A pair of psychologists and an economist at the University of Turku, in Finland, have found that because the average electric vehicle (EV) owner is wealthier than the average person, they still have a bigger than average carbon footprint.
  • lemmyng@lemmy.caEnglish
    45·
    2 months ago

    How does the users’ EV carbon footprint compare to the pre-EV one? A change from say 80th percentile to 60th is still above average, but an improvement nevertheless.

  • superkret@feddit.org
    16·
    2 months ago

    Well, duh. If you change nothing about your lifestyle except adding an EV to your fleet, you’re not helping the climate.
    We can’t produce and consume our way out of this.

    • bluGill@fedia.io
      2·
      2 months ago

      You are helping the climate because the EV is better than the ICE you would have used instead. It is a baby step, but given that humans will object to changing their lifestyle a very useful one. We need lots of other options for those rich to improve their climate footprint. (great transit would be better, but it needs to be good enough that they decide that don’t need a car - not the transit for those who after 5 DWIs can’t get someone else to drive them which is what a lot of rich get)

  • Sunshine (she/her)@lemmy.caMEnglish
    5·
    2 months ago

    Rich people eat more animal products, live in large single family homes and travel a lot so they need to go plant based, buy a condo instead of a mansion and fly less.

  • DV8@lemmy.world
    3·
    2 months ago

    Interesting. Though I’d love to see more studies on this and especially ones comparing countries. I know that in Belgium it seems many EV owners also own solar panels and are at least more likely to also have batteries. And the rich people can actually afford to build more climate neutral houses with heat pumps. (As heat pumps here are more expensive than heating with gas which is less efficient)

    Apart from that I always figured ev’s are a great solution to local pollution: cars driving through streets, idling through intersections etc. Less so for global pollution though across their life they should still be better I thought.

  • TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world
    2·
    2 months ago

    I think what this shows is that EVs are, as of right now at least, more status symbols than climate mitigation tools. While some people certainly do buy EVs because they care about the planet, many don’t really care all that much. I think this is also holding back mass EV adoption in the US. We need EVs to be seen as the sensible choice for the average person, not playthings for the rich and opulent.

    • pageflight@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      2 months ago

      I think they can be a climate conscious choice and unaffordable. But getting better, and still a worthwhile step.

    • 4shtonButcher@discuss.tchncs.de
      2·
      2 months ago

      We were sad to realize we’d need a car (dog, kid, family and friends in unpractical locations) but we made sure to buy a used electric car instead of just any cheap used car. I mean we put a child in this world, we shouldn’t fuck it up more than absolutely necessary.