Comment by toomuchtodo | Hacker News Reader

Comment by toomuchtodo | Hacker News Reader

This is Europe's chance to accelerate electrification, hopefully they see it for the gift that it is. It was a choice to not go fast, it is time to go fast. Pain now to avoid pain later.

EV Sales Are Booming in Europe With Gasoline at $10 a Gallon - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-24/electric-... - September 24th, 2026

> For an expanding share of drivers, switching to battery power is the answer. In Germany, charging a mid-range or luxury EV at home currently costs about 70% less than fueling a gasoline-powered car, according to analysis by comparison website Verivox.

Saudis Give European Oil Buyers No Supplies for Next Month - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-18/saudis-te... | https://archive.today/vMUqP - September 18th, 2026

EV sales are booming in Europe – and plunging in North America - https://electrek.co/2026/09/10/ev-sales-are-booming-in-europ... - September 10th, 2026

Europe EV Sales Report: BEVs Jump 50% & Reach 26% Market Share - https://cleantechnica.com/2026/08/02/europe-ev-sales-report-... - August 2nd, 2026

are there a lot of passenger cars in Europe that use diesel?

or it like US where it is mostly semis and delivery trucks (and buses)

I am really hoping $7 diesel ends as many diesel trucks in the US as possible, as someone who is on the road on foot or bike daily, diesel particulates are the most toxic pollution on the roads and that include brake dust and tire particles (by volume)

It is the nastiest fuel and needs to go away even if it's not replaced completely by electric

> are there a lot of passenger cars in Europe that use diesel?

Used to be more, not so many now.

https://ceepr.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2014-003-1....

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/SEPDF/cac...

https://robbieandrew.github.io/carsales/?lang=en&freq=monthl...

> are there a lot of passenger cars in Europe that use diesel?

Yes there are. I drive a diesel car. My car is old and very cheap to run as I don't do much driving. It's not clean but it's very efficient. I can pretty easily get between 57-67mpg (Imperial units) and my record on a long, slow drive was 82mpg.

Because of a quirk in the tax rules for year of my car it's taxed on the efficiency rather than the emissions. My car's VED tax is £20 a year. A new car of any type would be > £200 yearly plus a tax on mileage.

It just about makes sense to keep still but I'm giving serious consideration to getting rid of it for a new car.

One thing I can be sure of my next car will a BEV. It's crazy we allow foreign powers to have so much control over our lives like this.

To be brutally honest as an outsider, it looks like Trump just started this war to distract from his part in the Epstein files and we're now carrying the consequences. Madness.

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