We just bought a CRV Hybrid. Yay
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In China, the end of ICE era is near:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/chinese-ev-dominance-hastens-end-071335803.html
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It isn’t the first time another country or two has been ahead of the US in the automobile industry.
Since I care more about the planet than any particular country, I’m glad to see they’re onboard, but… they gotta quit making new coal plants to “fuel” them.
At least they are rapidly expanding renewables too - roughly tied with Europe now leaving North America behind when we had been ahead of them a few years ago. Hopefully before too many years pass the renewables will start shutting down coal.
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Coal emits 70% more greenhouse gases than natural gas for the same amount of energy output, not to mention all of the other dangerous pollutants. China is much more reliant than the US on coal, so I would be cautious about giving China more credit than they have earned.
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As I wrote:
but… they gotta quit making new coal plants to “fuel” them.
I gave them credit for what they are doing right, not for what they are doing wrong (and the article linked tells more about both too). If skimming, you likely missed it.
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I believe India is also big into coal. The engineer son of a friend of ours has spent much time in India, where his company is building new coal plants.
China may be looking at it from a trade balance and national security perspective. While China is a net importer of all of oil, natural gas, and coal, its import dependency on oil is by far the highest, while that of coal is the lowest. Hence switching from oil-fuelled vehicles to electric vehicles using electricity from anything but oil is a win on those fronts.
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Wondered when the prime plug in was coming. We needed to purchase in February so couldn’t wait for the new Prius prime.
RAV4 Prime not eligible for the $7,500 federal rebate? 
Was considering it, but… no comment.
Son decided on the Kia EV6
Said the Hyundai dealer was awful and they liked the car but not the sale process so walked away.
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DS’s Kia is the GT line.
And WSJ made it a bit of a pain to read the article!
Urban school buses are one of the most obvious EV applications, since they do a lot of short distance stop-and-go driving on predictable schedules with predictable downtime for recharging. Lack of emissions from the bus idling while dropping off or picking up students at the school is another benefit.
Urban garbage trucks and mail delivery trucks are other obvious EV applications for similar reasons.
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@BunsenBurner thats too bad. The Bolt was one we were considering.
Not too unexpected that the Bolt in its current form would be discontinued soon, since the Ultium EV architecture is better and cheaper to make than the older EV architecture used in the Bolt.
However, it is a disappointment for those who do not want a larger more expensive vehicle, since there will be no second generation Bolt or something of equivalent size and price.
Exactly…the size was just what I wanted!
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D just bought a standard ICE minivan. There simply isn’t an EV that can haul two parents, two kids, (grandparents, occasionally), strollers, suitcases, camping gear, etc.
Among minivans, there is the Sienna, which comes in hybrid only (35-36mpg) or the Pacifica plug in hybrid option, if regular minivans are too thirsty.
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