Even when they are electric, cars remain cars.
EVs are promoted as the answer to the climate crisis, but are they really?
President Joe Biden visited Detroit in the fall of 2021 to pitch the Democrats' economic stimulus package and the administration's promotion of the launch of electric vehicles as a crucial step in addressing the climate catastrophe. But his visit demonstrated clearly why we cannot just promote electrification while ignoring the more serious issue of our reliance on large cars.
When Biden first arrived at General Electric, he chose to drive the new Hummer EV instead of the company's electric subcompact car, the Bolt, which epitomizes everything that has gone wrong with trajectory of automotive design in recent years. He said after giving it a spin, "That Hummer's one heck of a car." Days later, General Motors said that reservations for the enormous vehicles had increased as a result of Biden's marketing ploy, so we should expect to see more of these on the road.
The future we require is not this one. Compared to any other industry, transportation is responsible for 27% of The us emissions. Despite recent improvements in fuel economy and EV ownership, the popularity of SUVs has almost entirely offset these advantages. The Energy Information Agency (IEA) discovered that the second-largest factor driving up emissions between 2010 and 2018 was a rise in the global demand for SUVs. It would be simple to claim that all we must do is power up all of those SUVs, but that would be too easy.
They are pristine. Their massive batteries necessitate extensive fossil fuel extraction from mines all over the world, which has serious negative effects on the environment and people, including tainted water supplies, rising cancer and lung disease rates, and even the use of child labor. The IEA predicts that by 2040, demand for critical minerals would skyrocket, with lithium consumption alone expected to rise by an estimated 4,200%. This demand surge is expected if we adopt the transition that is being marketed to us, one that mainly focuses on powering personal vehicles. Small automobiles and even e-bikes, that are not the emphasis of American lawmakers or industry participants, must have batteries that are much larger than those required to power progressively enormous electric trucks and SUVs. (They would make much less money.)
The first SUV was the 1984 Jeep Cherokee, and as other models were introduced in the 1990s, sales of the these vehicles really began to soar. They profited from a flaw that lets "sport utility" vehicles fall under the category of "light trucks," which are exempt from meeting the same standards for fuel efficiency as regular automobiles. The public wanted to buy them for a solid reason: SUVs plus trucks were much more profitable versus sedans. Because there were so many bigger cars around them, drivers felt less secure until they leveled up as well, therefore the more famous they were, the more reason they had to buy their own.
Despite recent improvements in fuel economy and the ownership of electric vehicles, the popularity of SUVs has essentially offset these advantages.
In 2015, SUV sales finally surpassed those of sedans, prompting most North American automaker to reduce their selection of vehicles. By 2025, SUVs and trucks are predicted to represent 78% of all new vehicle sales. But having so many massive automobiles on the highways has had negative effects.
Although the Hummer may be the pinnacle of excess in the automobile world, automakers have been steadily increasing the size or height of the vehicles with each redesign. For instance, USA Today discovered that midsize Toyota RAV4—the top-selling SUV throughout the United States—has grown 14 inches while the Chevrolet Tahoe had also grown 17.7 inches longer since 1999. Consumer Reports reported that since 2000, the estimated average truck has grown in weight by 24% and in height by 11 inches. 7,342 of the 42,915 fatalities on US roads last year—a level not seen since 2005—were pedestrians. Evidence suggests that part of what is behind that trend is the rise in huge cars.
According to a 2018 Detroit Free Press article, its National Highway Safety Administration was aware that because SUVs and pickup trucks have high, blunt front ends, pedestrians are 2 to three times more inclined to "suffer a fatality" when struck by one of these vehicles than when struck by a sedan. The Insurance Corporation for Highway Safety also have established that because of their reduced field of vision, drivers of SUVs and trucks are much more likely to strike pedestrians, and researchers at the California state University, Berkeley have discovered that being struck by bigger vehicles increases the likelihood of fatality significantly. EVs in particular, important applications SUVs and trucks, have this issue.
A modern tech this situation, batteries to replacing internal combustion engines—will solve the climatic impact of the transportation system, according to the message that is so frequently promoted by the government, automakers, and even many environmentalists. There is no denying that internal-combustion vehicles, which are what the majority of people drive today, tend to produce more emissions over the course of their lifetimes. However, should we limit ourselves to this when we have the chance to reconsider the very foundations of our transportation system?
Both road safety as well as the ecology have suffered as a result of the tendency toward larger automobiles. If it is maintained through the switch to electric vehicles, greater batteries will be needed, which implies more minerals would need to be mined. However, there are alternative solutions that can deal with some of those issues.
There is solid reason to push smaller cars that are less expensive, require eneloop batteries, are best suited again for trips that most people are taking, and present less of a danger to pedestrians as the switch to EVs accelerates or commodity costs rise. Governments may also play a role in expanding alternatives like public transportation and bike infrastructure in cities around the nation so that more people will be able to choose not to drove in the future. This is in addition to just encouraging the use of EVs.
Industry players or a president who vows to "electrify that great American road trip" won't start that dialogue. We really need it, though.
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