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by MrHamburger 614 days ago
> This coupled with BMW's recent pushback against EU ICE phaseout seems to paint a picture of legacy manufacturers unwilling to invest in what is the obvious path forward.

It is not really obvious path when people in Europe are not buying BEVs unless there is some serious subsidy on it.

1 comments

I dunno; to me, it seems as obvious as the sun-setting of steam powered locomotion. It's only a matter of time.

And as we've seen, it's clear that the future of mobility is going to be electric. I find it hard to believe that if we look 50 years out, the majority will still be driving gasoline and diesel powered vehicles. So then the question is how and when do we get there?

> ...people in Europe are not buying BEVs

I can completely understand the reasons why. Infrastructure, the way residential areas are set up are not compatible with charging, price, inconvenience, etc. But those are problems that governments need to help solve if we already know the end result is that mobility will be primarily electric at some point in the future.

> if we look 50 years out, the majority will still be driving gasoline and diesel powered vehicles...when do we get there?

We already there, but to see this we need to turn off 4-wheel filter, and consider 2-wheel or even 1-wheels, and will see many people already use electric bikes, scooters, other electric.

So electricity already eat huge market share, and for other cases market shrink-ed and become obvious, electric cars are not good enough for now.

In US market is different, for example EU have very strong train infrastructure, so 1-2-wheel transport have very good fit.

> But those are problems that governments need to help solve

I don't think that it has a solution. Governments are trying to solve parking for decades and still no solution in sight. If you don't have where to park, you don't have where to charge.

> I don't think that it has a solution

Sure it does. China has the formula.

> If you don't have where to park, you don't have where to charge.

Incentivize broader buildout of charging infrastructure where people are already parking their existing cars. Fund R&D into new charging technology that can reduce charge times. Any number of ways to solve the problem.

If one starts from a mindset "this can't be solved", then chalk up the L.

> Sure it does. China has the formula.

Build a new city? That's not going to work.