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Originally Posted by Martinjlm
Seems to me that a lot of this thread has turned into “this random group of environmental extremists said <blah blah blah> and that is proof that they [whoever THEY are] are gonna ban our cars. That’s a huge stretch.
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Not really. FWIW, I'll define THEY as globalists and environmentalists that are subject to their fear campaign. And you used the word "ban", I've already conceded it's a gradual denial of ICE lifecycle replacement options. THEY'll starve us out until we either ride bicycles or buy what THEY want us to drive.
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Originally Posted by Martinjlm
But expertise in environmental issues does not equate to expertise in automotive issues.
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Nor does regulatory policy equate to consumer interest, apparently. Nor does government meddling in the marketplace with subsidies and tariffs drive demand to THEIR projected targets. But here WE all are... backpeddling from the "all in" projections.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Martinjlm
Because some guy attends Davos and comes away with an opinion that cars are bad or that we need to develop ways to keep cows from farting
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Bad for US, at scale, not for THEM, by exception, lets be clear. They are nothing if not hypocrites.
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Originally Posted by Martinjlm
doesn’t mean that the CEOs and Boards of every major automaker will take that hook line and sinker and put all their money on EVs.
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Someone please explain
this to Queen Mary, then.
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Originally Posted by Martinjlm
The fact that many CEOs and Boards ARE moving fast toward EVs is an indication that they are listening to a broad spectrum of inputs on a number of issues and coming up with similar views of where the industry is headed. Not a big conspiracy. Simply similar understanding of a broad spectrum of inputs.
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They got way out over their skis and now have to dial back to reality. Whatever inputs they were listening to didn't factor in limited consumer demand (for a variety of reasons beat to death here) and overestimated the power of regulation and government incentives.
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Originally Posted by Martinjlm
Prime example…about 10-15 years ago there was a bunch of noise that autonomous vehicles were gonna take over and people would be banned from driving. Those discussions were almost as fun as this thread. How’s that going? It’s been pretty much crickets for the past 3 - 5 years. Did all those “THEYs” just change their minds? Or did reality kick in? I vote reality kicked in.
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If only autonomous driving had the force of subsidies and policy to keep it floundering in the marketplace for another 10 years or so. We can only dream. Too bad unrealistic projections lead to rapid failure when the marketplace won't sustain them by itself. If only the government had intervened with some fear propaganda about saving lives or some such thing, followed some mega-grants funneled through key political donors to burn through... Now I'm sad.
On the upside, we still have EVs being thrown at us!!
Thank goodness all the smart people know what is best for us (and the planet!).
In other news:
https://fortune.com/2024/02/27/byd-a...-tesla-brazil/
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/byd-e...095401805.html
Western OEMs are not well positioned to compete with these guys, yet they insist on trudging along this path at their own peril while they believe their respective governments will give them cover... for now.