Whether an electric vehicle does anything to reduce CO2 (and CO and NOx and fine particles and whatnot) levels depends quite a lot on where the juice to run it with comes from. Coal, oil, oil sands, fracking…
You’d also have to factor in the energy end resources needed to make it, especially the batteries.
Not that going electric isn’t a good idea and should be pushed forward, but it can only be beneficial as part of a much, much larger framework.
As a standalone “solution” it will only shift problems from one part of the world to another.
I don’t get this argument at all, but it seems to be a favorite of Tesla fans. Tesla has sold about 100,000 luxury sedans and completely tanked its solar business since acquiring it from Solar City. Meanwhile, multiple companies around the world have built 10s of GWs of solar and wind capacity, directly leading to decommissioning and/or non-replacement of GWs of fossil fuel capacity. Both solar and wind have become so cheap – through the combined efforts of dozens of manufacturers, none of them named Tesla – that many fossil fuel sources have been rendered uneconomical (even fracking is threatened). But Tesla somehow has done more than anyone. Yeah, ok.
Tesla is not just Tesla.
GM tried to develop an electric car… but their entire support structure ( including dealerships ) were threatened. Tesla gives every other car manufacturer a reason ( excuse? ) to develop electric cars ( or disappear ).
every major car company had a reason and was and is developing. I saw my first Tesla in the wild last week, I see Nissans and Hyundais every day. Tesla have an Apple type lock in as well, they want you to put up Tesla only charging points in your hotel to mark you out as a luxury destination!
I mean. Just fuck that. It’s risible. If he falls into a black hole nothing will be made worse for CO2 emissions on the planet. Nothing.
And he doesn’t care, he’s going to burn the atmosphere to get to Mars!
Is the Galtmobile electric, I wonder? I would have imagined it as a giant shiny truck that will never be used for any kind of work, rolling coal down city streets.
Yep. The company I work for is primarily a marketing company for automotive dealerships. We’ve diversified a little, but not nearly enough. I expect to be unemployed by next Wednesday at the latest. It’s 2008 all over again for me, except this time I see it coming and I’m 12 years older.
I cannot even picture a time when I would call anyone (especially someone I don’t know) a pedo “in jest.” But maybe I just just have a different sense of humor.
As for Tesla’s achievements, depending on how well Musk prepared for a disaster of this nature, I’ll be surprised if they don’t go the way of Saturn. Saturn made really good cars too, and common people could afford them.
The work he’s doing may be arguably great, but the person he is isn’t. Edison was an asshole too.
To be fair to Tesla, they have been building utility-scale battery storage systems - which will be greatly needed with wind and solar power.
I have profoundly mixed feelings about Musk and Tesla. Getting electric vehicles off the drawing board and onto the streets is something I consider to be a Good Thing, but I find the techbro stuff very off-putting. I can walk into any Chevy dealer and get a full service manual for a Bolt EV. Good luck getting one for a Tesla. That, and I don’t think touchscreens belong in cars. The Model 3’s entire dashboard is a touchscreen.
In any case, his willingness to put his employees and their families at risk is disgraceful.
That one has been on my mind since Jeremy Clucking Clarkson brought that up with Prius battery packs like 15(?) years ago.
And you eventually have to get a new/refurbished pack just like with phones. Lithium mining and processing is dirty and a global manufacturing business.
Our desire for gadgets is killing people and causing violent conflict.
The people who run corporations are not out to fix our collective problems. They are out for themselves, to enrich themselves. the problems corporations created will not be solved by them. We have to put pressures on our governments to pass strong regulations to force them to change their practices.
Every non-boutique bicycle manufacturer.
Every public transit company.
The electric vehicles everybody oohs and aahs about - the electric car - is not going to be the one that makes the biggest difference to our greenhouse gas emissions. Because the number of joules required to accelerate a tonne of matter from zero to 100 km/hr, the amount of road space a car needs, the amount of parking space a car needs - none of those care about the car’s engine technology.
The thing that’s going to make the difference will be the more humble electric assist bicycle.
I was merely replying to you, since you replied to me.
My point isn’t that “people are bad”, because people are complicated creatures and rarely are we so easily defined as “good” or “bad”.
My point is that expecting capitalism and capitalist to save us ignores all the evidence before our eyes. The system needs to fundamentally change or it will kill us all. We need governments that work for us to deal with these large scale problems that capitalism caused. Half measures or individual actions are just not enough to deal with the depth and breadth of what we are facing right now.
