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The most efficient electric car has about a 250 mile range. That won't get you out of your own regional city, and batteries are much less efficient in the cold.
A 250-mile radius isn't too bad actually. It gets me to Montreal easily and to the outskirts of Toronto and Quebec City, and well into the United States as well. More than half-way to NYC.
Per capita is sort of meaningless when you live in a sub-arctic country with a resource based export economy. Canada is a gigantic, sparsely populated, cold place where we use energy to export what few things we have. It is a completely realistic expectation that we would lead the world in per-capita carbon production.
It's doubly meaningless when you compare actual production.
Most Canadians don't live in sub-arctic climate. Even Winnipeg is hardly sub-arctic.
While I agree it is reasonable for Canada to have a high per capita carbon production, it is equally reasonable for countries like China to have a much higher total.
Also: being sparsely populated is often a choice. People choose to live away from each other for more space out of their own volition. It is not exactly a precondition. The rampant car culture surely doesn't help. What % of Canadians need to car to watch a movie or buy a dozen eggs?
I keep forgetting that "real" Canada doesn't exist beyond the banks of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence.
Canada is largely Southern Ontario south of Ottawa-Huntsville, and Southern Quebec south of Quebec City, from a population, economy, culture or history perspective. Without these area, Canada isn't Canada. Without other areas, Canada is fine.
I keep forgetting that "real" Canada doesn't exist beyond the banks of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence.
Methinks you're being a tad oversensitive here.
250 miles is about 400 km. With that you can do Calgary-Edmonton on one charge and to most places a Calgarian or an Edmontonian would go to on a regular basis.
You also live in Houston. With a 250 mile range you can get to Dallas, Austin and San Antonio easily and well into Louisiana as well.
I also somehow get the impression that you're approaching this more from the perspective of an oil industry guy that from that of an alienated Western Canadian PO'd at navel-gazing Laurentian Elites from Central Canada...
250 miles is about 400 km. With that you can do Calgary-Edmonton on one charge and to most places a Calgarian or an Edmontonian would go to on a regular basis.
You also live in Houston. With a 250 mile range you can get to Dallas, Austin and San Antonio easily and well into Louisiana as well.
I also somehow get the impression that you're approaching this more from the perspective of an oil industry guy that from that of an alienated Western Canadian PO'd at navel-gazing Laurentian Elites from Central Canada...
Actually I'm more of a interested observer. I have no skin in the game beyond my limited CPP that may or may not exist by the time it comes time to collect it. My economic interests lie in the US now. I just find it distressing/amusing/confusing that Canada is seemingly prepared to gut large portions of the economy for quite literally a drop in the bucket, and some self-serving back patting about doing their part.
A 250 mile range is about max for a Tesla right now, so that means you can actually go about half that if you want to come home on the same day, and that's also for a vehicle that pushes six figures. It's hardly a realistic alternative currently. You're absolutely right, for the majority of Canadians in the Laurentian basin and the Lower Mainland of BC, that's more than enough, but policy isn't made in a vaccuum, and there are large swaths of the country that would be unduly punished by such a policy, and it seems, like Botti says, it doesn't really matter, since they're not real Canadians anyways. And people then wonder where things like western alienation come from...
Actually I'm more of a interested observer. I have no skin in the game beyond my limited CPP that may or may not exist by the time it comes time to collect it. My economic interests lie in the US now. I just find it distressing/amusing/confusing that Canada is seemingly prepared to gut large portions of the economy for quite literally a drop in the bucket, and some self-serving back patting about doing their part.
A 250 mile range is about max for a Tesla right now, so that means you can actually go about half that if you want to come home on the same day, and that's also for a vehicle that pushes six figures. It's hardly a realistic alternative currently. You're absolutely right, for the majority of Canadians in the Laurentian basin and the Lower Mainland of BC, that's more than enough, but policy isn't made in a vaccuum, and there are large swaths of the country that would be unduly punished by such a policy, and it seems, like Botti says, it doesn't really matter, since they're not real Canadians anyways. And people then wonder where things like western alienation come from...
You also need to refuel a traditional gasoline vehicle every 400-500 km anyway.
You also need to refuel a traditional gasoline vehicle every 400-500 km anyway.
You can do that virtually everywhere in under five minutes. Not so much with electric.
I'm seriously considering an i3 as a new car, but that's just for driving back and forth to work. With gas well under $2 a gallon, there's not a huge demand for electric vehicles right now. I'd still keep the luxobarge for anything beyond a commute.
I think in order to achieve anything tangible, the government needs to make it possible for people to drive less.
For example, the current commute everyone is accustomed to is ridiculous. How many of our jobs REALLY require us to be physically sitting in the office for 8 hours a day? All levels of government should first allow employees to work remotely from home, unless required by work to go to office/meetings physically, and encourage private sectors to do the same. I myself am probably needed to be in office for 2 hours a week, on average. Everything else can be easily done at home. If not for commuting, the number of car trips in Canada would probably fall by half.
Also to think is to toll every expressway to discourage unnecessary driving and sprawl. Let all drivers to pay the full cost of driving (economic and environmental, with no subsidy).
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