So for $40,000, where are all the huge benefits one should get? I don’t see them. Not burning fuel in the car isn’t a big one; modern engines are very clean. The battery WILL have a definitive lifespan…are you going to be very happy when your Leaf’s range is 40 miles and the replacement battery is $10,000? And what about if Obama wins a second term and succeeds in driving up the price of electricity dramatically, as he said he’d like to? Suddenly your electric car isn’t so cheap after all.

And yes, you have a point, most old electrics cars had very limited ranges of up to 30-40miles, but there were models with ranges of up to 75 miles. When you compare this to the huge increases in gas mileage made for ICE cars, it’s laughable.

On the other hand, everyone from multiple environmental organizations to corporations, to the President, has promoted electric cars.

And for the record, I do think that driverless technology will greatly improve our commutes on freeways.

What is a carbon footprint?

How does a carbon footprint relate to the effect a person has on the environment?

Pwetty pwease use small words that a ignorant like me can understand. You see, unlike you, who almost got a master’s degree, I merely almost got an associates.

I drive an EV, have been for almost a decade. I use solar generated electricity to power both my house and car. My electric bill averages a mere $100 per year for both.

Those who want to bash EVs because of the “long tailpipe” theory of pollution from a distant smokestack clearly haven’t taken the steps to eliminate the same dirty energy from their home’s use. If you are serious about being a good steward of the environment, that should be your first move. Once you’ve either installed solar on your roof, or signed up for your utility’s renewable energy program, then your home and car will be pollution-free, well-to-wheels.

The whole question of suburbs vs. cities is more of an over-population issue than anything else. We clearly need to redesign our communities around a nodal design to eliminate much of the driving. But no matter now successful we are at improving mass trans and biking options, there will still be millions of Americans driving cars. We need to be real about that. Given this reality, the cars that are driven should use renewable electricity instead of petrol.

But I don’t see any credible evidence to suggest that the limits have been reached.

Small-town denizens have very high carbon footprints, in large part due to transportation. That’s how it works.

DS

You, obviously, don’t live in a small town or city. These days, most of us (at least, in the northeast) have to drive to a large town or city to work. In other words, we need cars exactly the way suburbanites and exurbanites do. We are all exurbanites now.

And who are you to tell people what they do and don’t need? Typical planner elitist “I know better” attitude. Madison Ave didn’t tell Bieber to get a Fisker hybrid, and it didn’t tell his parents to give him one. No, I think the Sierra Club or some other enviro website is a little more at fault here.