QuoteWhen you zoom out and survey the car market from a bird's eye view, you can see a DARK PSY-OP SLEIGHT-OF-HAND-type maneuver tucked into the intense focus on enormous pickups, which is that it serves to move the goalpoasts of the debate way, way out, to the obscene degree that the proliferation of SUVs starts to look "normal" and "sane" by comparison !!
QuoteWe can of course sense that, whereas road trips do rock, when it comes to daily commutes, etc., cars are prison cells masquerading as tickets to freedom. The consumer desire for ever-larger cars might reflect a delusion that if we can just make our prison cells big enough they won't be prison cells anymore.
https://www.blackbirdspyplane.com/p/the-end-of-cool-small-cars
All very true.
It's like we are back in the early '60's when American cars kept getting bigger and bigger, but VW and the Japanese imports carved out a niche selling little economical cars that just ran. The only American cars we had to compete with were a couple of models like the Studebaker Lark and something from Ford.
>something from Ford
Ford Falcon
"Switching to electric cars and buses is a vital part of decarbonizing transportation. But as EV adoption grows, a concerning trend has emerged: the dominance of larger consumer models such as SUVs and pickups1 . While these still represent a major improvement over fossil fuel-powered vehicles, they bring a new set of challenges.
If left unchecked, this trend risks undermining many of the environmental, social and equity benefits of electrification by straining energy systems, increasing demand for scarce minerals and hindering efforts to deliver a green, fair and inclusive transition to cleaner, renewable energy sources."
The EV Market Is Growing But Bigger Cars Bring Risks| World Resources Institute
https://www.wri.org/insights/electric-vehicles-smaller-better
Quote from: rcjordan on August 26, 2025, 09:26:50 AMdominance of larger consumer models
Visualize the difference in vehicle classes and powertrains over the life of the vehicle
https://vehicle-emissions-calculator.vercel.app/
Article about the calculator
https://www.futurity.org/electric-vehicles-climate-change-pollution-3292192/
Also interesting to compare, say, California to Ohio for EVs
In OH (I think I used Brown County), the emissions footprint of a battery pickup with a 400-mile battery is the same as compact sedan with an ICE motor (60 tons; with a 200-mile range, the pickup footprint drops to 49 tons and beats the sedan handily)
In CA (Mariposa County), the sedan remains the same, but the 400-mile battery pickup drops to 26 tons and the 200-mile pickup drops to 20 tons. Some CA counties bring the footprint on that same last pickup up to 22.
>trend
EU plates
That's really crazy. Car bloat is everywhere and I really don't understand why.