Public Transit Electric Avenue Certifiably Not "Awesome"

“I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but EVs are great,” John Beltz Snyder boldly writes in the opening sentence of Autoblog’s “ More research shows why EVs are awesome” article.

For more than 15 years, when not writing about cars, I’ve worked in the public transportation sector. With the exception of the two years I spent as an automotive test engineer, I’ve worked on bus and rail projects in engineering and managerial roles.

Mr. Synder, Autoblog’s resident electric-car guru, states a study published by the Indian Institute of Science shows how much money electric buses save over conventional diesel buses. He continues, in a somewhat non sequitur way, to claim that “switching to an EV is about as big of a difference a single individual can make without giving up driving altogether.”

Needless to say, the Autoblog article, and the study it referenced, is of great interest to me. Unfortunately, it misses the benchmark of the cavalierly claimed awesomeness.

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  • MKizzy A price bump? Give it a couple of bad months + an unpredictable Musk mood swing and the M3 Performance could be selling at Altima prices.
  • ToolGuy I don't think it is fair that the other car companies have to compete with VW.
  • Wjtinfwb Seemed pointless to cannibalize your own products sales by offering a clearly inferior and older product toting the same name at a lower price point. Now many "Classic" buyers would have bought a current Generation RAM had that been all that was offered? It kind of made sense when GM did it for fleet only sales of outdated models like Malibu or Impala or even Ford while new model build grew to capacity. But they've sold these two side by side for at least 3 years now, which just seems counterproductive and costly.
  • Tassos Remember, the safest most affordable trip is the one you do not take. Also remember, if I am driving there is a good reason for it -- I do not need you clogging up the roads out of habit lol. Learn how to drive, people. This includes knowing when to stay home. 🤡
  • Spamvw Nice to know I've broken into the top 10.478000 yesterday, but it's digital odo so there will no pics when it goes to it's final resting place.As I've said before, since the computer brain reads in KM's it will stop at roughly 620k.I've been told that there are VW folks who can reset it. But I'm guessing rust will take the unibody by then.Sam'02 TDI Jetta Wagon (grey) (manual)