Nudging (and shoving)

[Workingman]

I predicted the fanzone deflection would kick in and it has. Adverts for Tesla and anything EV as though they are the only things to save us, and then the decrying of any other points of view or urgent matters.

BTW, Suff, it was you who brought up food, the destruction of arable land and environmental damage, so you do know about it. I simply responded. The problem is that you don't seem to have a clue what to do about them so you don't address them.

I might be in the eye of the hurricane but I have noticed more problems that need urgent sorting than battery carts and heat pumps that are unuseable by many millions of us around the world. And at current rates of production, and possibly future increases, then if Tesla was the only battery buggy producer it would take something like 500 years to replace all today's 1.4 billion FF burners. If all the other "crap" car makers join in we might get there in about 100+ years, but by then we will be done for anyway. God only knows how much CO2 will be produced in the changeover. Not sure how things will go with all the tractors, combine harvesters, bulldozers, massive mining trucks, ploughs, cranes - Angel breath and unicorn poo?

Looking at mark-ups mentioned the other day and most manufacturers come in at anything from 5% to about 20% depending on the marque / model - think Fiesta v Lambo. But Tesla comes in at 30%, so not only is St Elon gouging the planet for the minerals, some of them rare, to make his not-so-eco-friendly batteries, but at the same time he is also gouging the wallets of his customers. What a guy! No wonder he is rich.

I could provide links that give fair views - for and against - on both sides of the discussion but I know that only one side will be acknowledged so I have lost interest.

[Suff]

WM, there is the local view and the global view.

Local land use in the UK is NOT going to make a difference worth a damn Globally. However the UK CO2 emissions used to be #6 in the world. We are now somewhere around 16 and dropping. That makes a DAMNED BIG difference globally. Firstly our Coal fired power stations took a lot of that away. But our fossil fuel powered vehicles must be removed to move as much again. The remainder will go when we transition the grid away from gas.

This is not difficult to understand. You just need to change your viewpoint.

Food issues are global, not local and we are impacted by global food issues because we don't produce all our own food. We could but it would require the kind of changes only acceptable when people are starving. The rest of the world will take our money and sell us the food. Until they run out. Then we're up that creek without a paddle.

If the first world won't use their money, power and engineering skills to fix the problem, then how the hell are the third world going to do it? But, in the end, they don't have to feed us.

The UK sells 2.5m vehicles per year. The UK has 32m cars and vans. By 2035 the UK will not allow the sale of fossil fuelled cars or vans. By then there will be close to 7m fully EV on the roads. Which means that one decade later there will be ~32m EV on the roads in the UK. That's 22 years from now. Not 100. If every other country in the world did the same, production would rise to meet the challenge.

By 2030 Tesla intends to make and sell 20m BEV per year. That's 200m in a decade and 1bn in 50 years. Tesla, Alone. They will not be alone, there are only 1.3bn vehicles in the world and nobody will let Tesla take most of them.

Check the facts.

As for Musk's wealth and the margins of Tesla? If you had spent even 5% of the time you've spent decrying Tesla in researching Musk and Tesla you would realise that what you are saying is totally nuts. But there is no reason to try and make you change your mind. I've given you all the details time and time again. You won't run with them and check it out. Musk is the richest man in the world, not because he's making shedloads out of Tesla, he isn't. It is because he owns 19% of Tesla and those who invest in Tesla fully believe that it is going to trounce the entire vehicle manufacturing world, is going to take over ride hailing and will have a solar power and storage business which is #1 in the world. The shares are valued on that. 19% of $1tn is one HELL of a lot of money. No salary required.

As for the rest of it? Musk blew $100m to create a fully private space company. Read LiftOff. It all came right out of his pocket. Now it is the most successful space launch business in the world and the rest of the space launch industry are even further behind his rockets than the car companies are behind Tesla vehicles. Which means he gets another $50bn or so of wealth from being the majority owner of the most profitable rocket business in the world. Ever. All whilst undercutting every other launch provider in the world on price.

We both know about climate change and we both know what has to be done. The difference between the two of us is that your view is more local and mine is more global. Also you, like Mrs S, appear to have taken a total hatred for Musk but you actually know very little about him.

So we are where we are.