Hailed as a savior of the automotive industry emission debacles, battery electric vehicles were thought of as a carbon free when powered by nuclear & renewables to offer a way to decarbonize transportation, but market forces meant not everyone drank the EV cool aid as market saturation of early generation lithium ion NCR & LFP EV's gave rise to slowing sales in combination with expiring government purchase price offset incentives meant in the early 2010's to stimulate market adoption of next generation automobiles,.
Deals like the Cash for Clunkers or fuel wasting dirty emissions SUV's were traded in for hybrid vehicles from Toyota like tens of millions of 5 generations of Prius sold now, which amazingly get more than 40 miles per gallon & in some cases more than 50 miles per gallon & up to 60 MPG + with hypermiling or energy efficient safety focused predictive driving tricks & techniques designed to improve the fuel economy of any vehicle or energy economy by up to 40% by driving smoother & steady & trying to keep speed & predict light changes with slow approaches so less fuel required to speed back up again.
In motorsports & automotive culture there is a saying that you as the driver are the most important nut to tighten in the vehicle. Also, it can be a lot more fun to drive a slower less powerful vehicle fast than it is to drive a powerful fast vehicle slowly, and in the real-world traffic congestion means that using that supercar not always feasible or practical or possible, in stop & go driving conditions.
Nuclear Fission the safest possible way to make electricity 24/7, a scientific fact with mountains of supporting evidence, irrefutable & beyond debate, as flaky intermittent renewables like Wind Power & Solar Power do not make 24/7 Firm Baseload Power & to make such produce 24/7 requires renewables with incredibly expensive energy storage systems that make such vastly more costly per unit of electricity generated than even less efficient older nuclear fission reactors. New SMR reactor clusters are so cost effective & fuel efficient, that even private power utility companies can afford to install an SMR array.
What is the point of having a BEV if you cannot recharge it during a power outage from a natural disaster or winter storm outages. Also BEV range significantly less as the battery ages & if you're going 70 MPH up an mountain pass in sub-freezing conditions, using the HVAC & heat to highest settings, meaning only about 50-60% of the fair weather range before the battery charge depleted requiring slow recharging that takes 500% longer or more than adding 350-700 miles of gasoline energy to ICE vehicle fuel tank at any of millions of gas stations open to everyone around the USA. In these ways BEV's are not a miracle solution, & the instant torque of the electric motor also shreds tire tread away up to 6X faster, resulting in more tire tread microplastic dust emissions, which are by no means eco-friendly, as the leading source of microplastic emissions worldwide.
In most European cities the public transportation system exceptional in most regards. Most of Europe was developed long before automobiles became a popular well selling product, back when people walked or rode horses pulling carriages. For many decades recently, small turbo diesel sub compact cars able to fit on the smaller streets & in smaller parking space sold well in many western European countries. But tighter emissions controls laws & similar cultural trends towards cleaner technology favors the use of bicycles, enclosed bicycles, scooters, motorcycles, & cleaner at the ground level where people are breathing gasoline powered cars. There are also many incentives for European people to not own a car & rely on their relatively good public transportation systems. In these ways we can clearly see why the automotive market for European automotive sales declining now, & similarly why the profits of so many European automakers drying up or disappearing, which should give rise to jobs cut from VW & similar cutbacks & cost cutting measures to shore up the financial health of European Automakers in the face of increasing sales declines.
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