Hacker News Reader

Comment by pstrateman | Hacker News Reader

Federal and State governments are literally paying people to buy plug-in electric vehicles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_electric_vehicles_in_t...

This is a good thing. We should be incentivising move towards clean energy rather than letting things with hidden costs continue.

Sure, everyone loves subsidies when they are the ones getting them.

Having the government pick winners is a losing proposition. The correct solution is to properly price the externalities of ICEs, then let the market sort it out.

I agree carbon tax is the right way to go, although politically it might be difficult(see other thread here). I'd rather have something(subsidies) than nothing at all.

Maybe it was a good thing to prove the viability of electric cars, but I find it hard to believe 5-7k a car is best use of green energy spending. And that's a car that still is mostly just running on coal or natural gas because that is what are grid is made out of.

Why do you assume electric cars and batteries have no hidden costs? You don't see these costs when you see electric cars, but the cost are real: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150402-the-worst-place-on-...

That story is about rare earth metals. There are no rare earth metals in Tesla's batteries or in their motors:

Tesla does not use rare earth metals in our battery or motor. Typically, rare earth metals apply to DC motors, which use magnets. One of the reasons we use an AC induction motor is it does not require magnets, which often contain the rare earth metals.

https://my.teslamotors.com/de_AT/forum/forums/no-rare-earth-...

Meanwhile in Georgia which used to have one of the best electric vehicle tax credits in the nation has decided to not only gotten rid of it but now requires everyone to pay a $200 tax annually for owning one. [1]

In a way this is understandable since road tax comes from gasoline sale and electric vehicles don't require gas. However I wonder how they will treat something like Chevy Volt that can run on both electricity and gas.

[1] http://www.govtech.com/state/Georgia-Slams-Brakes-on-Electri...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com