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Con. Job.
And EVs aren't? Once again, it's worth pointing out that EVs don't save the planet, they save the car industry. The environmental impact of EVs is slightly less than fossil fuel powered cars, but we should still be aiming to reduce the use of cars as much as we possibly can.
andyp-
I don't think so.
As I said above, if we could teleport places then great, but we can't. Currently, if I want to visit my parents (23 miles away as the crow flies) I can:
- Walk - 8h 34m
- Cycle - 2h 27m
- Drive - 40m
- Use public transport - 2h 52m (1 train, 2 busses and 30 mins of walking)
^ Google maps figures.
I've sure I've had this conversation with you on this thread before - cars are bad, public transport is good. We agree. But unless public transport can offer a reasonable alternative to the car (outside of decent city infrastructure), people will continue to need cars well into the future.
I don't think it's fair to say that EVs are a con job. They are the [current] best mode of transport for lowering personal carbon emissions day to day for the vast majority of individuals in the UK, let alone places like the US with fucking terrible public transport.
PHEVs and Self Charging HEV market themselves as planet savers just as much as EVs do, and enjoy similar if not identical benefits to EVs in terms of tax whilst absolutely polluting more than EVs across their lifecycle. They are a con job in isolation and in comparison to EVs.
- Walk - 8h 34m
Soul
I see I've triggered a few PHEV owners in this thread in the last 24 hours.
There are a few news reports and studies, including this US one from the end of last year that suggest two things:
It's also worth noting that calculations for emissions for fuel consumed do not consider environmental cost of extracting, transporting, refining, transporting again, storage and delivery of fuel over electricity which, even when created through the burning of fossil fuels, is far better for the environment.
Sure there are people on this thread who own super edge case, no longer for sale, hybrid oddities or who charge every day but there are also loads of people who bought a 330e or an X5 hybrid on their company scheme because of the massively lower company car tax who haven't charged them once in their life.
Even if they do, the range claims are clearly false, with that Guardian article that started this discussed yesterday showing the BMW tested as spewing out 3x more carbon on average than claimed.
Finally, the vast majority of hybrids are also large vehicles. Toyota make a few small ones but most are large SUVs which only exacerbates the problem.
Con. Job.