Foxfyre wrote:old europe wrote:Any car you buy today will be obsolete in seven years...
The car I drive in my work I bought on Halloween 1995. Come this October it will be 13 years old, it still looks good, it still runs like a new one, it is dependable in all kinds of weather due to AWD, parts are readily available for it, and I can purchase fuel, which I need sparingly, just about anywhere. I figure it has at least another 10 years or more good wear in it. Why should I hope it becomes obsolete? It sure isn't now.
Electric cars may no doubt be practical in very small countries with dense population and short distances between towns. I don't see much future for them for some time out here where you can see nothing but maybe a jackrabbit or antelope or coyote for more than a hundred miles.
Congratulations to you, Foxfyre, for evaluating the whole package deal, one part being how long a car can last, and the longer you drive your car, the less energy you consume by not compelling a waste of energy involved in manufacturing another vehicle. Think of all the wasted energy involved in the equipment to mine, reprocess, and manufacture all the parts of a car, plus all the parts of the machines to make the cars. And think of making all the parts of the machines to make the machines that mine, reprocess, and manufacture, etc. etc. etc. And think of all the fuel consumed by employees going to the factory to build the new vehicles, and in transporting them and selling them. It all adds up.
All of this conjures up again the argument that I made that cost or price in the free market is a pretty good arbitor or measure of just what is the most efficient, which includes energy. So it isn't just the up front price, but also the price of operating over the life of the vehicle. If a vehicle is cheap, but only lasts half as long as another more expensive one, that all needs to be factored into the equation. And another way of looking at it could be if operational costs are more, but if the vehicle lasts twice or three times as long, the lower capital investment into the vehicle when averaged over the long term may result in showing the vehicle with higher operational costs is more efficient.
Further, when one evaluates the energy efficiency of someone's lifestyle, you must not only look at their vehicle, but also their travel habits such as commute length, location of residence, flying habits, vacation habits, eating out, home efficiency, clothing that they wear, etc. To pick just one example of numerous ones that could be looked at, perhaps a person does not wear expensive clothing which may require more energy to produce, or perhaps a person never takes a cruise or goes to Las Vegas, which are very energy consumptive endeavors. If Mr. Do Gooder drives a Prius, but goes on a cruise or two every year, he has probably wiped out every gallon of gas he supposedly saved with his Prius, plus more.
The government and its contending politicians tend to want to look at certain aspects of energy consumption, but I think it is wiser to allow the free market to arbitrate and moderate the most efficient path of all of this stuff, not only for us as individuals, but as a whole. By allowing the individual to make the choices most efficient for them, we simply endorse a concept called "freedom." One person may choose to be more efficient with their home vs car, while others are vice versa, etc. That should be our choice to make as individuals.