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EV demand up 50% in France and Germany since Iran war
- pstuart 3mo agoA silver lining to the storm clouds of war.
- ericd 3mo agoYep, Trump enacted a de facto global carbon tax.
- dgellow 3mo agoThe carbon tax is supposed to finance things, what Trump has done is more like forcing the crisis. More like an acceleration
- raphaelj 3mo agoWell most of the increase in prices goes into petroleum companies' profits (at least the ones that can export). So it's technically not lost and will be invested somehow. Like a Carbon tax, the money doesn't disappear. But to whom it gets distributed, that's another story...
- ericd 3mo agoYeah, definitely would’ve preferred a revenue neutral carbon tax and dividend, but that wasn’t happening anytime soon.
- inigyou 3mo agoFirst taxing carbon with a blockade, now taxing animal meat with screwworm. I wonder what bad thing he'll accidentally destroy next, maybe the military industrial complex?
- ivell 3mo agoEveryone wanted disruption and we get disrupted, but not in the way anyone expected.
- ericd 3mo agoGreat points. Military industrial complex, he's shown how the US military doctrine we're extremely heavily invested in doesn't work too well in this new world of cheap drones, so maybe. Maybe Raytheon et al will lose their expensive military contracts and we'll build out much cheaper weapons. Maybe the guy is actually just brilliant at making unpalatable things happen.
- roxolotl 3mo agoIt’s so wild to me to make a multiyear purchasing decision based upon recent events. My next car will be an EV not suggesting it’s a bad decision however I’m still blown away by statistics like this.
- gonzalohm 3mo agoI think this is people that were thinking of getting an EV anyway and they decided to do it earlier
- dgellow 3mo agoPretty frustrating that so many people have to face the actual crisis to actually react to it. And that’s the case in so many situations
- firegodjr 3mo agoI'm well aware things can change, but having my everyday commute costs generally decoupled from geopolitics seems nice
- Gibbon1 3mo agoYeah buying an EV instead of a gas car is a hedge that doesn't cost much. There is an asymmetry in the upside and downside risk. The downside risk is all on gas with no upside. No downside for the EV.
- 2muchtime 3mo agoThe thing is a lot of people might be right at the tipping point of buying an EV and then some news like this comes out and it pushes them over the line. I feel EVs at this moment are right at the level of “I’m gonna buy a new car, but maybe I’ll wait for the one after before I jump into an EV”. Better batteries (solid state), better charging speeds and more fast charger availability seem to have a large group of people waiting.
- jimnotgym 3mo agoRenault seems to have made a sensibly priced range with some classic styles too. Familiar cars but with EV, rather than early adopter cars like the Nissan Leaf or weird tech bro cars.
- neals 3mo agoas a charging station network founder, I can confirm, the summer has never started off this welll.
- kieranmaine 3mo agoSince the article is about Renault, I wanted to mention their EVs use motors with no rare-earth metals. https://www.renaultgroup.com/en/magazine/energy-and-powertrains/all-about-electric-motors-with-no-rare-earths/ https://www.renaultgroup.com/en/magazine/energy-and-powertra...
- alephnerd 3mo agoSame with Nissan [0], BMW [1], and Indian EVs [2]. European firms like ZF, Valeo, MAHLE, and Schaffler along with British firms like AEM have been working with Indian manufacturers for a couple years now to integrate supply chains for mass-producing EESMs. EESMs as well as the larger OEM story played a role in helping land the EU-India and the UK-India FTAs because the supply chains for French+Italian (Renault, Stellantis), Japanese (Toyota, Honda), Korean (Hyundai-Kia), and Indian automotive manufacturers merged. On the other hand, EESM EVs aren't a thing here in North America nor China yet. [0] - https://leandesign.com/nissan-ariya-magnet-free-motor-teardown/ https://leandesign.com/nissan-ariya-magnet-free-motor-teardo... [1] - https://www.bmwblog.com/2025/02/20/bmw-gen6-electric-motors-neue-klasse-powertrain/ https://www.bmwblog.com/2025/02/20/bmw-gen6-electric-motors-... [2] - https://www.reuters.com/world/china/india-revs-up-alternate-ev-motor-tests-china-curbs-rare-earths-exports-2025-09-09/ https://www.reuters.com/world/china/india-revs-up-alternate-...
- Neywiny 3mo agoI'm not considering replacing my car just yet, but supplementing with an electric scooter or bike might be nice
- tim333 3mo agoI recommend e-bikes. If you get a folding one it can go in the boot of the car and save you on parking. I own a petrol car but hardly use it as the bike is handier for me.
- Neywiny 3mo agoI think I agree but currently it's analysis paralysis. Just had a huge repair bill come in for the car and to be blunt if I could supplement its daily wear and tear I'd appreciate it, so the fire under me is starting to get lit.
- etchalon 3mo agoWe went with a PHEV when I renewed our lease last month, specifically because gas prices
- nielsbot 3mo agoCurious why not pure EV?
- m463 3mo agomight depend on the country. US/california would probably be 50c/kwh (though gas there is close to $7) all other US states are less (for now, datacenters, ugh)
- loloquwowndueo 3mo agoRange anxiety is probably the only reason one would choose a PHEV these days. They’re slightly cheaper also but that’s unlikely to be a factor.
- etchalon 3mo agoWe take long road trips, with three dogs, often. The anxiety of thirty minute charge stops just isn't super fun (we've tried it).
- NoLinkToMe 3mo agoPHEVs are typically discouraged in many countries nowadays, because drivers fall into one of two categories: A) plug-in to charge on a (virtually) daily basis at home B) plug-in to charge as necessary, some of whom have no home-charging (apartment-dweller) PHEVs make no sense for category (A) people because there is no range-anxiety if you home-charge every day. Typical drivers do 40km a day on average. Even an entry-level Tesla model 3 has >530km of range, and goes up to 750km for the model 3. PHEVs also make no sense for category (B) people, because the PHEV has just 50km of range. So if you don't plug in all the time, you're basically driving a gasoline car with an extra engine and a battery, increasing weight (= fuel) and maintenance cost. Various studies of real-world usage have shown PHEVs are less efficient because the behavior of its drivers. They'd be better off just driving a regular hybrid, like a Corolla. The only area where PHEVs make sense are people who drive short-distances on a daily basis, plug in the car always at home, yet make frequent (say weekend) long trips of 6+ hours of driving without any breaks, or long trips to remote areas with no charging infrastructure. This is a pretty rare combination. Most PHEVs are traditionally owned by urbanites lured by a green dream and green subsidies, who're better off getting a pure EV or just an efficient boring hybrid.
- Tharre 3mo agoAnd demand will probably go up a lot further still. Right now fuel prices are kept artificially low by every country releasing their strategic reserves, but these will run out at some point. Europe is heading into the worst energy crisis since at least the 1970s, possibly worse. And yet very little is happening to prepare for it. Definitely some fun times ahead.
- onlypassingthru 3mo agoThe US is on pace to run out of its strategic reserve in ~2 weeks.
- thunky 3mo agoI don't think that's true, but if it is then Iran would be foolish to make a deal right now.
- drnick1 3mo agoIran has no choice but to make a deal, if they don't want their country turned into a parking lot. With complete air superiority, taking their power plants and a few bridges would lead to complete economic collapse as seen in Cuba.
- orwin 3mo agoLet's try to not glorify terrorism too much and still pretend the west do not target civilians and civilian infrastructure please. Remember, the pesky Arabs are the one who target civilians, that's why they are terrorists. We only occasionally target civilians, and when it happens, it's because they are evil and support an evil man, so we aren't.
- netsharc 3mo agoObligatory "Are we the baddies?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToKcmnrE5oY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToKcmnrE5oY for those who don't know this meme (the Dawkins definition of meme)
- bormaj 3mo agoSlightly off-topic, but can anyone comment on the quality of the EV charging infrastructure in the EU? Outside of owning an EV and charging it at home/work, are fast chargers reliable and abundant enough for road trips? I recently looked into renting an EV in Spain and instead opted for gas. It seems like the public charging infrastructure is just not all that reliable there (e.g. broken chargers + delivering less power than advertised) and fragmented when it comes to paying across many apps. Maybe this is specific to Spain after all.
- haizhung 3mo agoHave an EV in Germany, charging is a non-issue. The stations are everywhere to the point that it’s easier to get a parking spot with an EV than without.
- Symbiote 3mo agoFriends and colleagues here in Denmark have no problems with summer trips to Italy etc, but I haven't tried a long trip like this myself in an EV.
- NoLinkToMe 3mo agoNetherlands here, it's great. Idk about Spain.
- Benedicht 3mo agoMy brother-in-law doing trips between England and Hungary with an EV.
- dualvariable 3mo agoAnd all the American automakers pivoting away from EVs are just going to concede the world market to China.