Europe has survived 3 energy shocks in 4 years. The only way out is to stop buying power from its enemies | Fortune
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Oil above $100. Gas prices up 70%. Every crisis has a different trigger—and the same vulnerability. Europe must become the world's first Electro-Continent.
  • eutampieri@feddit.itEnglish
    1·
    4 days ago

    Have you considered the Dacia Spring? It should be fine for short-medium range trips and it costs “only” 20k

    • qevlarr@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      3 days ago

      I own a Dacia, I want a cheap car with no luxury. But but the Spring is just a bad car. Poor charging, poor range, can’t accelerate at highway speed. Those are not luxuries. It was the first electric car at this price range, but now there are better competitors.

      • kurcatovium@piefed.socialEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        Yeah, it’s gimped too much. Especially the first generation with weaker motor feels barely like shopping bag on wheels… It could work for work/school commute for me, but apart from that? Visiting parents in different region? No. Weekend family trip? No. And honestly I don’t want to spend that much on something I can’t use for more purposes than just daily commute.

    • skarn@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      11·
      4 days ago

      To me a car like that kinda defeats the point of owning a car.

      If it’s only needed for driving around town and getting groceries, I can do that with (e-?)bike+transit+carsharing.

      A significant fraction of my yearly km are driven on trip of over 500km/day, and to do that with the family it really helps to have a car. It’ll still be a while before electric cars are completely viable for my use case.

      Replacing the short range use of cars with electrical ones is the wrong approach. It should mostly be reduced by offering alternatives. If people use the car only half as much, that’s a nearly 50% reduction on emission and fuel consumption, right there.

      • qevlarr@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        3 days ago

        Wouldn’t you do it the other way around, where the car you own is for commuting and kids taxi, and you use a car rental or sharing service for the long trips?

        • skarn@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
          2·
          3 days ago

          We have bought the smallest car that would satisfy all our needs (a small station wagon), and we use it as necessary.

          My commute is outrageous BTW, 50+50km, at highway speed and with airco, that might already be a stretch for the Dacia Spring. I do it mostly by train though.

          I would have thought that:

          “Reducing car use is better than just replacing them. Cars cover a lot of difficult corner cases, but let’s offer good alternatives for the day to day life”

          should be a pretty uncontroversial take, and yet I’m here discussing with people that want to use cars everyday, and cover the exceptions with the alternatives.

      • Renohren@lemmy.todayEnglish
        1·
        3 days ago

        For over 500km/day, I use the train. Not many people put on 115 500 km/year on their car. You are an exception.

        • skarn@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
          1·
          3 days ago

          Easy there, we do ~15000 km/year, but ~4000 of those are on long trips. That’s “a significant fraction”. I didn’t say I spend all day every day in the car.

          There are many logistical reasons why we still need one car, but we are actually also able to walk, bike, and use transit.

          And I expect I spend more time on a train that you do. But it’s not always the most practical option.

          Crossing the alps on a train means too many changes, with trains from different companies, and my bored kids (depends on the origin and destination, but it’s true in my case). Even using the plane, with all the associated changes and buffer times, usually takes 6 or 7 hours.

          Holidays in the mountains also gets a hell of a lot harder without a car. That’s true in general, but it’s doubly so in the places where I like to go (less crowded secondary destinations). Public transport requires density, and the last thing I want in the mountains is high density.

          Edit:

          As I wrote in another message, I would have thought that:

          “Reducing car use is better than just replacing them. Cars cover a lot of difficult corner cases, but let’s offer good alternatives for the day to day life”

          should be a pretty uncontroversial take, and yet I’m here discussing with people that want to use cars everyday, and cover the exceptions with the alternatives.

      • eutampieri@feddit.itEnglish
        2·
        4 days ago

        I agree with you, and I get around town mostly on bike. Many people don’t, and I think it would be better if they drove EVs. Anyway, if I’d need to buy a car, I would still consider the Spring, since its range would be fine for heavy loads that I wouldn’t carry on a (cargo) bike or 100-200 km trips