Quote:
Originally Posted by Truenorth00
If you don't want Chinese EVs, you should be supporting policies that build up EV supply chains here. Simply whining against EVs isn't going to work. That kind of whining is what convinced Western OEMs they didn't have to invest in EVs right away and what led to them falling substantially behind China. My question to people who always whine about EVs is simple, "Why do you want to cede the next generation of auto manufacturing to China?"
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I agree that we should be pushing for EV development and supply chains in Canada.
However I can’t equate pointing out EV issues as ceding anything to China, or even being anti-EV, as some like to assert. IMHO, recognizing the shortcomings of a technology is the best way to advance the technology. Defending faults helps to protect one’s ego, perhaps, but doesn’t really do anything constructive.
I think it’s also relevant to say that blaming ‘whiners’ for lack of North American EV development is a little off target. It’s pretty clear that the EV market would be very behind where it is now if it weren’t for government intervention. If left to the free market, EV development would probably have followed a similar path as hybrids, perhaps a little accelerated due to awareness about climate change. The vast majority of automakers perceived the natural future as a gradual transition to EVs (or no transition, in some cases), not a forced one that favours a company that exists merely because it could profit by selling emissions credits in its formative years.
Not saying that it’s a bad thing, because IMHO an accelerated transition is needed to deal with the climate crisis, but let’s try to be accurate.
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