If electric cars didn't have an environmental cost to manufacture, sure, yet they surely do have that cost.
Well thank goodness internal combustion engine cars don't have an environmental cost.
Where did I imply that?
I am talking about replacing existing cars with new ones and the environmental cost of that.
So replacing existing inefficient cars which run on fossil fuels with far more efficient vehicles is a fool's errand?
You are begging the question. What makes the current vehicles "inefficient"? What makes the new ones "far more efficient"? What percentage of the electricity in the US is generated from fossil fuels? (
60%). How have you calculated the cost of the mining of rare earth elements in? What will happen to the fleet of vehicles that the postal office will be replacing? Are they going to be junked or put on the market to be driven by other people?
Cars have to be replaced eventually, of course. But replacing functioning cars and trucks according to a set timetable instead of as needed does not seem environmentally sound to me.
You seem to be arguing that cars do not have to replaced so long as they are functioning.
A 1974 Plymouth that produces 85 hp and gets 12 miles to the gallon is - apparently - just as good as a 2022 Kia that generates 200 hp and burns no fuel.
Burns no fuel? The Kia doesn't obey the laws of physics?
I am asking for a holistic appraisal for the replacement of vehicles - and indeed most durable goods.
So long as the former is "functioning," replacing it with the latter is not environmentally sound.
You keep saying 'functioning' as if it were a strange word. What is strange about it? Are you making the opposite claim? That any improvement in mileage or efficiency justifies immediate replacement? I can't think you are, so you must agree that at some point a replacement is 'worth it', and at other points, no, it would not be worth it.
Cars have to be replaced eventually, but according to you they must only be replaced only when the wheezing rust-buckets are finally unable to get to the end of the driveway, and at that reluctantly. Your Ford Cortina is every bit as good as a Toyota Yaris, and we need to stop the progress of these "efficient" vehicles lest we lose some part of our past?
You appear to have a strange prejudice and preconception of me as some kind of vintage muscle-car revhead. You could not be further from reality.