Fun EV-1 story: a number of them were donated to colleges after the recall, under the stipulation that they only be used for "research" purposes. They deliberately destroyed the motor controllers before donating them so they couldn't be driven. The engineering department at my alma mater got their hands on one. The EV-1 wasn't the only electric car GM made to comply with that law. They also made the S-10 EV, an electric version of the Chevy S-10 pickup. Everything I've heard about them indicates they were dogshit, but they were better than the EV-1 in one critical way; of the 400-odd produced, around 60 were actually *sold* to customers, rather than leased. GM recalled and scrapped all of the leased vehicles, but there was nothing they could do about the 60ish which escaped into the wild. And wouldn't you know it, they shared a bunch of powertrain components with the EV-1. Including, critically, the motor controller. It took a bit of doing, apparently (including a humorous incident in which the S-10 controller was discovered to run the motors in the opposite direction than the EV-1 controller, making the car drive backwards until they figured it out), but the engineering students managed to get their EV-1 on the road again. They mostly used it to run errands around town for a while. They also drove it to a number of electric car events, which is how I'm assuming GM found out about it. When GM found out that they'd fixed their "research" car, they apparently shit a brick and threatened to sue unless they parked it. They were no longer allowed under any circumstances to drive the EV-1 under electric power, and placed a number of restrictions on it that basically amounted to a ban on driving it in it's original configuration. Engineering students being what they are, they took this as a challenge rather than an actual obstacle, and they quickly modified the vehicle into a series hybrid configuration, supposedly to research plug-in hybrid electric drivetrain configurations. How did they do that, you ask? Surely that's a pretty complicated task, right? Nope, they just slapped a gas powered Honda generator in the trunk, wired it up to charge the batteries, called it a "hybrid," and went right back to driving it around. My understanding is they limited their use of the car to avoid incurring the wrath of the lawyers, but I believe it still theoretically runs. As far as I know, they still have it. They did when I was in school, and I took a few naps in it. Relatively comfortable seats, particularly for a late 90's GM product.
@@ogawasanjuro To clarify, I wasn't a professor. I was a student in the same department, and all of this had passed into department lore long before I attended.
@@rogerwilco2 Yeah, all of the EV1s were leased, and most of the S-10 EVs were. Same thing with Honda's hydrogen fuel cell car from a while ago. It's not uncommon to lease experimental cars like that rather than sell them, partly because the company wants to conduct all the maintenance for testing purposes. My understanding is that because the S-10 EV was based on an existing vehicle, they weren't as concerned about testing data or liability issues. It was also intended as a fleet vehicle, so some of the customers may have insisted on actually purchasing the vehicles to do things like flatbed conversions. Some were supposedly used inside mines, so it's possible they just didn't want to lease a car for use in an industrial environment where it's guaranteed to get beat to shit. Whatever the reasoning was, they ended up actually selling a small number, which they did not re-purchase.
Ugh. Fuck GM. I lived in California in the late 90s and these EV1 cars were everywhere. The Fry's electronics (RIP) next to my work had the chargers for the EV1. Little did I know that 22 years later the vast majority of people would still be driving around in farting cars. Also, look up the bankruptcy of Canadian electric bicycle motor manufacturer BionX. They went bankrupt because of a cancelled project with (drumroll) General Motors! GM really do fuck up everything good in this world.
I used to be a car nut in a previous life. I couldn't understand why GM got bailed out so often when it was clearly cr4p. They shoulda put the bailout money into startups because I'm sure GM had some fine Engineers with great ideas just dying to leave the sinking ship and try cool new stuff out. They ruined Saab, Subaru and tried hard to f*ck Lotus too, all without dying themselves.
I didn't know that! I've got a BionX bike and I love it! It doesn't work perfectly anymore but I can't repair it or get new parts sadly. I also hope I will be able to buy a used BionX bike because I can't find any other brands with the scooter mode which I really need.
I remember watching the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car", what baffles me is that we keep letting corporations do this to us. It's not just mustache twirling villainism, this is literally killing people and threatening the whole planet.
American citizens refuse to take on Corporate America. Face it, for all their talk about being free and they love being enslaved and lied to, by Corporate America. They really love to believe the Greatest Lie Ever Told. To make changes just vote! That's the greatest marketing strategy ever. Corporations already know that their lobbyists give money and perks to politicians in both parties to go their way
The problem here is the fact that US laws are written intentionally in a way to let corporations do whatever they want - including shut down good products that the ppl want. The only way this could have gone another way would have been if the US government had stepped in and told GE to F off and that, in fact, they were now making CA's zero emissions law nationwide. There's only so much the average citizen can do when the entire system is literally stacked against them and absolutely no politicians are willing to stand up to the corporations. And this was back before Citizens United too - so it just goes to show that things have been broken politically in the US for much longer than you would think if you watch conventional news and listen to the politicians. Citizens United just opened the floodgates. The flood was already there pouring steadily out for... decades.
@@SadisticSenpai61 The politicians aren't trying to stand up to corporations, they are not afraid to. Politicians are not going to because corporations are their biggest campaign donors.
@@SadisticSenpai61 it's actually worse than that, the California clean air laws forced car companies to offer EVs, it was the lobbying and corruption that allowed these laws to be repealed and tax breaks for humvee and other 'mega cars'. It's not that the laws are a certain way, it's that the whole system constantly bends to corporate pressure and financial interests, usually with the help of GoP.
@@onehotseat then they will stall the inevitable change until they figure out a way to maximize profits in a new business climate. Then lobby for the flood gates to be open cause they are ready to maximize. The same thing will happen with weed and big pharma. They have stalled the legalization until they could scoop up all the infrastructure, and then they move it to legalization.
@@onehotseat Norway has a population of 50 million people and those few people all enjoy the wealth of North Sea Oil. It's odd to see leftist band wagon on a joke to promote their faith in leftism.
"Capitalism drives innovation" lol. "Capitalism walks the very fine line between angering consumers and making the 'least worst' products, just to maximize profits" that's better
Capitalism drives innovation until companies become so large they boarder on monopolies (or work together to form psudo monopolies) and then stop innovation all together and force clients to buy the cheapest possible product they can release that people will still buy. Unfortunately, Capitalism will ALWAYS tend towards monopolies and anti-competitive practices unless it is heavily regulated.
@@eragon78 therefore capitalism does not drive innovation. Almost all of the innovation that capitalists, umm, capitalize on was developed in universities and government R&D labs funded by taxpayer and donated funds (*cough* read welfare and handouts *cough*), where profits were the last things on the researchers’ and developers’ minds.
Well, the joke's on them. They could've been years ahead in the ev market and become an absolute juggernaut in the industry, but now they're facing significant market share losses. 2025 is a lot of lost ground to all other ev manufacturers.
That's exactly whats been happening to GM for over 50 years. They are fucking morons when understanding the market. The entire U.S. transportation system shitshow has been rooted in GM fucking with U.S. Department of Transportation and Urban Development in nearly every administration for over 60 years. The obscene growth of suburban sprawl, the entire collapse of urban public transport networks and infrastructure, and downplaying and forcefully resisting (with major oil industries) any progress to switch over to renewable energy is mainly their fault.
@@islamispeace333 Norway is only 5 million people that are rich because of North Sea Oil. But, hey, look at their EV's "per capita" and lets make some propaganda about green feels.
While the Big Three were using lawyers to fight mileage requirements, the European and Japanese automakers were producing cars that got better mileage, to match standards in Europe and Japan. So you could buy and American car of lower quality with worse mileage, or you could buy a foreign model that was of higher quality and better mileage. And the Big Three wondered why they were rapidly losing market share. They literally screwed themselves out of the market by refusing to adapt.
Europe and Japan didn't have mileage requirements. Still don't. Europe more recently introduced CO2 limits, which is fuel economy by proxy. But back then they didn't. What they do have is very expensive fuel.
@@planefan082 less lobbying? Excuse me? Ever heard of Germany? Or VW, Mercedes and BMW? Or Brussels and the lobbyists? Don’t kid yourself; lobbying is a thing in Europe! Especially in Germany by the German car companies. Thing is that the German car companies were actually behind the stricter emissions rules; this meant that people had to buy a new car to actually get into a city! In the factory they just tweaked the ECU so it would show lower emissions and presto! It did backfire a bit…
@@planefan082 yeah here in Europe it’s more latent and hypocritical. In our corrupt country (NL) they would make you believe there is no corruption. It’s only “Southern Europe” who are corrupt… yeah right…
Imagine having the amount of power to go: "Do we want the general populace to be able to breathe in the city, or do we want more money..?" "General populace? Pff LOL. Call the Lawyers, it's time to print some more money."
Not too long after these decisions, GM discovered that a seat belt defect was sending people through windshields during abrupt stops, fatally killing many of them. They weighed it out and decided "it looks cheaper to have everyone sign NDAs and pay out money to the families, than to do a recall and fix the defect that is leading to deaths." They really care about their customers THAT much. They'd rather have a few die if it saves them millions.
GM also bought the patents behind the battery tech inside the EV1, sold them to an oil company, who stopped issuing licenses for any automative applications, and sued anyone else making cars with that tech, e.g. Toyota.
I used to work at the California Automobile Museum in Sacramento, CA, and they actually still have a (non-crushed) GM EV1 on display. It belonged to a GM employee who still had it checked out for testing when the program was axed. Before he went back to work, he heard what was happening to the cars and never brought it back. It was eventually donated to the museum.
GM did donate a few mostly intact cars to museums after destroying their motor controllers as well (their insistence on destroying all the EV1s is baffling even if they didn't want to make more cars they could have still sold the ones they had)
@@MajorMlgNoobThe parts were still in good enough shape for someone to reverse engineer them, plus GM wasn't selling any electric cars, so any idiot with a washing machine motor, an inverter, some plywood, some sort of wheels, some round bar, and some car batteries could outsell GM on the electric vehicle portion of the market and be selling a better electric vehicle than any GM was selling at the time.
Yesssssssssss! While it pains me to revisit the electric car fiasco of the EV-1 15 years later, I'm glad you took the relevant time after the SB commercial to bring it to light again. Perfect timing, perfect delivery. Shared across my social!
@@ClimateTown imagine taking this much of a soylent take on these celebrities. Criticizing a business for repeated disgusting business practices but lauding the people who take millions to promote them. Celebrities who undoubtedly produce a carbon footprint 100+ times your average American consumer.
I visited LA in the 80s and ended up in the hospital because of lung disease and how polluted it was. Literally triggered a lifetime of lung problems. Baffles me people want to go back to that.
Considering that I grew up in that era, in that time frame, and now race bicycles (in m 40's) at the pro level, I doubt a "visit" to LA did that to you. That said, no, I don't want to go back to those times.
I was familiar with GMs history with EVs. I was overwhelmed with absurdity at seeing that GM ad. I haven’t questioned reality that much since Steve Bannon was announced as Trump’s campaign advisor. Like, before that ad, you could not have told me anything I would have believed less than that GM would put out an advertisement for electric cars, let alone one with the tone of “let’s all work together to catch up on EVs!”
GM is so incomprehensibly big, disconnected, and mismanaged that one part of the company will be actively pushing for EV adoption and developing new technologies with the sincere intent of bringing them to market, while another is lobbying against it. None of the people in these two groups will ever interact in day-to-day business. What an absolute colossal waste of money and human potential.
GM is Kodak, Kodak Invented the Digital camera but shelved it because they made so much money on film, ultimately the Digital camera did them in. GM made the first electric car, shelved it and now the electric car is going to do them in.
@@vinyllpreviews9462 bad management is going to do them in before the electric car, but if they ran the business properly the electric car would still probably kill them.
Just finished your playlist and EVERY single video is captivating till the end. Not even the entertainment GOATs bat 1000. However the best compliment is that I don’t just want to share these online. I want to share them in person so I can be there and talk about them.
@@bracejuice7955 I'm sure they do (though I don't watch TV so I can't be sure). What shocks me here is the power companies have on law and the lack of consistency in their message. Again I'm sure that's not exclusive to the US, but this plus the recent political stuff from a country that claims to be the best in the world is a bit too much
I freaking hated GM for that EV1 betrayal. I never worked on it but I was an engineer at Hughes Aircraft when the EV1 came out. Hughes engineers did most or all of the power engineering on it and we were proud of that thing. OK that said, current CEO Mary Barra, I think, is finally trying to do the right thing. You can imagine the opposition she gets from good ol’ boys who want GM to build nothing but stupid V8s for the rest of their careers.
If you liked this, watch the documentary 'Who Killed The Electric Car?' Much more about the EV1 and 2 that GM took off the market and destroyed, even though people wanted to keep them.
When you attach your name to something then you are a part of it being a problem. If will Ferrell did an ad promoting the third reich then he would most certainly be supporting nazis.
@@StevenHuxley strongly disagree. Wouldn't you be suspicious of any huge corporate? Is it so hard to do research? He's insanely rich. He can have his crew vet everything he does and only endorse completely ethical choices.
@@crapadopalese I disagree. Many fucking times people can't separate actors form scripts. Not long ago actors were witch hunted for participating in awfully written scripts like in Twilight saga films, and RIGHT NOW a Chinese voice actress is being harassed to hell and back for voicing a game character players deemed "a piece of crap". If no one took GM's slot for the ad (which is 100% impossible, many actors ARE desperate for money, i am not gonna point at any), you don't fucking lay wreck ON THEM. Also commenting on the other dude, if someone participates in an ad for the Third Reich... WHO THE FUCK IS BRINGING IT BACK, TO BEGIN WITH? There shouldn't even BE such a thing; if we get to the point they get enough profit to make an ad, we might as well all kill ourselves to leave this damned planet.
@@BlueScreenCorp they are still selling a lot of cars(if you don't believe me just drive west on I80 practically every tenth semi is full of Teslas), definitely enough to be seriously cutting into BMW's market share. Also your statement isn't accurate the bulk of Tesla revinue comes from vehicle sales.
@@BlueScreenCorp Jesus, are you still spewing that ancient history? I hate to burst your bubble, but Tesla's profit from cars has exceeded their income from offsets for quite a while now. It's not even close any more.
Wow, so they only leased the EV 1 and just took them all back. That was less the 20 years ago. Some of the people they are marketing to probably vividly remember this happening. hard to trust that history.
I remember watching a documentary about the EV1 years ago and being disappointed that a perfectly good electric car would just disappear. Electronic cars didnt seem to become mainstream until many years later and I feel like it's at least partially GM's fault. Until recently it seems like the technology just "wasn't quite there yet" and they had to do hybrids first that still somewhat relied on gasoline.
Dude these videos are SO good. PLEASE keep making more. You are the only RU-vidr I've seen who exposes this kind of stuff, and in a very entertaining way. This is really meaningful work.
This was an honest to Zeus TREAT. Zo stoked I woke up n stumbled directly into this vid and your channel. It's -9 degrees currently in my driveway but I'm still trying to forgive my car for it's manufacturer of lies; I also want to return to my gasless longboarding commutes now. Wow lots of words from me, I apologize for that...I am fired up to be finally back in the fight vs. the smotherland/auto industry. 1st step? Putting this one video everywhere. The perfect way for the unaware or I know-dont care crowds to get this MASSIVE "issue"/everyday every driver out here pumping gas in/emissions out; profit in/progress out, billions of revenue and tax dollars and medical costs and environmental impact data waaay in hella secret, most certainly entangled with a high level of lowly lobbyists and the other industries that have skin in the same game IN/ the idea that the average consumer in US and also, airbreathers at large are all the key millions of consumers this heist even needs and capitalism's ability to work for the people and the planet...OUT. still, for now. (Except for the USA working model of capitalism...that is not EVER trending towards even "okok, inequality that is not as cartoonish and obviously a lot better optics department...not optical, just nevermind we tried poor people suck, we suck, good luck with economic reform. Love, the .001%) Thanks so much for your videos!!
@@ClimateTown yeah I myself chuckled out loud...and realized that the info in this vid is extremely depressing...but masterfulluy well done so I hit the vape a few times and continued. Cheers from Cape Cod, MA!
GM had the industrial and technical resources to make Teslas EV production look like a joke by this point in time and they probably could have sold the vehicles for less. GM has way too many rich idiots who don't give a damn about what happens after the next quarter at the top and that is why they should have went out of business during the recession.
@@ClimateTown Yeah, learning about the intricate histories behind the drivers of climate change is cool and all, but have you ever talked a guy into growing a resplendent moustache via a series of RU-vid comments? 👉😎👉
I couldn't wait! But they crushed my bag of it in front of me. And I was all like heyyy that bag sounded empty! And they said *wink*. It's almost like a trend now with G.M. ...ominously, transparently, nihilistic anddd in our driveways still. Hm
I was working with Ted Danson on Becker and he drove his EV1 to Paramount Studios every day and he loved it. I remember him being so mad when the recalled the car and they wouldn't let him just buy it outright.
Living and working in Detroit I’ve worked with auto companies for my almost decade long career. While I’m grateful GM and many others are finally turning things around there is no doubt that the big three have made A LOT of bad decisions over the decades. I’m not going to just mindlessly praise them just because the area I live in relies on them so (too) much.
Excellent video, thanks! And now GM is installing 4000 charging stations to chargé (as we say in Canada) those electric cars. It's not about the electricity after all! It's about car sales.
@@andrewhaan695 There's lots jokes here: Norway is a tiny oil rich country & look EV's, that's funny that Greens don't see the oil elephant in the room because of the shiny EV. EV's use 4x the electricity of an average household. Do American build 600 more Palo Verde Nuclear plants so we can all have 1 ev per household? I'm sure you've thought this through. Explain where the 19,152,220,800,000 kWh comes from.
@@andrewhaan695 I think we should consider one EV per household, before ALL vehicles being EV's. So, 123 million EV's traveling the average distance, compared to household electric consumption. While knowing 1 EV per household is not the only vehicles.
@@andrewhaan695 "but 19 TWh is a grain of sand " *19 PWh or 19,132 TWh is 600 additional Palo Verde Nuclear plants and a four fold increase in grid for a total of $50 trillion. That's a big grain to me, for only 1 EV per household.*
@@andrewhaan695 The average distance traveled by a vehicle in the US requires 4.2x the current electrical usage of a household. This is 19PWh for one EV per household, or 123 million EV's. It's true the new EV's are only driving 17% as much as the vehicles they replace, but you don't seem to be saying that. Right? The current EV's are bought as spare vehicles, but that won't be true for the majority of the market.
@@andrewhaan695 EV's don't use gasoline. 122 millions EV's would use 19PWh to travel the average distance they currently travel each year. The cost of 19PWh in the US is $50 trillion and a place to put 600 nuclear power plants. Current EV's are used 17% of the time as spare vehicles, by the rich ppl buying them. Blue collar households cannot afford a "spare vehicle".
The fact that I saw this video recommended and assumed it was about the 2022 superbowl commercials (which are also overpromising EVs without any substantive information or shipping product) says a lot.
i feel this represents the diference between japanese companies and american ones. i feel that many japanese companies choose to take on the challenge of progress while american companies often fight tooth and naail to stop the world from spinning.
Yep my lungs are messed up having grown up in LA... and then living thirty two years with various smokers. And now I live in the basin when wildfires come every summer. I hide in a room of air filters.
As a SAAB enthusiast, GM is the literal devil. They make exclusively terrible decisions, and destroy everything wonderful they manage to get their hands on. Luckily SAAB ignored everything GM told them to do, but they were killed off in the end for their stubbornness and refusal to make shite cars. Also SAAB had a car called the EV-1 a decade before GM became a major shareholder and took the name for their EV-1
At some point we're really seriously going to need to start repurposing scrap material. The amount of stuff with planned obsolescence that just goes straight to the garbage heap would boggle peoples' minds. When we could be breaking those items down to not just mother boards and screws and tubes, but learning to further disassemble the pieces into some form of raw material that could be used for something else
I’ve never trusted GM since they left my town destitute. They moved overseas just to pay lower wages. My city and its people fell into despair. The fact that this company is still allowed to sell and make profit in my state is abysmal.
Your videos are so in-depth and clear, loved this one! Do you have any suggestions for someone who is considering studying ecology to help fix... You know. All of this stuff?
Thank you for the effort you put in saying positive things about those who acted in this commercial and distancing them from GM being garbage to prevent undeserved backlash against them.
Worst of all, every single one of their stupid corporate vehicles turn on the reverse lights when you unlock the car. You could be at the grocery store and unlock before you even leave the door, and a line of cars are hesitantly creeping by and stalling because it looks like a dumb Escalade or Sonic is backing out, with nobody even in it, and the engine not even on. But, yes, everyone should see through the greenwashing, and how they're not even bothering with practical EVs and jumping straight to ridiculous 1,000 hp 10,000 pound Hummers, after they killed the brand for sucking in the first place, coincidentally referenced in this video with simultaneous engineering during the EV-1. And here we are.
I'm glad you're bringing this up for the younger generation that didn't live through the time when GM bent over for the big oil companies and literally destroyed all their electric cars even with their drivers begging and offering to overpay to keep them. And why the US government had to bail them out of bankruptcy just 5 years later in 2008. For those out there who wants a taste of what we're talking about, watch the "Who Killed The Electric Car" documentary.
I am a Coloradan with limited knowledge of environmental policy. What do I do with the document you posted? Do I go to these hearings? Do I contact these staff people? Thank you.
"The U.S. government spent about $50 billion to bail out GM. As a result of the company's 2009 bankruptcy, the government's investment was converted to a 61 percent equity stake in the Detroit-based automaker, plus preferred shares and a loan.Apr 30, 2014" - Reuters Apr 30, 2014 Paid to pollute, when they should have been thrown in a pit.
Good info! ...just one thing... I don't buy that those cars were so loved just because a bunch of celebrities, who usually get paid to read lines, say they loved them on TV.
@@andrewhaan695 The EV1 had a Cd of 0.19 and CdA of 3.95sqft. It was as slippery as a cunning weasel, not matched since. Its batteries however were 500kg of lead acid or NiMH batteries with a density of about 90Wh/kg at best. A Model 3 battery pack also weighs 500kg but with a density of 160+Wh/kg
@@andrewhaan695 FYI: the EV1 was (and I believe remains) GM's most aerodynamic vehicle ever mass-produced with an insanely low 0.19 coefficient of drag. For reference, a typical family sedan is about 0.35 Cd. And the EV1's batteries were heavy, relatively low-density lead-acid batteries, compared with modern lithium that store nearly twice as much energy in the same size/weight. The EV1 with modern lithium batteries would probably have a range of about 130 miles just by changing to lithium batteries. Other advances could surely have put it equal to or better than GM's current Bolt EV, which does about 230 miles. (Basically: transplant the Bolt powertrain into an EV1 and you'd have a Bolt that more people would be interested in buying because it wouldn't look like a low-budget econobox that no one would want to be caught dead in.) Had GM stuck with the EV1 and continued to develop and advance EV tech the entire time, it seems logical that their current EVs would probably be closer to 300 mile range on the same size batteries currently in use. I'm a GM fan, but killing the EV1 was definitely among GM's biggest mistakes of the last 50 years. Tesla owes its current "EV pioneer" status to GM's boneheaded decision to kill the EV1; had GM continued producing and improving the EV1, Tesla probably wouldn't even exist today, as there wouldn't have been much of a market niche for them.
@@andrewhaan695 The efficiency's of EV's comes at the expense of comfort. For example narrower tires improved distance at the cost of of vibration. Paying more for discomfort has result in EV's sitting hardly used in garages. Typical EV owners reduce vehicle travel to 17% in their new EV, while continuing to use their old vehicle for the balance of travel. EV's are currently a fad.
@@jasonescott "Tesla probably wouldn't even exist today" *Tesla Motors failed, then Elon's personal debt was bailed out with a no interested government loan. GM didn't have this advantage until it's bankrumptcy.* *Tesla would still exist either way, because had not the government bailed it out and a competitor would have bought Tesla very cheaply.*
Electric vehicle is not eco-friendly at all: 1) we don't know how to recycle batteries, 2) electricity mostly produced by burning fuel Modern cars with different filters or even hybrid engines already eco enough, next step is not drive EV, but to use public transport or bicycles
If you think it was wild when a bunch of Teslas caught fire just wait for the GM EV fleet haha. They couldn't keep my truck door panels from popping off, how are they going to harness and carefully arrange electrons.
_"2019 is the year you may recall as being..."_ the last time when I could walk out in a public open space without having an anxiety attack each time a nearby human being breaths? _"...just two years ago."_ Oh. It feels like two decades ago though.
Well at least this is just a one off mistake of tanking more environmentally friendly transport options, it's not like GM was involved in any other conspiracies to undermine stuff like that, right? Right? ... Guys?
I mean, EVs themselves are sort of a distraction from more effective methods which we have had for decades like public transit, bikes, and working to reduce travel distance.
@@andyandreou If you are on an average Western diet, the combined emissions from farming, the food industry and food outlets makes food emit 3 times as much CO2 as burning an energetic equal amount of diesel. The human body is also worse than a combustion engine in converting chemical energy into mechanical work, so per kWh in rotational energy, muscle power is 6 times more polluting than a combustion engines. However a cyclist is a much smaller vehicle, so the result is that riding a bike emits 50-90% of driving in a car alone, depending on riding speed and body weight, worse than driving an EV in Europe where electricity is cleaner. What the bike does is reduce your mobility, so even if your emissions are the same as a car per mile, you travel much less than you would if you owned a car. Busses as long as they are not all electric, get 2-4 MPG and with the overhead of staff on the payroll means a bus needs a minimum of 7 passengers average to emit the same as 7 people each in their own car or 15 passengers to emit the same as 15 EVs, This means that busses makes sense in cities, but rural areas and late night departures with a handful of passengers is worse than cars. The moment you fill your car with people it too becomes a bus! So a car emits less per person than even trains on a family vacation. So use your car for only when you need it (not commuting) and use it efficiently and your footprint from transport will be less than commuting in an EV, so you are right about that. It is not simply an exercise of deciding which type of transport is bad and which is green, it take much more careful analysis of your personal footprint to decide where the greatest reductions can be found.
Ahh man, every time you think a corporation is doing something really good it seems like they actually have a track record of doing the opposite. Let's hope they serious now..
I design LED lights for a small lighting manufacturer in the UK and I'm currently trying to understand our climate impact. Particularly the impact of non-single-use plastics, but generally our environmental impact as a whole. Is there anything you could point me to for recommended reading?
I´ve seen the documentary "Who killed the electric car" ages ago, and literally thought, that it was a science-fiction-movie, since none could really be so stupid or evil in real life... Well, little did I know about America, back then... ;-)
@@ClimateTown btw if you ever do energy storage at scale I'd be interested. I did my doctoral work on a battery of sorts using water electrolysis. Inefficiencies are a killer!
In my younger days, I drove a diesel Toyota pick up truck in Bangkok traffic. This is the place that is so clogged that there is no place to pull core to allow an ambulance to pass. Likely the passing happening was the patient in the vehicle. P.S. there is NO helicopter evacuation at all in Thailand despite dreadful stats of road injuries and deaths. SO, I wanted a Hummer there just so i couch have :"my space:" Peace of mind, you know..
In an interview, Elon Musk was asked what advice he had for American industry. It was simple: "Concentrate on making a better product." Not on M.B.A. stuff and nonsense, not on advertising or changing the rules or corrupting governments, but on making better products. G.M. has been so long away from that that they made a funny superbowl ad to pretend that they are good guys. This video demonstrates the real story.
