Rivian CEO issues strong statement about people who purchase gas-powered cars: ‘Sort of like building a horse barn in 1910’::“I don’t think I would have believed it.”

    • SCB@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      still use plenty of fossil fuels from coal plants

      This is disingenuous as fuck and you know it. Updates to the grid are by far the most effective means of limiting carbon release. Tying engines to the grid maximizes gains in solar, wind, etc that not doing so does not.

      There is no serious plan for climate change mitigation that does not involve EVs.

      • Pohl@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Not disingenuous. True. Grid power is still dirty so electric cars are still dirty. Probably about a 50% improvement in carbon emissions based on the most common fuel mix in the US for an e car.

        Clean transportation by car is a luxury that we do not yet have.

        • SCB@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          You don’t engineer for what you currently have. You engineer for where you want to be.

          Renewable energy is the fastest growing segment of the energy market by a mile, growing exponentially.

          I don’t have my numbers at hand, but renewables account for something like 80+% of new energy growth in the US.

          • Pohl@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Yes. The OP is about how TODAY it is silly to use ICE. Today it is silly to pretend that electric cars are clean. They will be at some point. At that point, I will agree with the obnoxious CEO from the article. Today, he is wrong, very heavy (7-8k lbs) coal powered trucks are not clean.

            Make them smaller!

            • SCB@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Purchasing EVs sends price signals. Big trucks are in demand, and it’s easier to cater to demand than shape demand when you’re an emerging market.

              • Pohl@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Seriously the epa doesn’t even bother to rate mpg in vehicles that approach rivian weight. An f250 probably gets a combined 15mpg. It weights 6k lbs vs the rivians 7k. if your only seeing a 50% cut in emissions with the switch to electric. A rivian truck is pretty much the same as an ICE car that gets around 30 combined.

                There are a million reasons that drive them to make these monsters. But the climate isn’t one. I don’t care about the market forces. I care about cutting CO2 emissions. These vehicles do not help that mission today. The CEO is wrong. His vehicles don’t make sense TODAY except as a luxury product for rich people to signal their virtue. That’s it.

                • SCB@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  I don’t care about market forces

                  Then you are not serious about impacting climate change.

    • ilmagico@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The rivian truck (I call it “froggy”) is actually a pretty small pickup truck, by american standard … have you seen a F150? (including the electric “lightning” version)?

    • SMITHandWESSON@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      in before, “but I need my enormous vehicle because once every 13 years I haul 3 2x4’s and am too dumb to use a roof rack or rent a truck for the day!”

      I win!!!

      My enormous eletric vehicle (plug-in Rav4) is powered from my home solar panel system, and I use it to transport my dogs to the park a couple of times a week.

      I’m completely guilt free!!!😃

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Even a subcompact automobile takes up an entire traffic lane and an entire parking space, and providing such spaces is what ruins cities.

      The future is designing our cities for walking, biking and transit, not replacing our disastrous car sewers of gasoline cars with disastrous car sewers of electric cars.