I was hoping we’d just make synthetic gasoline from atmospheric carbon dioxide. Wouldn’t require changing any infrastructure at all. Just make gibs of it using renewables. It sounds good in theory anyway.
One of the nice aspects of electric cars is going to be eliminating city polution and reducing road noise.
I have no idea what the CO2 impact would be and don't really care that much ("cutting CO2 will reset the climate to some state we like" sounds like wishful thinking and most of the talk in this space is ideologically coloured I don't even want to pay attention) but the improvement in urban living is going to be undeniable.
> but the improvement in urban living is going to be undeniable.
When the pandemic arrived here back in March 2020, and nearly everyone suddenly stopped leaving their home, it was eerie: the air where I live (in the middle of a major urban area) suddenly smelled as if I was in a rural area. It was something I wasn't expecting to see so soon; I have for a long time been rooting for EVs to arrive and make the air quality better, but unfortunately EVs are simply way too expensive yet (so far, I only have seen an EV once, and it was an i3 with a range extender; and I do live in a major metropolitan area).
aside from accelerating at stoplights, electric cars and gas cars make similar noise levels just from the rubber against the road. rubber is a significant pollutant as well, as is brake dust.
Don’t get me wrong, electric is much better, i’m only nitpicking since you said “eliminating”
Brake dust is much less of an issue with electrics too, but agreed that tires are still a factor. But as someone who lived in urban centers for the majority of his life - I think getting down to tires being the major issue is solving the majority of the problem.
