And I thought Americans were carbrained, holy shit.
(To be fair, he’s not wrong in that this is intended to keep the auto companies and the government nice and fat – but the obvious response to this is to agitate for better public transit, not railing against an environmentally sound policy.)
Isn’t it true that once a car is built, it’s basically better for the environment to drive it until its wheels fall off instead of scrapping it to buy any new one (even electric) though ? He’s right that a lot of the time these schemes are thinly veiled auto industry handouts to stimulate the economy, instead of actual environmental regulations.
for one this severely depends on when it was built, old cars basically just convert 90% of the fuel into air pollution and spew it straight out the exhaust pipe, while modern cars actually use the fuel to go forward and provided the catalytic converter is in good shape they filter out some of the nastiness.
The environmental break even period for EVs is getting shorter and shorter as the power grids get cleaner and cleaner.
It was a somewhat solid argument against buying new EVs to replace working ICE cars over 10 years ago, but now it’s really not.
Yes.
Better for your nerves? No.
Also you have to keep your vehicle in a state where it can drive safely, which leads to maintenance costs that rise over time. But safe for your environment as in the people around you, whether you reach your destination alive is of less importance.