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Originally Posted by BuckeyeROC
Is it really a gamble at all when govt regs will all but mandate EV's? Hell, if I'm high up at GM right now, I'd want to lobby politicians to force EV's as soon as possible. If you think you have the lead on the tech, forcing the public to buy it is about as good of a plan to make money as it gets. Even if you don't lead, forcing obsolescence through regulation is a gold mine.
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The issue is everyone keeps using the word "forced".
No one is, as of now, being forced to buy an EV. Yes, California has lined up and said no NEW vehicles can be ICE after 2035 I believe. But even then, guess what? You can leave California (and not move to the other CARB following states). At least for now.
But in the end, this will not cause any concerns for 98% of buyers or users of automotive transportation. I say users as obviously there is a side play that won't be forced that would simply have automated conveyances that will move you from point a to point b with no ownership required. And yes, EVs make that a much better proposition simply for reliability improvements in the powertrain.
So as long as it remains technical conversation, this is fun. But there is a lot of pent up anger over this clearly.
So to be clear, you are not being forced to do anything you don't want. It just might be a bit more inconvenient for you and you may have to move to enjoy your freedom of purchasing an ICE but that isn't being forced.
The longer term threat, and likely beyond my driving on my own, is when there are so few ICEs on the road that getting gasoline or diesel becomes the same concern everyone is expressing about EV charging today. With well over 200,000,000 cars and trucks on the road today, even with 100% EVs, that number is still 100,000,000 ICE vehicles on the road in 6 years. And clearly we aren't at 100% EVs for all of NA production and sales.
And if I recall correctly, CARB has only mandated NEW vehicle sales be EV. They aren't preventing you from buying or selling an ICE or driving even driving one.
This is a longggg way off.
And even if they made it illegal to drive an ICE, there isn't production capacity to even make that happen.
You may not have a Camaro, but you can have an ICE for quite some time if that's what you need/want.