Odd question to ask, perhaps, on this sub. But I recently had a conversation with someone who is blindly anti-EV and he kept rambling on about a “silent majority” of EV owners who “don’t care at all” about the environment. I personally don’t think that’s true, but I may be (sadly) wrong.
(We are both car enthusiasts, but he leans right, I lean left (and am concerned climate change). In case people are curious)
‘Silent majority’ of ALL people probably don’t care about the environment. It’s likely a higher fraction of early EV adopters who ‘care about the environment’, but still a good chunk who don’t.
None of that actually matters. What matters is what mode of transport is best environmentally, regardless of the specific reasons an individual has for choosing it.
Currently, that hierarchy roughly goes:
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Active transport (Foot/biking)
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3+ person car pooling EV
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Public Transit
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3+ person car pooling ICEV
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Single-occupancy EV
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Single-occupancy ICEV
Depending on specifics of the grid in your area, options 4 & 5 could flip order. And in areas with high utilization of transit, 2 & 3 could flip.
But main point is still that for the same use case, EV > ICEV.
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Whether or not someone uses environmental concerns in buying their first EV really doesn’t matter.
However, I would suspect that having an EV causes many non environmental buyers to continue to optimize the efficiency and total ownership benefits of owning an EV , which as a result leads to a better environment.
And isn’t that really the point of life in general?
Well
What?
I never give it any thought. I like my car for other reasons.
do you actually believe that charging an EV with electricity from a coal power plant to be better than ICE?
I personally think if you got solar at home, it makes a huge amount of sense. Or if you’re able to pay more for electricity to subsidize the building of alternatives, also very good. But in general I am not too much of the opinion that it’s actually that good. The only real way to make transportation good for environment is to use public transport
You can also get electricity from renewables or nuclear. But I agree that public transport is one of the best solutions.
I know, that is why I said, if you are able to pay more, so you can subsidize alternatives. At least that is how it works here. You can’t “buy” clean energy, because it’s not possible to distinguish between it. However it’s possible to pay more, and a part of it is energy and the other part is paying to get renewables built faster
Give zero F about the environment. Only have EVs because they are fun to drive and makes financial sense
I think you should care about the environment
Environmental reasons were primary reason I bought EV. I own a lightning and there is zero chance I would buy an ICE truck. I would argue it doesnt matter why EV owners buy, even if they charge off a primarily coal powered grid right now. Bottom line is without EVs and eliminating emissions and the possibility to charge off solar (even if its in the future) we wouldnt have any opportunity for environmental impact. Even if EV owners buy for incectives or performance its a step toward emissions reduction and some separation from fossil fuels. So if people recycle because they get $5 back they are still recycling
Do you actually use it for work purposes or just using 4 tonnes to carry a single occupant to the local supermarket? If it’s the latter, it’s not green at all
It actually is green regardless of what you do with it and Im tired of this small brained argument. It still has zero emissions and uses less energy than the ICE SUV it replaced. Its a similar size as the prior vehicle and we needed to use a trailer to haul our gear before and we got 10 mpg with a trailer going up a snowy mountain road. Zero emissions is still zero emissions. I can understand the point that using public transit or the smallest vehicle possible is the most green but in the US w almost zero public transit and gear and a family to haul your options are a very not green large ICE or a green EV. Stop the EV hate for trucks and SUVs these are the vehicles that will convert the masses.
Engineer here
No
It’s not
If environmentalism and “converting the masses” is remotely a concern we need people to be aware of this fact, not keeping the wool over their eyes that car manufacturers put there because marginal gains won’t be enough
Let me know when you engineer a more environmentally friendly way of getting a family and gear up a mountain every weekend and if its more green then I will adopt. Until then this is better than replacing my near dead ice with a gas guzzling ice. Call it what you want but this is the best solution out right now so to me this is the green choice
It’s not green at all though. It’s not zero emissions, far from it.
Nothing about 7000lb living room moving a single person is sustainable. Not for towns or the environment.
Never said it was one person, I have a family and gear and its not once a year its every week, multiple trips a week during summer/winter breaks. so its an SUV + a trailer at 10 mpg or a lightning. If you cant see how an EV is a step in the right direction then I cant help you. If you continue to spew this hate the general truck/suv driving population will never change. Grow up and be open minded to people changing in the right direction