Comment by decimalenough

Comment by decimalenough a day ago

They're not a panacea, but they're better than gas/petrol/diesel (or biofuel) cars across the board. Emissions have dropped and air quality has measurably improved in places with high BEV adoption, like Norway and China.

Even the weight thing is a bit of a red herring: if we really cared about that, we should restrict car weights across the board. (Few BEVs clock in at over 2T, while virtually every F-150 style truck does.)

speed_spread a day ago

Last time I checked, a Tesla 3 (a small car by NA standards) weighted 1800kg. That's twice the weight of my 1987 VW Jetta and very close to that 2T you mention. The weight issue is real; it affects the driving dynamics and makes the energy problem worse in many ways.

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dalyons a day ago

1987 is not a valid comparison for many reasons. Pick modern premium sedans (eg bmw) as a comparison and you’ll see it isn’t that different.

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- speed_spread a day ago
  
  Modern cars are generally overweight. A 1987 BMW 325 weighted 1200kg. Considering the advances of materials science and digital technology, weight should have gone down, not up. What's the daily purpose of that extra 600kg, other than protecting against an eventual collision with a monstruous pickup?
  
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  peterbecich 19 hours ago
  
  Safety arms race of vehicle size. We would all be better off collectively with smaller vehicles, imo.
  
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  adrianN a day ago
  
  Colliding with 1t of car is similarly deadly as with 2t of car. Traffic fatalities have gone way down in the past forty years.
  
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adrianN a day ago

BEVs are not that much heavier than comparable ICEs. All modern cars are too big and too heavy. From an energy standpoint weight is less of a problem for electric cars because they can recuperate.

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