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Comment by slashdev | Hacker News Reader

You act like cars are a luxury good used for joy riding. Transportation is necessary. I’m all for mass transit, and making cities more walkable and friendly to cycling. That’s complementary.

But cars are still necessary, and that’s not about to change.

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Electric cars are a luxury good. The people buying new EVs are not the same people struggling to break even with 2 jobs. Many of the people struggling to break even are putting extra miles on their older ICE vehicles to deliver meals or groceries to the Tesla owners.

We need to make cars less necessary for life. It's not an easy task, but it's a question of priorities. Do we care more about convenience in the near term, or prospects for life in the long term?

Like I said, both are necessary and complementary. Electric vehicles don’t suddenly make alternative transportation a bad idea.

Also there’s budget electric cars, and even Uber drivers purchase them. While I agree that they’re not that affordable yet, they’re not a luxury good either (although some models definitely are.)

Plus, if you already have an older ICE car that works perfectly fine, isn't it better to keep driving it (in terms of carbon emission and other environmental impacts from mining, production, distribution and disposal), than to swap it with a new electric one?

Yes, but is that a problem? Usually you sell your ICE, you don’t trash it when you buy an EV.)

Yes if we want to reduce total consumption of polluting resources. Depends on each person's circumstance, if you need to drive then it's better to keep using your old car but use it as little as possible and look for opportunities to replace trips with walking, cycling, public transport, etc. Rather than buying a new EV but still driving everywhere even for short trips.

I mean, is it more of a problem than trashing an ICE car when buying a new ICE car? It's better to use an old ICE than buying a new ICE car, too.

I think so from the bottom of my heart and try to live by it.

No, because you don’t scrap it, you sell it. That reduces the demand for new cars.

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