After the Bolt, why we should welcome electric SUVs (for now)
To the editor: Now is just not the time for the federal government to micromanage vehicle design. (“Changing the Chevy Bolt with electrical SUVs could be a local weather tragedy,” editorial, Could 4)
As an engineer who owns and has constructed electrical automobiles, I utterly agree that vehicles are too heavy. However I can guarantee you that automotive makers would love to make them lighter, sometime. They’ll get higher, however the batteries are the issue. New batteries are on the way in which, however they take years of growth.
Additionally, as regular with massive engineering, it isn’t so simple as extra weight means much less effectivity.
My home-built Zenn weighed about 1,100 kilos, my Chevrolet Spark EV weighs 2,700, and a Tesla Mannequin Y weighs 4,500. My Zenn used about 0.3 kilowatt-hour per mile, my Spark makes use of about 0.25, and the Mannequin Y about 0.26. So, if authorities tried to mandate effectivity by weight, then heavy vehicles could be on the prime.
Sure, the Hummer, Ford F-150 Lightning and Rivian are all heavy EVs which can be much less environment friendly. However switching from a fuel truck to an EV truck saves much more greenhouse fuel emissions than switching from a smaller automotive to a smaller EV.
What authorities must do is keep the course, promote EVs, prohibit fuel automobiles, and make it potential for automotive builders to show their large ships-of-industry round.
John Fisher, Santa Barbara
..
To the editor: As an EV proprietor for practically 15 years, I really feel profoundly disillusioned by the lack of the Chevrolet Bolt. Broadly primarily based EV choices at a full vary of costs have at all times been wanted to spell the tip of fuel vehicles.
My volunteer work on the Tesla Irvine supply middle has put me head to head with the impression of decrease value, as Tesla has slashed costs.
The least costly Mannequin 3 is now lower than $33,000 after the tax credit score, and the kind of clients exhibits how far more accessible this makes the automotive. There have been many extra nurses than docs, extra lecturers than executives, extra road cops than captains, and extra Corona than Corona del Mar.
There are higher, cheaper decisions coming. However as your editorial states, authorities tailoring incentives for lower-cost choices would assist lots.
Fred Forster, Corona del Mar
..
To the editor: The place is at this time’s model of the Mannequin T?
We would like an electrical automotive that’s extra inexpensive than the behemoth SUVs coming off the road. I don’t perceive why auto producers push us into greater and larger automobiles, when many people simply must get round city.
The Bolt might have been the reply, however maybe Basic Motors was influenced by the electrical Ford F-150 truck. I can’t be the one one who needs a modest EV that I can truly afford.
Maggie Wineburgh-Freed, Los Angeles
..
To the editor: One of the simplest ways to make sure the continued manufacturing of the Bolt is to assist $5 gasoline and, sadly, worth gouging by oil corporations.
The USA has a number of the most cost-effective fuel costs among the many world’s high-income nations. Right here, fuel is cheaper than bottled water.
The quickest approach to get folks to purchase EVs is by having hefty gasoline costs. Since lawmakers lack the need to levy increased taxes on oil firm income or on the pump, we must reside with outrageous fossil gasoline income if we need to velocity the transition to EVs.
Fred Smoller, Orange
The author is co-founder of the Orange County Sustainability Decathlon.
