break even is at around 15,000 to 20,000 miles driven for replacing an ICE. This obviously varies depending on electricity source.

Even that's a pretty conservative estimate these days. It's typically less, ~11,000m (18,000km) and the balance keeps shifting in EVs favour over time as the grid becomes more renewables based... https://www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-21-misleading-myths-ab...

Re: Global sales of combustion engine cars have peaked

#119
post #23

Even in cities that are pretty hostile to bikes, electric bikes/scooters are an amazing middle point between walking and all the expense of a car (purchase, loans, fuel, maintenance, insurance, registration, tickets, etc.).

Nope. Is as horrible as it gets. They silently swing by the pedestrians with over 20mph, many drive drunk or don't know/avoid traffic rules and there is 0 enforcement. And if you get hit by them good luck getting compensated for your hospital bills.

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