Thoughts on Peter Zeihan's latest blog post - Why EVs Aren’t The GreenTech Panacea

[Sal]

Proud owner of an R1S. Don't regret the decision and would buy one again in a heartbeat. A friend sent me a link to this Blog post by Peter Zeihan and I wanted to get the EV communities thoughts on this.


I realize this might be an echo chamber as the folks on this thread are all EV owners, but I'm curious as to what everyone's thoughts are on the future of EV's given some recent moves by the large auto manufacturers.

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[DuoRivians]

Proud owner of an R1S. Don't regret the decision and would buy one again in a heartbeat. A friend sent me a link to this Blog post by Peter Zeihan and I wanted to get the EV communities thoughts on this.


I realize this might be an echo chamber as the folks on this thread are all EV owners, but I'm curious as to what everyone's thoughts are on the future of EV's given some recent moves by the large auto manufacturers.

This guy is mistaking a short term hurdle for the long term trajectory.

 

[AbjectFray]

I don't know who this is or why his opinion matters but he's flat out wrong on just about every level (never mind the massive amount of typos in his diatribe).

He's fallen in the trap of just because we don't have all the answers right now, then we should throw the baby out with the bath water.

Yes, currently, the US doesn't source most of its energy from renewables but he's wrong to say its nowhere to be found in the US. My energy is sourced from wind, hydro and nuclear. There are many areas of the world that does the same. Just because we as a country are not there yet doesn't men we should give up. It's a process and not something as simple as flipping a switch.

He also falls in to the trap of the carbon footprint on manufacturing an EV. Yes, the carbon footprint is about twice as high as an ICE during the manufacturing process. The fallacy in his argument is that cars eventually get driven. Not using gas and having the emissions come out the tailpipe is where the carbon footprint drops. Most seem to agree that around the 2 year mark, the EV becomes carbon neutral and each year after that the footprint drops.

 

[COdogman]

His point seems to be that EVs can’t be the answer because they won’t break even on carbon within a year vs ICE engines which never break even(a point he conveniently left out)… Doesn’t really add up.

EVs are only one of many solutions that will be necessary.

 

[Singletracker]

Well, Zeihan is a pretty sharp guy. I have listened to a lot of his youtube videos. He appears to be very well versed on a very wide range of subjects. I do wonder about some of his conclusions, however. In this case, I do think he was being a bit myopic. Are EV’s THE answer to global warming? NO. However, they - along with many other technological advances, growing renewable energy resources, evolving social awareness and adaptation - will play an important role in improving humanities prospects. Will it happen tomorrow? No. It’s a process. It will take some serious time and we need to get started, NOW. We should not be thinking with the mind set of a stock market day trader. We need to be thinking long term, let compounding accelerate us towards our goal

 

[Donald Stanfield]

Yet another one of the " this won't completely fix the problem overnight, so it's useless" blog posts. This is some overly simplistic and uninspired reasoning that's been disproven repeatedly.

 

[PappaBolt]

EVs are only one of many solutions that will be necessary.

I’m looking forward to the star trek transporter

 

[COdogman]

I’m looking forward to the star trek transporter

I'm worried it will forget to transport my pants when I want to go somewhere

 

[HTownB]

I’d be more worried it forgot my privacies.

 

[kanundrum]

who the fuck is Peter Zeihan?

 

[PappaBolt]

I'm worried it will forget to transport my pants when I want to go somewhere

I always wondered how the transporter avoided certain wardrobe malfunctions.

 

[COdogman]

I always wondered how the transporter avoided certain wardrobe malfunctions.

I trust it about as much as I do autonomous driving systems.

 

[vandy1981]

Proud owner of an R1S. Don't regret the decision and would buy one again in a heartbeat. A friend sent me a link to this Blog post by Peter Zeihan and I wanted to get the EV communities thoughts on this.


I realize this might be an echo chamber as the folks on this thread are all EV owners, but I'm curious as to what everyone's thoughts are on the future of EV's given some recent moves by the large auto manufacturers.

I'm not telling you my thoughts until you tell me yours.

And who is Peter Zeihan and why should I care about his opinions on transportation and the environment?

 

[Supratachophobia]

This guy is mistaking a short term hurdle for the long term trajectory.

I think RJS said as much in yesterday's Bloomberg interview. Legacy makers who take a step back are going to be in a world of hurt in 3 years when Tesla is dominating sedans and rivian is dominating S-utes and SUVs.....


And don't even get me started on the dealer model. I tried to order an EV9 and my question to Kia corperate was what they can do to protect me from dealer prices gouging..... They said " we can't control what dealers choose to do". I thanked them for helping me solidify my next car purchase choice.

 

[COdogman]

I'm not telling you my thoughts until you tell me yours.

And who is Peter Zeihan and why should I care about his opinions on transportation and the environment?

He’s a “global strategist”, which sounds a lot like the description I got from a customer of mine who lived in a van with his pit bull.

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