this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2024
360 points (95.0% liked)
Not The Onion
12390 readers
711 users here now
Welcome
We're not The Onion! Not affiliated with them in any way! Not operated by them in any way! All the news here is real!
The Rules
Posts must be:
- Links to news stories from...
- ...credible sources, with...
- ...their original headlines, that...
- ...would make people who see the headline think, “That has got to be a story from The Onion, America’s Finest News Source.”
Comments must abide by the server rules for Lemmy.world and generally abstain from trollish, bigoted, or otherwise disruptive behavior that makes this community less fun for everyone.
And that’s basically it!
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
No it's not wrong. Hell, I drive EV and lots of people ask me about it, And of course I'd love if more people did it, to cut down on fossils, but realistically it's always a financial decision, so I honestly tell them "If you already have a car, and don't need a new car, then it's a bad financial decision to buy a new car."
However, when you do need a new car, then it's likely a good decision to buy an EV, but you need to run the numbers if you want to know for sure. There are a lot of factors in this, some of which are dependent on your own personal milage and finances and others on where you live and what is available.
If you do run all the numbers for the duration of ownership, it's likely always a good decision to buy a new EV in comparison to ICE cars, and the thing that made my decision was that in my case, it wouldn't even make sense to buy the cheapest beater car, because over the years that I expect to drive this car, it's cheaper to buy a new EV than to exchange and/or repair older ICE cars. But I'm sure it varies. You gotta have some idea of how much you need to drive for the next 5 years, and most people probably don't.
Atkinson is sort of right in advising people to hold out a while. The prices are dropping and in just a few years, it won't even be a question. However I also understand the criticism, because as a public figure he should not be passing out blanket statements like that. There are likely people who will not buy an EV now because of his statement, even if it's against their own self interest.
I drive an EV and I always tell people not to buy one for this or that reason. The truth is that I don't want too many other EVs on the road because I bought it just to feel superior to others, and I can't do that if everyone else also drives an EV.
Eh, keep your superiority by being proud to be a super early adopter. Then everyone wins. "Oh, you got an EV in 2024? I've had one for YEARS! "
Oh, that wouldn't be the same! I'll have to supplement my vehicle with incredibly smug bumper stickers.
(I don't mind being downvoted, but I think I should point out for the sake of not making someone's depressive mood worse that this and my previous comment in this thread were meant to be humorous and I'm not actually this insane. I don't expect my Bolt EUV to seriously impress anyone. I do like driving it though!)
Fwiw I haven't downvoted you, and I think both of these posts are completely fair, taken together. If someone wants to feel smug because they're making the planet better, fuck yeah feel smug, you smug bastard. The actions matter more than the words.