- cross-posted to:
- hackernews@lemmy.bestiver.se
- cross-posted to:
- hackernews@lemmy.bestiver.se
Summary
Norway leads the world in electric vehicle (EV) adoption, with EVs making up nearly 90% of new car sales in 2024 and over 30% of all cars on its roads.
This shift, driven by decades of policies like tax exemptions for EVs, higher taxes on fossil fuel cars, and perks like free parking, has put Norway on track to phase out new fossil fuel car sales by 2025.
The country’s wealth, renewable hydroelectric power, and extensive charging network have enabled its EV revolution, serving as a model for other nations.
I think Susan meant in cold rural place where it’s hundreds of kilometers to a larger city and days trip to EV maintenance.
Local boy can dismantle and assemble her current Toyota Hilux if necessary.
From a mechanical standpoint, this is a silly argument. I’ve worked on cars for approx. 15 years as a hobby/side hustle, owned a mobile mechanic business for 2.5 years, and worked at a auto shop for a time as well. Trust me, EV’s are far more simple, hardware-wise. You could argue they’re not simple, software-wise, for the average consumer to work on themselves, but that would ignore the relative complexity of modern CANbus systems in new cars, with dozens of subsystems feeding multiple computers, all of which can malfunction and cause problems for the whole system. Such as when an led tail-light breaks and that bricks the whole car, leaving the owner potentially stranded.
ICE vehicles have to rely on and maintain multiple pressurized systems (with dozens of specialized seals), vacuum, dozens (sometimes hundreds) of sensors, relays, and valves, not to mention rapid heat differentials, all of the moving parts with bearings and added weights to counteract various forces…
I love the idea of only having to work on suspension/steering/brakes from time to time. Have a motor issue? Unplug it, undo a few bolts, and put a new one in over a single beer. Sounds awesome to me…
I think you missed the point.
You think people living in middle of nowhere wants a car like this, with nearest approved maintenance with all the correct databus plugins nowhere in sight.
Otherwise agreeing what you posted, and yes many new ICEs have equally complex software and databus systems to control the maintenance infrastructure and keep the money flowing to the manufacturer.
I think you’re right, I side-stepped the point a bit. I was pointing out the similar complexity of modern ICE cars with the relative simplicity of EV hardware. EV’s are so much more simple, down to a component level. An electric motor is a single spinning shaft with a couple bearings involved.
I’m really only speaking on current technology that consumers have access to. Planned obsolescence and ransom-ware software that locks everyone out of doing repairs, except for a certified dealer technician, are issues that are affecting most vehicles being made these days. So, to criticize new technologies over software issues like that just seems ignorant, or disingenuous to me. Further than that, IMHO, most of the legitimate issues with EV’s come down to systemic or political issues that essentially boil down to some human minds not keeping pace with overall human imagination and advancement, and unchecked industry leaders/monopolies throwing down constant road blocks to protect their current profit schemes.
To your point, with the way things are now, generally speaking, someone in a very rural area is probably better off with a 90’s era 2.4L Toyota T100. At least until the infrastructure and auto industry standards catch up.
Thanks for writing this. I had zero idea what EVs mean for a mechanic.
Good thing an electric motor requires less maintenance than an ICE. For the rest it’s the same as every car. Only the tires wear down faster, the brakes might rust when you always one-pedal drive and for certain EVs you need to flush and recharge the coolant once in a while.
A guy in the US drives about 40 miles on average a day and there’s evs that can do 10x that now