I don’t actually care what people do with their money or what car they drive. But it is kind of ludicrous to say electric cars are green–they aren’t. The are as environmentally destroying as gas cars. Even if they were by some miracle completely built from supposedly green, renewable energy, and they aren’t and never will be, those renewables kill birds, bats, insects, whales and other sea life, cause human health problems, perturb local weather and climate and deplete enormous amounts of the earth’s minerals and other raw materials that could be far better used for other purposes; including the diversion of farm land to worthless wind and solar farms. Not to mention the ugliness of these facilities.
And not only are these cars not green, they cost more green than do gas cars. An analysis in Barron’s reveals the ugly truth–electric cars cost more over their lifetime than do gas cars, especially if you take out subsidies. And that assumes that electricity prices stay stable, and they aren’t and won’t. Insurance costs more, electricity costs more, maintenance costs more. And of course the cost of disposing of a depleted battery pack is enormous and another huge environmental problem. But yeah, let’s go ahead and try to convince everyone to spend $60,000 on an EV. (Barrons Article)
There is a photo I saw recently of a gas vehicle, with a gas generator mounted to it, next to an EV bus, charging it up. #reality
I do not care either if people buy a electric car but I do care when I am forced to buy one and that is current path a number of states are on. My understanding is any state that aligned itself with California emission standards are on that path. Virginia is one of those states and the current Governor tried to get that changed but so far no progress. Not only is the current crop of EV vehicles not suitable for the majority of car owners, but I also seriously doubt the life span of the EV car will match the internal combustion car. Pretty sure once the battery goes bad the car is junk due to replacement cost of the battery.
If it isn’t green to my wallet it isn’t green for the environment.
I’m not completely against electric cars, there are some uses they might be suited for. But time will tell if they have much of a useful life beyond a certain mileage/charge cycle. EVs might make more sense as kit cars but governments are addicted to regulations that they don’t want to change.
The practicality also falls in northern climates especially for people who don’t have garages. The exact sorts of things California politicians never consider. Which makes even more odd that another’s state would want to follow Californias lead on anything.
Finally, somebody points out the obvious… We might as well put a coal furnace in these cars (at least then we could get rid of the toxic battery) because that’s where all the electricity is coming from anyway