Comment on Cheaper EVs, easier job access: What's in the EU-Australia free trade deal for you?

• shirro@aussie.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  The EV parts and supply chain is all foreign and there aren’t enough options for “dumb” vehicles which aren’t dependent on software services and updates. A home grown ev running on open source software would be brilliant. As it is I would prefer to drive my decades old ICE vehicle smaller distances and less often and use other forms of transport to fill the gaps.

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  • zurohki@aussie.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    I mean, the foreign parts, supply chains and proprietary services and updates are all the case for every other modern vehicle too. I’m not sure why that comes up in EV discussions so much.

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    • shirro@aussie.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Many older ICE vehicles can be modified to use LNG which we practically give away. We also have plenty of oil but we mothballed or closed most of our refineries as they were too small in scale to compete internationally. We used to have a vehicle and parts industry here and we still have some people who can make parts though we don’t have the equipment to do it at scale anymore.

      Based on that I think it went Max Max here it is more likely someone would be driving a 100 year old Ford Falcon than trying to keep an EV running past 10 years.

      All the value of the vehicle is created overseas so I don’t see the sovereignty argument. How are people going to get parts for their BYD when the US starts a war with China?

      EVs have their advantages and disadvantages. They are all effectively disposable and don’t have a good recycling story so I think there is a huge amount of green washing. We need to adopt EVs to reduce emissions but they are terrible for the environment in other ways. Better to focus on public transport, urban planning, e-bikes IMO.

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