@clive I have to agree, the article forgets about net carbon emissions required to produce said mass of 3000lb in the shape of a battery. That takes energy, metal, and producing the metal in the first place. Driving a 1990 Volvo 240 is better for the environment since the overhead of having had to produce it has been spread over 30 years greatly offsetting additional carbon pumped into the air from less fuel efficiency, also who says the hummer battery lasts 30 years?
@clive@evanmc Weight and range should cross a luxury threshold. Make a city car more common and more affordable. If I want to do a road trip I am happy to rent a vehicle for that occasional use.
@clive if you want to be serious about the impact issue, tax by weight times miles driven. A larger vehicle driven locally on occasion has less impact than a small vehicle that’s driven a lot.
@clive
Ever since I learned about the power function of damage done by axle weight, I've been telling people this. Double the weight is 16 times the damage! @JustChapman
@clive it'd also be good if safety-related driving infractions (e.g. crash penalties, speeding fines, distracted driving fines, etc.) were proportional to vehicle mass, too, given that the amount of damage they can do certainly is.
@clive size/weight/materials yes. All these massive three row SUVs and Trucks driven by people with 1 kid or never use a truck for truck things because they’re an accountant who lives in a condo. That’s fine to drive a compensation-mobile, enjoy paying the fees for it
@clive hear me out though, to get cars off the road what if we incentivized bikes, e-bikes and subsidized city transit like trains and busses. You could even incentivize people to move closer to resources by subsidizing rent in cities.
All of that seems better than the current infatuation with cars. Heck, you could probably even plant some trees and close a few roads with that plan.
@runewake2@clive the problem is that the US needs billions in investment to translate our cities into non-car shaped cities and it will take generations. Our cities populations exploded during the era of the car, so they were designed for car transit. Europe looks much better and bikes/trains work better because they were originally designed for foot/horse transit and cars were made to for later.
@JJROKCZ@clive I don't think this is true. Yes our cities were designed for cars but if you close a bunch of streets and turn them into greenways and community spaces those can fill that density need through public markets, parks etc. We just need less roads. This approach seems much easier than fundamentally redesigning cities and has already been done in places like Minneapolis (the Nicollet Avenue project/Greenway)
Reducing intersections optimizes car traffic as well.
@clive It's not just the US that loves pickups - #Australia does, too (they're called 'utes' - after 'utility vehicle', here). They're the best selling vehicles in Australia: https://www.racv.com.au/royalauto/transport/cars/australian-new-car-sales-2022.html. Our 4WD utes and SUVs are much smaller and lighter than their US counterparts and much better off-road, to cope with harsh Australian conditions. #electrification does pose an issue, though as the charging structure is not in place for Australia's vast distances, and suitable EVs are simply not available - even if they were affordable (I'd be a customer, but nothing suitable is available, even if it were in my price range).
There's going to be pain involved, as remote communities and the disadvantaged - who drive older ICE vehicles - struggle to move to EVs. The 'nudges' (tariffs) which might seem reasonable for urban drivers are going to seem pretty unfair to them - and fertile breeding ground for a nasty culture war.
@clive Mine's in the shop right now (an Abarth). Blew an exhaust valve. Expensive to repair because the head has to be removed and machined, but the car's worth it.
If the 500e reaches North America, it'll be a serious contender as a replacement. I really hate SUVs and pickup trucks. I much prefer compact cars with serious attitude problems. 😁
@zleap
Trump's body size is irrelevant, especially compared to all the reasons we have to abhor his impact on the world.
He's unlikely to ever see your fat shaming comments. Other people will. Even if you don't think there are any fat people whose feelings you care about, comments like this make you look mean.
@clive@kentborg in the US, car manufacturers have TOLD people "You want big heavy cars" and then made nothing but big heavy cars, pointing to sales and saying"were only giving them what they want "
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