Norway Hits Record 98.6% EV Share in April

[Brons2]

Norway hasn't coerced anyone. Rather, they have set a policy goal and implemented policy tools in support of that goal with great success. Charging less tax is not coercion, it's incentive.
They set a course from A to B and successfully navigated that course.
I wish we could do the same here as quickly and as efficiently in pursuit of any goal, but that would require both long-term commitment and a general agreement on what policies to pursue and we have had neither here in decades.

We used to do this with higher education, I never paid more than $700 a semester for a well-regarded public university that now costs something like $30K/yr.

And then people complain about student loan forgiveness. Gen-Xers and older got their subsidy up front. Anyway.

 

[Brons2]

I don’t want to argue with you. If you are talking about Europe as a model I have probably spent the equivalent of several years of my life there, mostly for work, and so I know it well. Europeans do live well relative the rest of the world. But to say the governments universally run well is a significant overstatement. France has a whole generation of young people who are finding it extremely challenging to get traction in the workforce. The UK economy has largely languished since Brexit and London has suffered as the financial center of Europe because the large firms can no longer passport into the EU. This has curtailed growth in the UK and it was interesting they had a run on gilts with Liz Truss a few years ago. Who would have thought that possible? Not a healthy economy and the government t has few options. Germany is struggling as it has embraced the green agenda but it has significantly impaired its industrial advantage via extremely high energy prices that are forcing companies to move outside of Germany and even out of Europe. (The trains in Germany no longer run on time.) When I was in Brussels a few years ago there was a farmers protest where the farmers drove tractors into downtown Brussels and set tires on fire in the streets. Otherwise peaceful. I spoke to a few of them and the short version is that they said they cannot competitively farm when the EU erects certain policies that makes it impossible for them to keep their farms profitable. (Also did you know residents of Brussels have sometimes three local governments with competing demands?) Italy is and has been a mess for decades. The north is decent but nothing goes on economically if you get much farther south than Rome. I could go on but you get the idea. Overall, EU GDP was equivalent to U.S. GDP at the time of the 08 crisis. Since then, US GDP is now about 40 plus percent larger. Money doesn’t make you happy but the lack of economic opportunity for the younger people across Europe is and will continue to cause unrest, resulting in political parties being relevant that could never be relevant 20 years ago. None of this is cause for gloating or celebration as Europe is the cradle of American civilization and together with Europe, western democratic ideals and capitalism and the best path for human prosperity. Long way of saying it would be good if they took less vacation and got their economic houses in order. It would allow them to be more forceful advocates for western ideals and self government than the hollowed out countries they are today. Neither Russia nor China have any fear or concern about what the EU does. Free healthcare is terrific until you see no one has straight teeth then maybe you think better to get a job with a US company that has a decent healthcare plan with dental.

news flash: young people are struggling in the US as well.

I saw something that the required salary in large metros to buy a house that was affordable on minimum wage in 1970 is now $66/hr.

We're creating an environment of scarcity but there is no actual scarcity in many cases. Zoning laws, HOAs, minimum parking space requirements, insistence that the American Dream equates to a single family home, offshoring manufacturing and raw materials production, those are the things that make housing expensive.

 

[Brons2]

My late father in law died in Germany, on a six month wait list for heart surgery. Had he been in the US, he would have never died.

Life in the USA has never been better. An illegal alien can walk in to a USA hospital with a critically failing heart, and get immediate open heart surgery, all at no charge to the illegal alien, courtesy of the American taxpayers.

One in the US doesn't have to work to get ample food, shelter, top medical care, and free cell phone. All courtesy of the American taxpayers.

Amazing how people don't know how well it is for non producers in the USA.

Only if they are critically ill. If the situation is not urgent and you do not have insurance, you will not get that heart surgery.

 

[Brons2]

The crystal ball says that there is an EV in my future but I am presently committed to at least six more trips to Maine between now and late October. That's over 500 miles each way and I have been trying to wrap my head around the logistics of doing that with an EV. It seems as if two DC fast charging sessions would be needed in each direction, possibly more.

You'd be best off with the newest Model 3, highest range model available. Given that I see you have a Prius in your sig, I know you can make the size work.

New M3 long range would be able to get 300+ miles highway range, 1 stop on your 500 mile trip.

 

[Brons2]

It wasn't my intention to start another Norway thread. The market shares of brands and models are the interesting thing. Let's face it, have any of you ever seen a a Toyota brand EV?

Yes, saw 2 Bzs on my way to work today.

 

[Brons2]

This is a myth. Because hospitals take government subsidies they are legally required to tell you about your options sometimes they don't. "Hospitals rarely advertise options that reduce their revenue, but they are often required to offer, or will accept, alternatives to standard, high-interest payment plans. Beyond simple installment plans, these options include deep discounts, income-driven forgiveness, and specialized, zero-interest arrangements.".

I do not pay them their co-insurance until they give me a better offer, usually less than half of the initial amount. Of course by that point my insurance paid them a bunch at the contracted rate.

They don't provide detailed billing so I don't go out of my way to make their life easy.

 

[Brons2]

Much of that “ahead” is eye wash. The US has far stricter emissions on diesel, for example.

Walk down any major European city Street, and you can smell the diesel smoke, you’re inhaling a great deal of small carbon particulates, which is really bad for your health.

So sure, they banned outdoor smoking, and then expose you to the equivalent of cigarette smoke from their traffic because of political pressure to keep diesels on the road.

This was true 20 years ago, not now. Euro 6 includes diesel (and gas) DPF. Air is very clean. There are still some of the old diesels around but they aren't as prevalent as they used to be.

 

[Brons2]

It's funny you mentioned diesel smoke. The EU didn't require catalytic converters till 1993! While the USA had them starting January 1 1975.

we had government that cared about the environment back then.

now we have government that is attempting to roll back as many mandates as possible, and to cripple EPA enforcement.

 

[Brons2]

Shhhh ... no one wants to know about the socialism in Norway. They think everything is free. I posted on it already, Look up Norway income tax on their own income, never mind the VAT taxes and even gasoline at $9 a gallon. It's a utopia right?

how much are the property taxes? Mine are $10K/yr on a house that is valued at $440K by the appraisal district.

 

[Brons2]

If a single person in the western world cared, an immediate ban of all imports from China would be administered.

There is a real information operations war going on, and the CCP is undoubtedly executing flawlessly.

it's not possible to cut them off 100% immediately. it would take a staged approach.

 

[Brons2]

It's survival in many regards. Look at developing nations; burning dung and wood for heat. Natural gas and oil might as well be nuclear power to them.

Even for 1st world nations, over-regulation of environmental standards is taking, in my understanding, away from progress and reasonable costs.

Of course don't dump garbage in rivers and have some guard rails but trying to reduce carbon emissions at massive scales, or else, doesn't work IRL without massive penalties to end users IMHO.

China, despite all it's green energy pollutes more than multiple countries combined. If you remove carbon generation from one country, i.e. factories etc, it's offset in China with manufacturing said product there with even less guard rails. It's a complicated topic and that's jus tmy understanding.

Environmental regulations would not be necessary if companies actually acted in a responsible manner and minimized their impact.

Instead we have companies chasing the almighty quarterly returns and any penny that takes away from the bottom line is a subtraction from the shareholder report.

No, capitalism needs guardrails, it is that simple.

 

[Brons2]

It is shear folly to compare Denmark to the United States. Denmark works for the Danes. It would never work for the average American. The mindsets are totally different.

Of course, we are all in the matrix. Nobody can change their mindset.

 

[fdcg27]

Of course, we are all in the matrix. Nobody can change their mindset.

What if we all climbed out of our silos and looked around the world for what works best and then incorporated those elements into our system?
There are multiple laboratories (nations) out there exploring policy solutions that may work well. Let them experiment in their own lands and we can then learn from their successes and failures.
Of course, that would involve conceding that other countries may do some things better than we do and that will never happen.

 

[Owen Lucas]

Environmental regulations would not be necessary if companies actually acted in a responsible manner and minimized their impact.

Instead we have companies chasing the almighty quarterly returns and any penny that takes away from the bottom line is a subtraction from the shareholder report.

No, capitalism needs guardrails, it is that simple.

"Responsible manner" is the operative word here. How much more efficient can we make internal combustion engines to save incremental gains in carbon output?

Where are the guardrails on 3rd world countries dumping oil and garbage into the oceans and cutting down forests. They should stop heating their caves with donkey dung too.

We have the EPA, DEP, etc etc which are supposed to protect us. Sounds like a gov't problem if they can be corrupted by lobbyists to let rules slide.

A lot of the capitalism hate crowd is just jealous of billionaires. "People get paid too much".

 

[Vercingetorix]

Is there a TL: DR version?

I will say that without reading umpteen pages of forum posts to find out what happened, all things being equal the Taycan is an excellent charging vehicle, OutofSpec Motoring cannonballed one across the US in less than 40 hours and charging stops often less than 10 minutes.

It's also wicked expensive for normal folks.

The story is the point.

 

[Brons2]

Now that we’re retired we are traveling abroad at least once a year.

That's great. It didn't last very long for my dad until he started declining pretty fast, 2-3 years tops. At first they did some great trips, but over time he's really had increasing mobility challenges and it's getting a lot worse now.

They are driving their ID.4 out to the West Cost right now. It will probably be the last time my dad will be able to do this.

It's hard to watch.

 

[pbm]

Our prices are nothing like those being discussed though, lol. A 500ml can of beer here is like $3 unless you are buying craft, and then it might be $4 or so.

So my friend from Kitchner Ontario is lying when he tells me a case of beer is over $50 and a bottle of cheaper Vodka is over $40? I'll have to call him out on it. He also tells me there are a many disputes between French and English speaking peoples.

 

[OVERKILL]

So my friend from Kitchner Ontario is lying when he tells me a case of beer is over $50 and a bottle of cheaper Vodka is over $40? I'll have to call him out on it. He also tells me there are a many disputes between French and English speaking peoples.

Single 500ml cans:

Vodka:

I don't think there are "many" disputes between English/French, but Quebec and the rest of the country disagree on a not insignificant number of things, some of which we can't really get into due to the inherent political nature of that. One of them is the current idiotic gun buy-back program that was forced through primarily to win votes and placate fears in Quebec.

 

[pbm]

Overkill:
$30 for a 12 pack of Coors Light 'on sale' is a lot. My idea of a 'case' is a 24 pack or even a 30 pack which can be bought for less than $30 here. Also, $31 for a 750ml of Absolute is expensive....we get a 1.75 liter of Absolute for that or less here.

I do know that pharmaceuticals cost less in Canada.....I wonder why that is?

 

[odie]

Wonder if they have FJORD electric Mustangs' or F-150 Lightnings' .