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Comment by josefresco | Hacker News Reader

Not much meat here. The "reason" stated in the article is: "The automakers will argue that small cars are not profitable in the US".

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It's because culturally we don't like them because we grew up with space. Small cars don't have enough space. We dislike small cars same way we dislike the small hotel rooms in EU.

Also, why do you care about the small size of an ev? Since it is electric powered it's not more polluting. Yeah, you can't park as many but dig deeper or build up.

Big EV are absolutely more polluting. They require more resources in their construction — which is a major driver of overall pollution footprint. Larger EVs also require more energy (eg electricity) to propel them, and all electricity sources have a pollution footprint (sometimes directly but always at construction/clean up).

Even your “dig deeper/build taller” for parking carries additional pollution costs.

Plus their tires degrade faster on the road.

That's pretty weak... next you will argue sports cars shouldn't be a thing because they burn through tires in less than 10k pretty often.

I’m not here to win an argument. I provided a fact and nothing more. If sports cars also burn through tires quickly they’re causing pollution of this type as well.

Digging deeper/building taller lets you removing parking roadside and street level though that makes things way more walkable and just better in a lot of places.

Larger vehicles are more dangerous for people walking or cycling, as well as taking up more space and reducing visibility for other road users.

You need hard seperation on roads between cars and pedestrian traffic regardless of size. That has been shown to be true. Most european countries keep resisting this, again because their streets are way to small, but everyone would be happier if you fixed it.

There are situations where they can mix reasonably well, but it means making the roads uncomfortable for driving, something few authorities are willing to do. If you look at Autoluw streets they are narrow, have lots of visual obstructions (trees, etc.) and are the kind of place you only drive if you really need to. Which is why they're such nice places to walk!

Remember the Smart car? They're not sold in the US any more, but they're still produced, so it's entirely a demand issue; they're not worth the hassle of importing, marketing, selling, and servicing.

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