The newcomers — Canada, Australia, Spain, Thailand and Hungary — join a cohort that also includes the U.S., China and most of Western Europe.
Why 5% is so important
Most successful new technologies — televisions, mobile phones, LED lightbulbs — follow an S-shaped adoption curve.
Sales move at a crawl in the early-adopter phase, then quickly once things go mainstream.
In the case of full-electric vehicles, 5 percent seems to be the inflection point. The time it takes to get to that level varies widely by country, but once the universal challenges of car costs, charger availability and driver skepticism are solved for the few, the masses soon follow.
It’s okay to know EVs are not the pinnacle of transport evolution. BUT nearly everything it requires in resources can be recycled or live in 2nd use applications. And specialized industry for these are raising.
So technology wise, EVs are definetly a step forward.
Regarding the environment, we already see a shift coming from our current major main issue (CO2, NOX) to some different ones (harvesting).
Regarding more and better public transportation, we are nearly on a standstill (at least in Germany), while better legislative and monetary investments and infrastructures are required. That is not something , the industry or individuals can accomplish alone.
consolidating passenger travel help save on emissions, ie using public transportation. From a physics standpoint, fighting against gravity (aerial transport) is really energy-costly, and thus more polluting, so the silver lining would imply using trains, but they are nowhere to be found. Car companies need to become transportation companies, like Huyndai, which builds cars and trains, and god knows what else. But building trains is against car manufacturers interest, and companies like Vw don’t really care about emissions regulations like their history record have shown. Imagine Vw building trains instead of building gas guzzling Q8’s ? Also the US did decimate Alstom which was a leading edge company for train manufacturing, also there is the Airline lobby, the oil lobby, and so forth…tbh too many enemies to conquer before travel by train for the masses would see the light, and that could only be achieved by an honest political will, but unfortunately money offers are too tempting. Only the future will show how this would fare.
https://nltimes.nl/2023/09/01/schiphol-overruled-private-jet-overnight-flight-bans-us-warns-slashing-flights
tell me how trains would be ubiquitous in western europe, if a “sovereign” country isn’t even allowed to reduce its air traffic. also neither Western europe, Canada nor Australia are sovereign. Crucial policies are all dictated by Washington.
<= Checks out if this thread, because of the dooming tendencies in last reply.
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