this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2023
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Yean but I'm not comparing it to some other existing vehicle. We apparently want to get our emissions down? Smaller vehicles. Less road miles. The current pattern of switching to EVs does something. It also continues existing behaviour. I think it is an attractive option for many people. "Buy a new car and get to feel good on multiple fronts". In terms of addressing the root of our problems it does very little.
I think I get where you are coming from, but what are the alternatives? Most alternatives like electric public transport that allows commuters to travel into cities to work requires that intergenerational investment that, in NZ, just doesn't seem to happen. Or are you suggesting working from home (which some jobs can't do), or just a much simpler life in general (I'm pretty much there now). Or perhaps where consumerism ends, international trade ends, international travel ends etc., tourists disappear etc. I'm all in, but it simply is not going to happen until the water level rises, the temperature reaches extremes and the effects are actually felt by people first hand. It is the nature of humans, unfortunately?
Alternatives aside for the moment, what we currently have seems to be populist governments dishing out subsidies to private vehicle owners (free roads, free parking, free money for EVs). It seems to work in terms of getting elected. Yet it incentivises people to live far away from their places of interest - work, school, family and friends, and drive everywhere to make up for that.
Maybe a combination of tech will allow us to properly price things like traffic, parking, resource use. Then we may find that suburbia is less sensible economically, or that more living and working is moved out to where people are housed.
Yes, a simpler life in general. Less powerful, more connected.
Looking at what EV's have been popular in China over the last couple of years:
2-3 years ago the most popular EV was the Wuling Hongguang Mini EV:
This year it's the BYD Song Plus:
The Wuling is still in the top five, but so are Tesla. Seems like SUV's are what people want - how could you change peoples minds? Perhaps offer larger rebates on smaller EV's? Or, tax luxury (SUV) EV's? Have to get rid of those oil burners first though!?
You are right, it's what people want.
The way to incentivise smaller vehicles (and less private vehicle travel generally) is through RUC and congestion charges. If we paid for road usage based on weight/footprint the demand for bigger cars wouldn't be so high.
If we had price rationing at peak times (commute, school run etc.) then people would be incentivised to pool, use alternatives, etc.
The emissions from building more roads and parking spaces is non-trivial too.
I get the angle you're coming from, as someone who was bemoaning the lack of availability of small non-SUV EV's in another forum. However when I think about it, it does make sense from the carmakers point of view. The rise in popularity of crossovers and small SUVs didn't start with EVs but was already there from ICE cars. So making EVs to suit the most popular category that they sell is likely a smart move for actually selling EVs.
I guess we could argue about how much responsibility they have for driving that demand or changing the attitudes of their buyers. We'll eventually get there I think, but we can see already it takes a long time to change the general public's perceptions on climate change as it is, let alone getting them to consider smaller vehicles or make lifestyle changes