The main attractor to me is that with an electric car, you could theoretically be energy independent. Same goes with an ebike.
Eg, Solar -> battery -> EV/ebike
No need to be relying on rotten dinosaurs dug up out of wherever, with a million middle men and taxes.
I agree with you in spirit, but the reality is you would not actually be energy independent. The parts that you’re talking about, for the car and the batteries and repairing the car, those are going to be produced somehow. So even if your fuel is produced by solar panels, there are still fossil fuels involved in the manufacture of everything. That’s still a massive improvement over burning gas while you drive.
I’m confused. Cars have many components that bicycles lack. We were comparing gas to electric, now we’re comparing vehicle types. OK, but maybe that’s worth a new thread.
In theory all stages could be lots of things. But they are not right now, and they won’t be in the medium run. I’m down with aiming for the future, but it’s not here yet, and we can’t justify current decisions with future contexts.
Oil and gas has its hooks in almost every facet of our lives unfortunately and our absolute reliance on fossil fuels won’t end even if all our ICE cars were instantaneously converted to EVs. Paints, rubbers, resins, soaps, fibers/clothing, plastics, adhesives, dyes, weaponry, electronic semiconductors, building materials, healthcare/pharmaceuticals, etc are made with oils and gas in process and material. Nearly every part of my “acoustic” bicycle is also made with the help of fossil fuels on top of any used for transport on top of any used to create the food I eat to power it.
Though, 99% reliant on fossil fuels is still better than 100% since that’s about all the power we have as regular people who have no direct say on global or domestic policy.
Exactly we also need to work on materials… Federalizing the legalization of cannabis would go a long way into fixing the materials industry. Plastics need to fully be taken out of the supply chain for packaging, and replaced with biodegradable hemp based plastics. Polyester also needs to be removed from the clothing supply chain. I have several shirts that are hemp cotton blends that are amazing. China is beating is on hemp production… We should be crushing this gap.