EVs have now reached a crucial point in many countries as they pass beyond the early-adopter phase to go mainstream, with 5 percent of new car sales seeming to be the tipping point, according to Bloomberg.

The newcomers — Canada, Australia, Spain, Thailand and Hungary — join a cohort that also includes the U.S., China and most of Western Europe.

Why 5% is so important

Most successful new technologies — televisions, mobile phones, LED lightbulbs — follow an S-shaped adoption curve.

Sales move at a crawl in the early-adopter phase, then quickly once things go mainstream.

In the case of full-electric vehicles, 5 percent seems to be the inflection point. The time it takes to get to that level varies widely by country, but once the universal challenges of car costs, charger availability and driver skepticism are solved for the few, the masses soon follow.

  • zoe@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    consolidating passenger travel help save on emissions, ie using public transportation. From a physics standpoint, fighting against gravity (aerial transport) is really energy-costly, and thus more polluting, so the silver lining would imply using trains, but they are nowhere to be found. Car companies need to become transportation companies, like Huyndai, which builds cars and trains, and god knows what else. But building trains is against car manufacturers interest, and companies like Vw don’t really care about emissions regulations like their history record have shown. Imagine Vw building trains instead of building gas guzzling Q8’s ? Also the US did decimate Alstom which was a leading edge company for train manufacturing, also there is the Airline lobby, the oil lobby, and so forth…tbh too many enemies to conquer before travel by train for the masses would see the light, and that could only be achieved by an honest political will, but unfortunately money offers are too tempting. Only the future will show how this would fare.

    https://nltimes.nl/2023/09/01/schiphol-overruled-private-jet-overnight-flight-bans-us-warns-slashing-flights

    tell me how trains would be ubiquitous in western europe, if a “sovereign” country isn’t even allowed to reduce its air traffic. also neither Western europe, Canada nor Australia are sovereign. Crucial policies are all dictated by Washington.