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Comment by aseerdbnarng | Hacker News Reader

The transition away from horse and cart did not occur because governments decided it so but because the alternative was better. The push from ICE to BEVs is driven by regulation and not natural customer demand.

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Weird, I don't know a single country on the planet where customers are forced to buy electric cars.

Stopping production of petrol/diesel cars and lowering carbon taxes on electric cars is pretty strong encouragement though.

The EU's and China's fleet emissions standards are forcing manufacturers increase their electric car sales. All manufacturers need to sell enough EVs (BEV, FCEV, and plug-in hybrid) to avoid fleet emissions fines.

And future bans on new car sales of petrol and diesel cars have been announced in various states and countries.

Norway by 2025: https://www.thedrive.com/news/7917/norway-doubles-down-on-pl...

The UK by 2030 (but plug-in hybrids still allowed): https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-54981425

California by 2035: https://www.npr.org/2020/09/23/916209659/california-governor...

Also London's Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) that is going to be expanded to most of Greater London, and where non-EVs, including hybrids, will have to pay £12.50 a day. That will immediately make an ICE car unaffordable compared to a low-cost BEV like the Kia e-Niro, VW ID.4 or Renault Zoe.

"Natural customers" are demanding that the earth's temperature doesn't rise to the point where life becomes difficult. Regulating ICEs is one part of reducing that. The regulations don't arise spontaneously, they are enacted by politicians who in the west are democratically elected.

I didnt say it was illegitimate, only that its counter to innate consumer demand. The demand being maintaining excessive consumption and relying upon magical thinking that regulation and new technology will fix all. I’m trying to get fibre cable installed on my street which is proving to be difficult because the houses are old, theres a 17th century church nearby and the street is narrow and so on. Little snags like these make rolling charging infrastructure more challenging than simply passing laws decreeing what you want reality to look like

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