What we didn’t have in the 1970s were viable alternatives to vehicles with combustion engine. Ok, the US is currently totally missing the transition but the rest of the world isn’t.
Amsterdam put its transformation into another Detroit, just below sea level, to a sudden halt and reversed course 180° to the bike centric place it is today. Interestingly though Japan is lagging behind dramatically with EVs as well. They are stuck in early hybrid age, ie petrol light.
Maybe, I think it is more about them having really put their eggs into the back then really innovative weak hybrid segment.
BMW after all was also very much into hydrogen, and kept that ambition longer than many alive. Yet BMW has stayed pretty innovative and strong on EV R&D as well. I mean they have not expanded via that route but at least they kept their boat floating and I think the Neue Klasse is really exciting stuff.
I honestly don’t know much about the domestic Japanese car market but it appears to me that there is also very little meaningful regulatory push for EVs, also via subsidies. Of all the regions with a strong traditional car industry it is surprisingly Europe where car manufacturers are the furthest in the transition to EVs. In the US, Tesla aside, which was founded as purely electric car company, the big players are almost regressing back or at least stagnating.
The problem is how much of france is settled and lived in as well as how far you have to go to find work. I wish we had better infrastructure but it does have a huge cost for how much it has to cover
You don’t even need any special EV for that. Even one of the new Renault Twingos for 20k EUR would do. If you want to pay less, get one of the 2nd hand EVs, as long as they are not too old, they’ll do it too.
What we didn’t have in the 1970s were viable alternatives to vehicles with combustion engine. Ok, the US is currently totally missing the transition but the rest of the world isn’t.
Detroit got caught with 8mpg tanks, Japan came in with small efficient hatchbacks.
Amsterdam put its transformation into another Detroit, just below sea level, to a sudden halt and reversed course 180° to the bike centric place it is today. Interestingly though Japan is lagging behind dramatically with EVs as well. They are stuck in early hybrid age, ie petrol light.
IIRC Japan was betting on hydrogen fuel cells when the move away from ICE started. That could explain why their EVs are behind the curve.
Not sure about Japan but Toyota sure was
Maybe, I think it is more about them having really put their eggs into the back then really innovative weak hybrid segment. BMW after all was also very much into hydrogen, and kept that ambition longer than many alive. Yet BMW has stayed pretty innovative and strong on EV R&D as well. I mean they have not expanded via that route but at least they kept their boat floating and I think the Neue Klasse is really exciting stuff.
I honestly don’t know much about the domestic Japanese car market but it appears to me that there is also very little meaningful regulatory push for EVs, also via subsidies. Of all the regions with a strong traditional car industry it is surprisingly Europe where car manufacturers are the furthest in the transition to EVs. In the US, Tesla aside, which was founded as purely electric car company, the big players are almost regressing back or at least stagnating.
My mom want to buy an hybrid when she never do more than 100km and can recharge at home 🤦 go electric !
I’ve had all 3 (ICE, Hybrid, EV) and by far the EV is the clear winner.
Even better would be reliable and frequent public transit running on its own infrastructure.
Unfortunately it’s not really a thing outside of big cities
I was in places in Sweden this summer where there was maybe one car every 15 or 20 minutes on the road. They have bus stops for public transportation.
No you aren’t going to build a metro to a farm hundreds of kilometers from a city… but you can still have public transportation if you value that.
The problem is how much of france is settled and lived in as well as how far you have to go to find work. I wish we had better infrastructure but it does have a huge cost for how much it has to cover
You don’t even need any special EV for that. Even one of the new Renault Twingos for 20k EUR would do. If you want to pay less, get one of the 2nd hand EVs, as long as they are not too old, they’ll do it too.
Yeah she’s looking into 2nd hand but we have no ideas which ones are good 🤷