Canada to announce all new cars must be zero emissions by 2035::Canada expects to announce this week that all new cars will have to be zero emissions by 2035, a senior government source said, as Ottawa is set to unveil new regulations in the latest example of countries around the world pushing for electrification.

  • GameEnder@reddthat.com
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    11 months ago

    Hope Canada has the political will to make this an actual reality.

    I don’t think these kill all internal combustion engine by a set date policies are going to really work out. We’re still in the “incentivize people stage” of switching not the “kill it off internal combustion engine completely stage”. Most people don’t buy new cars cuz they’re just too expensive and there aren’t a lot of used EV’s that are affordable out there currently.

    And before anyone says I don’t get the whole thing. I own an EV, I think there’s quite a long way to actually convince people to get them as a replacement.

    • n2burns@lemmy.ca
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      11 months ago

      We’re talking about 11 years in the future, and there’s a ramp up included in the legislation. That’s a long time, 11 years ago Tesla started selling the Model S, basically kicking off the current EV industry.

      • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        Eleven years is no time at all.

        EV simply will not be ready by then.

        • sir_reginald@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          I’d say they are mostly ready now except for a few very specific use cases.

          Yes, batteries charging times should be shorter and have a longer range, but they are already acceptable for daily usage.

          What we need is to wait while old vehicles are being phased out so people replace them with electric cars. Most people aren’t going to replace their perfectly working gasoline car with an electric just because it’s greener.

          Once there are more readily available cheap models and second hand ones, it’ll probably be a smooth transition. I think it’s reasonable to stop selling consumer gasoline cars in a decade.

        • frezik@midwest.social
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          11 months ago

          350 mile range and a lot more charging infrastructure are what’s needed. The range is practically there already. This is fully achievable if we don’t sit on our ass. Forcing us not to sit on our ass is the point of setting goals 11 years out.

    • Frozengyro@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Definitely. A country who does this will be like Cuba is with all the old vehicles, and people doing everything they can to maintain them.

      • azertyfun@sh.itjust.works
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        11 months ago

        That’s a good thing in many ways. Environmentally a huge chunk of the problem lies in the manufacturing of new cars, and it’s even worse with electric ones. Current ICE should be kept running for decades, not replaced at all costs.

        Now of course you then get into spikier debates when you look at who actually bears the cost of the transition. When poor people with street parking end up subsidizing rich people’s electric cars (as is currently the case where I live), we have a problem IMO. Not a new one; people who don’t drive have been getting shafted for decades. But now it’s getting worse!

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Policies like this are not to help the consumer but to push the manufacturers. A typical major redesign is every 5-6 years so this gives them about 2 generations for each model. It gives them some time to ramp up but no more excuses. Most importantly, if that’s all they’re allowed to sell then they need to figure out how to make them sellable.

    • GiddyGap@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      I think that really depends where you are. If you’re in the US, sure. The US is far behind on infrastructure. If you’re in Europe, it’s much more viable. They have a lot more infrastructure (including much better public transportation) and EVs are actually viable as a replacement.

      • frezik@midwest.social
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        11 months ago

        It’s fine for 90% of what people do with cars in the US. People in the US seem to like roadtrips a lot more than Europeans, though, and that’s where infrastructure needs to improve.

        • GiddyGap@lemm.ee
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          11 months ago

          Right. You can easily take a long roadtrip in an EV in Europe. Not so much in the US. At least not yet.

  • bobgusford@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Love this, but fucking hate having to deal with all the push back from Polievre, the Conservatives, Alberta, etc. Just hate seeing political ads masquerading as polls, or oil and gas companies trying to greenwash themselves, or the endless amount of idiotic comments from people who still don’t believe in climate change.

  • ikidd@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Yah, this is something conceived in a urban environment with high population density, and relatively warm weather, like Vancouver and Toronto.

    It ignores about 95% of the country that has no mass transit and hits -20 and lower for 6 months of the year. There will need to be absolutely massive investments in technology for cold weather EV and power infrastructure to deliver a huge uptick in charging power across a massively spread out country. And our sources for renewable energy are pretty much used up, hydro hasn’t got a lot of possibilities left. Solar is awesome, but not a great producer this far north. Wind is only viable in a few localized spots and then you hae to get the power to the users from there.

    Typical virtue signalling bullshit that’s not even vaguely realistic.

    I have 27kW of solar panels , 5 days of battery storage on my house, extremely low energy usage (10kWh/day), and I still have to fire up the genny this time of year about once a week. And I don’t have to charge an EV.

    • maynarkh@feddit.nl
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      11 months ago

      The reason you know nothing will be done about this is that they didn’t set a small goal for the next few years, it’s another one of those multi-decade lofty goals towards which nothing will be done and at the end will be said it’s unrealistic. Like when Germany said the same.

    • nexusband@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Technically, with HVO, diesel engines can run without emissions. So “EV only” is not necessarily what this means…

    • Soleos@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      If they set a 10 year goal it may take 20 years to hit 80% of goals, if they set a 20 year goal it’ll take 40 years to hit 50%, if they set a 50 year goal…

      Nobody thinks this is a realistic goal, but the target gives a concrete number to set a mandate on which actually pragmatic policies, funding projects, and incentives can hang their hat on to keep the ball rolling.

      With big infrastructure developments, nobody wants to buy into realistic goals, it’s too costly, and there’s never enough political will. You set overly ambitious goals so you can get people to buy in and then the project is too big to fail, so you end up paying what it actually costs, and you try to mitigate waste, unanticipated problems, corruption, and poor management along the way.

    • themelm@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      We’ll just have to carry gas generators on our electric trucks to drive to work in the bush I guess.

  • Psiczar@aussie.zone
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    11 months ago

    I’d like to say better late than never, but in this case late may end up with the same result as never. Once the ice caps have melted, they can’t melt any further.

      • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        And if you read about Venus you’ll understand the greenhouse effect as observed on Venus isn’t applicable to earth.

        Greenhouse Effect is a political football with no meaning.

    • Pretzilla@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      *brake

      And it should, it’s fairly toxic. Fortunately EV’s primarily and almost exclusively use regen.

      • n2burns@lemmy.ca
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        11 months ago

        Then there’s tire and road wear, which increase substantially with the heavier weight of EVs.

          • GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk
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            11 months ago

            I’ve commented on this before, though I couldn’t find it to plagiarise myself.

            Ford puma ICE: 1280KG
            Nissan leaf BEV: 1580KG
            Ford F150: 2134 KG
            Range Rover: 2513KG

            Honestly, tax weight and emissions. Emissions tax the energy put in the vehicle, and charge extra for high emissions in dense areas.

          • sir_reginald@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            I also advocate for smaller cars, but batteries are heavy as fuck. The same car just swapping the motor with a battery will be considerably heavier.

              • frezik@midwest.social
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                11 months ago

                And they will. Why have a 600 mile battery? Your bladder won’t last that long on the highway. Have a 300-400 mile battery and cut the weight.

            • maynarkh@feddit.nl
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              11 months ago

              The spelling is non-sequitur. And it’s not that, the idea is that vehicles are already much heavier than they should be by use. For example a Tesla Model 3 is much lighter than the two most popular car models being sold in Canada, despite being an EV.

              By the way, the biggest contributors to road and tire wear are heavy freight trucks, so instead of jerking off about EVs vs non-EVs, maybe building a decent railway infrastructure would actually help on that front, while also removing some cars on long road trips from the roads.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          It’s really not as much as people make it out to be. I read something estimating an equivalent EV should be 20% heavier at our current technology, although some vehicles are much less efficiently designed and you have the monstrosity that is the Hummer

          My Tesla seems like it’s about that although there’s really no ICE vehicle to directly compare to. However the important thing is it weighs much less than the pickups and full sized SUVs that all too many people drive. Feel free to advocate for taxes or fees based on weight and I’ll agree, secure in knowing my EV is lighter than half the population’s ICE cars and that it’s fair. The tendency (at least in US) is more of a problem than the extra weight of an EV.

          If we consider the specific problem of road wear, it’s also a much smaller to non-existent problem than people think. Yes, road wear is relative to weight but cars are on the flat part of the curve where a few hundred pounds makes no real difference compared to road wear dominated by big trucks

          • n2burns@lemmy.ca
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            11 months ago

            Tire and road wear are not “as bad as exhaust” like some people suggest, but weight significantly increases road wear per the Fourth Power Law. So even 20% more isn’t great.

            And as pretty much everyone transitions to EVs, I expect the ratio of trucks in EVs to come up to the same as with ICEV. I know some people have come down to the decision “Do I buy an EV car or an ICEV truck?” but as more EV trucks come on the market, I expect the size of vehicles to continue to grow.

            I’m just trying to point out that EVs aren’t purely good and we as a society should be reducing our car usage in general. If alternative transportation (walking, biking, public transport) is possible, we should be facilitating and encouraging it.

            • AA5B@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              Living in a city with an effective transit system, such as Boston or NYC, gives so much freedom to go anywhere anytime that you just can’t do with cars. It’s definitely something we need to work toward, and imagine how much better a good transit system would be.

              The same with intercity rail: it’s so much faster and easier traveling Boston —> NYC with Acela than by driving or flying, and there’s no reason we can’t have similar serving most of the population (not area, but population)! Or imagine leveling up to high speed rail!

              But some locations and usages will always be best served by personal vehicles , and transit will take decades, even if our politicians start funding it adequately

        • frezik@midwest.social
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          11 months ago

          Cars getting fatter has been an increasing issue for decades. Some of the people responsible for that are some of the same people now using tire and road wear as a talking point against EVs.

          At least with EVs, there’s a path to getting it back down. The primary weight is the battery. Instead of having a 600 mile range EV (which is pointless), have a 300-400 mile range and cut the battery weight down accordingly.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Of the direct operational sources of pollution:

      • co2 - none
      • ozone and exhaust particulates - none
      • brake dust - almost none
      • oil and fuel leaks - none
      • tire dust - 20% more

      EVs may not be perfect but they’re a HUGE improvement.

      • wewbull@feddit.uk
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        11 months ago

        Even the 20% more tyre wear… That should mean I need to replace tyres faster. I’ve had one new set in 5 years on my EV (at about year 4). My old car was every other year. Sure compounds change, but I’m just not seeing more tyre wear.

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      11 months ago

      You mean the brakes that, if driven properly, are hardly ever used in an EV, and may last the life of the vehicle?

    • PopcornTin@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Don’t look at what powers the power plants. Just sit back and think you’re enjoying your zero emissions cars

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Looks like Canada’s grid has damn close to 0% coal and rapidly being phased out

    • morbidcactus@lemmy.ca
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      11 months ago

      Quebec is almost entirely hydro, Ontario is primarily nuclear and hydro, there are no operating coal plants in Ontario last I checked, just some gas plants. Those 2 provinces alone are just over 60% of the country, looking at the latest energy future report something like 81% of Canada’s power capacity is from renewables and nuclear, 61% being hydro.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Huh, here in Massachusetts, we’re trying to push through some long distance power lines so we can buy some of that sweet Canadian hydro.

  • Lophostemon@aussie.zone
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    11 months ago

    I’ve got a TOPSECRIT Kickstarter project going that uses (shhhh!) sails on cars. ZERO emissions, baby. Come sign up !

    • Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip
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      11 months ago

      And you created thousands more as you have to find people to build the charging infrastructure that barely exists in some locations at all., including most residential homes/apartments/condos, which gasoline doesnt touch.

  • bratosch@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    Is that no emissions at all along the cars life from production to scrap? Cus EVs today are in large just virtue vehicles.

    • jonesy@aussie.zone
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      11 months ago

      Interested to see where that data comes from, as looking at the lifetime emissions of an EV vs an ICE vehicle inclusive of fuel EVs are generally significantly lower emissions. If you’re only considering the emissions associated with the manufacture of the vehicles, EVs do result in more GHG, but very quickly once both vehicles are actually in use the benefits of EVs become apparent.

      EPA.gov

      MIT

      New York Times

      University of Technology Sydney

      Cambridge University

      • enkers@sh.itjust.works
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        11 months ago

        While somewhat misguided, they do still kinda have a point: Car centric culture really does have a high environmental cost regardless of power source. Switching from ICE to EV is a good start, but we also need to address urban sprawl, and push for better mass transit as well as cycling infrastructure.

      • AnneBonny@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        11 months ago

        Interested to see where that data comes from, as looking at the lifetime emissions of an EV vs an ICE vehicle inclusive of fuel EVs are generally significantly lower emissions.

        I’m working from memory, but I think I have heard their claim before, and the data it is based on is probably 20 years out of date. The proportion of electricity produced by methods like solar and wind did not used to be what it is today, and the production method of electricity plays a significant role in lifecycle analysis of electric vehicles.

        The Cambridge link you provided notes that electric vehicles are not better for the environment in Poland because most of their electricity is produced by burning coal. It also compares France and the UK, and notes the difference between emissions because of the different production mix of electricity.

        Under current conditions, driving an electric car is better for the climate than conventional petrol cars in 95% of the world, the study finds.

        The only exceptions are places like Poland, where electricity generation is still mostly based on coal.

        Average lifetime emissions from electric cars are up to 70% lower than petrol cars in countries like Sweden and France (which get most of their electricity from renewables and nuclear), and around 30% lower in the UK.

        https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/electric-cars-better-for-climate-in-95-of-the-world

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          I believe I saw similar comparing US states, but do not have a link. The numbers I remember is 1-2 years in states with more natural gas, nuclear, and renewable energy, up to 14 years for West Virginia and Wyoming as still mostly coal

          • frezik@midwest.social
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            11 months ago

            IIRC, if you pick the worst state for power sources (W. Virginia) and the worst EV (the Hummer), you end up with a pathological combination that emits more CO2 than any ICE over its lifetime. Literally any other combination, and it’s better.

    • Fisk400@feddit.nu
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      11 months ago

      Are you saying that the emission resulting from an EVs production is the same as the emission from and olds car production and lifetime of fuel usage combined?

      • bratosch@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        Production of batteries, handling discarded batteries, breaking of minerals FOR the batteries, and producing the electricity have all been shown to be worse for the environment than than the entire life of a traditional car

        • ThenThreeMore@startrek.website
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          11 months ago

          You got something to back that up? The last study I read (I think it was from Volvo comparing one of their EVs against the ICE version of the car) showed between 60 and 80 thousand miles (depending on the energy generation mix) was the tipping point where EVs became better.

          And that was probably about 5 years ago, there’s been a lot of significant development in EVs since then.

          • bratosch@lemm.ee
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            11 months ago

            Well, please show me a trustworthy study of the difference between ICE and EV emissions per mile during their lifetime. The ones I’ve read always say “in their lifetime”, but they don’t take into account EV batteries need changing after about 10 years … And batteries are as we know the “big bad” of EVs. The absolutely only true comparison would be all emissions from all sources spread out over either per mile or per year. A combustion car can easily last 20 years, which isn’t really a fair comparison to the 10 years.

            • Yoddel_Hickory@lemmy.ca
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              11 months ago

              Hey you made the claim in the first place, you have the burden proof. Don’t attempt to shift it.

              • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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                11 months ago

                This article, and everying about this subject, presumes EV is better than ICE. That’s the positive claim.

                Show me the math, the studies. If it holds true, this should be easy. And, it would end the debate.

                Data trumps. If the research is so overwhelmingly in favor of EVs, let’s publish that info everywhere for people to read, study, analyze. Lots easier to convince people with the information out there, warts and all.

                • frezik@midwest.social
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                  11 months ago

                  And, it would end the debate.

                  No, you’d hemm and haw and avoid the problem. We’ve been here before.

              • bratosch@lemm.ee
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                11 months ago

                Well I claimed that I’ve not seen a study that accounts for all the different attributes at once. So there’s really nothing for me to provide?

                But if you really need it, MIT did a study in 2019 and they explicitly (in about 2 sentences) declare that they don’t take into account battery lifetime, capacity degradation over time, battery efficiency’s sensitivity to cold, the problem with disposing of depleted batteries. According to their study an EV has about 55% of the emissions of a traditional ICE of comparable size, not accounting for the aforementioned details, nor the fact that EVs replace batteries. I.e. they assume one set of batteries for the entire lifespan.

                Now, I might very well be wrong. And I probably am (judging from the down vote bombing). But I just want to see a thorough study of both types of vehicles with everything taken into account from basically drawing board to junkyard.

                • hips_and_nips@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  No, you claimed:

                  Production of batteries, handling discarded batteries, breaking of minerals FOR the batteries, and producing the electricity have all been shown to be worse for the environment than than the entire life of a traditional car

                  Furthermore, when asked about a source for these claims, you come out swinging with the ever popular “no, you” defense.

                  Again, link your sources (MIT study) please.

            • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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              11 months ago

              Conventional ICE can last 30 years, with engine and trans rebuild, which is trivial from a materials standpoint.

              We have multiple 30 year old ICE vehicles that still get 30mpg, have air conditioning and unlimited heat.

              EV will never compete with that unless we find new ways to make batteries.

        • Fisk400@feddit.nu
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          11 months ago

          No calculation I hage ever read has ever shown that. There is an initial increase of emission from the new cars production, which is why there are discussion about retrofitting existing cars, but even if we never improve our battery technology there is a dramatic gain in lowered emissions.

    • Franklin@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Dependable and available public transit is the answer to our transportation needs with electric vehicles substituted in areas where public transit presents implementation challenges.

      Electric cars cannot be the backbone of our system if we look to reduce emissions and environmental hazards to a level that allows us to continue existence as we know it.

      • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        In Canada?

        Obviously the metro areas and immediate surrounding suburbs can improve, but it’s a huge country

        • themelm@sh.itjust.works
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          11 months ago

          I dunno some intercity buses and trains would be nice… Like unless you can fly or rent a car I don’t know how you get to most of the country without your own car.

          • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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            11 months ago

            I do mean that. Where did I suggest otherwise? Is Canada big a huge country?

      • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        Hahahaha public transit.

        Have you looked at the energy/environmental costs of trains or busses?

        Hint: they both consume the same energy fully loaded or empty, as a start.

        And train infrastructure is a massive user of concrete, steel, copper, etc.

    • bobgusford@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Carbon tax deals with industries that creates emissions by taxing the fuels that cause the emissions. All businesses involved in making EVs and EV parts can choose between using taxed GhG-emitting fuels, or non-taxed cheaper renewable sources. Free markets will pick the winner, but at least all winners will be producing EVs only.