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In all 50 states, it's now cheaper to fill up with electricity than gasoline
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this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2023
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The Climate Crisis
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The impacts and solutions of the Climate Crisis
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Great, but when are we actually going to redesign our society so that we don't need cars? Electric Vehicles are not a path to lower emissions overall, and are also only "green" if you measure tail-pipe emissions and ignore all other aspects of vehicle ownership.
Not to mention the market costs of EVs.
EVs are a path to lower emissions, yes measured all aspects from cradle to grave. I mean c'mon this has been so well established you're just lying. Yes we also need to get rid of car dependent cities.
EVs should also last a long time, far longer than an ICE vehicle. So overall costs are actually lower, though yes the initial price is higher.
You're misunderstanding his point. Yes, from cradle to grave EVs are better than ICEs. But they aren't better than other alternatives. The other costs the commenter is referring to is all the other costs of car ownership: building roads and parking lots, building sprawling car-dependant suburbs which destroy ecosystems and inflate infrastructure costs, the tens of thousands of annual car deaths and millions of car injuries, microplastics from tires, heavy metal dust from brakes, the induspitable contribution of car dependence to the obesity epidemic, the exacerbation of inequality, etc. etc.
EVs are better than ICEs but they're still cars, that's the main point. They're touted as a solution to environmental problems: which they are not, period. The solutions revolve around better land use (eliminating zoning laws which establish car dominance and sprawl), less subsidization of the auto industry (it's to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars a year in the USA), more subsidization of the public transit industry, and a commitment by people and politicians to build walkable places and enable car free living.
EVs are a small part of a complex and multifaceted issue. They are part of the solution, but only a small part compared to the commitments we silently ignore because of the plea that EVs will save us.