261–270 of 279 posts
It's good that Norway may hit 100% electric EV. But with ~20% of their economy based on oil and gas production, it's hard not to think of it being funded largely by exporting pollution elsewhere.
That’s what I was thinking too. Norway is rich because of oil. They would have serious problems if other countries reduced their carbon emissions.
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> Norway has a sovereign wealth fund (valuation: 1.4T in USD) that is setup specifically for this eventuality. That's not much - $25K per person over 10 years, and with an average income of $70K per person, and something like half of their economy is energy (most if not all social programs are funded from energy production). If oil were to stop tomorrow, they'd have around 10 years before the money runs out. (Maybe a…
Its an endowment, they should be only spending a portion of the earnings not the principle. That way it will last in perpetuity instead of 10 years.
You really think that's enough to replace the oil sector?
It will be interesting if there comes a point where ICE vehicles are such a small minority of all vehicles, that supporting infrastructure (petrol stations, traditional mechanics, oil change services, etc) starts to collapse and disappear. There may still be some infrastructure for special use cases like long haul trucking or industrial vehicles, but it might become untenable for the average consumer to own an ICE ve…
Well it will happen eventually if countries go 100% electric, but I doubt it will affect the average consumer for a long time. Fuel stations make most of their profits from non-fuel items (in my country, fuel stations sell some of the best coffee), and people will still need those when commuting or travelling. In Norway some fuel stations have started to convert pumps to EV chargers [0], however there isn't really mu…
Simply swapping pumps for EV chargers may not sustain a good-enough business. EV charging needs about 30-60 minutes. Current 5-minute shops that sell cigs and energy drinks aren't an attractive destination.
I think it's more likely that malls and supermarkets will add EV charging and take over both sides of gas stations' business.
(This is based on first-hand experience. My nearest fast charger is at a gas station.)
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And (admittedly depending on what type of housing you live in) you can have your own solar on the roof, set up to still supply you even if the grid is down. Hollywood is doing society a disfavour by misrepresenting the apocalypse. EVs and bicycles are the true modes of transport when trouble starts.
Yeah, Mad Max movies show people fighting in the sunny desert over drops of oil to run their cars when solar panels and an EV would have been royal. 8^D
Mad Max should have been about a heist of solar panels and batteries :)
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Its an endowment, they should be only spending a portion of the earnings not the principle. That way it will last in perpetuity instead of 10 years.
Do the math. That's enough for 5K/person/year. You really think that's enough to replace the oil sector?
Anyway, they are still extracting oil and probably will continue to do so for a couple decades. That gives them time to grow their wealth fund and gradually transition their economy. They are at a huge advantage compared to other oil exporters.
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Not only there was no referendum that allowed Norwegians to decide if this was their political volition, but political volition alone is not enough to tax something. If it were, everything would be taxed, because you can construct any 51% against any 49% on any topic and add a tax. If you want to know what Norwegians really think about the tax, make it optional and see how many people pay for it.
> If you want to know what Norwegians really think about the tax, make it optional and see how many people pay for it. If you want to see what Norwegians really think about paying for things in stores, make shoplifting laws completely optional, and replace cash registers with tip jars, and see how that works out.
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That's mostly because of the lack of midmarket cars. I bought a used sub-$20k electrical car a few months ago; it can be done. The market needs pressure to create cars in that price range; right now EVs are mostly luxury cars. Tesla is not the car we should be aiming for; what we need are things in the class of the E-Golf, Kia Niro, FFE, Fiat 500E etc. that are the size of a Corolla and cost 20k CAD or less. Until th…
You also need to make it realistic for people to own EVs without also owning a single-family home. My wife and I probably would have bought a PHEV, but we lived in an apartment so ... we went Hybrid instead. As it is the EV subsidies are really just helping homeowners buy luxury cars which seems a little backwards
The goal was to drive scale so that the price would drop, this has been successful. In the US the federal subsidy phases out after 500K. Tesla and GM have both passed that and have models that are less than the US average for a new car of $40K.
Many non-tree hugger analysts project that upfront EV costs will be equal to ICE by the middle of the decade.
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Yeah, used EVs depreciate quickly. I'm comparing new Tesla Plaids to the C8 Corvette and due to depreciation its looking like the C8 will be much cheaper, and much more fun to drive. The C8 will drop 30k in 5 years according to C6/C7 data, whereas a Plaid will likely drop 70k. If I spend less than $800 a month on fuel the C8 is cheaper. Currently C8s are appreciating their first year, which is really weird. The Model…
> Currently C8s are appreciating their first year, which is really weird. Why is that weird? That seems typical for new, extremely popular cars where supply isn’t meeting demand. It happened years ago with the PT Cruiser, and when Mini (re-)entered the US market. It’s happened with Teslas too. Right now it’s happening with the C8 Corvette and Ford Bronco, which are both really tough to find on dealer lots. In 5 or 10…
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Yeah, used EVs depreciate quickly. I'm comparing new Tesla Plaids to the C8 Corvette and due to depreciation its looking like the C8 will be much cheaper, and much more fun to drive. The C8 will drop 30k in 5 years according to C6/C7 data, whereas a Plaid will likely drop 70k. If I spend less than $800 a month on fuel the C8 is cheaper. Currently C8s are appreciating their first year, which is really weird. The Model…
Corvette vs Model S is kind of a weird comparison, especially with the weight comparison. One is a coupe and one is a sedan. Maybe compare the Model S to an M5 or E63?