Sure, it’s not easy changing our outlook on the environment, but we really have no choice
The Spanish government’s announcement this week that it intends to ban manufacture and sale of all internal combustion powered vehicles from 2040 has triggered debate in Spain, highlighting the difficulties in changing long-held assumptions.
Setting 2040 puts Spain ahead of the US government and many others that have not even begun to discuss such a ban, but behind Germany, Austria, Korea, Denmark, Ireland, Israel, the Netherlands and Norway, which set dates from between 2020 and 2030. The many critics of the measure are unable to imagine 32 million electric vehicles in circulation, and much less, for them to be recharged each night. Let’s put things in perspective: firstly, the idea is not to replace the current fleet with electric vehicles, a move that wouldn’t solve the main problems we face, and secondly, because not every single electric vehicle would need to be fully recharged every single night.
As said, the goal is not to replace the same number of vehicles with electric ones: while we may have cleaner air, such a move would simply recreate the same traffic problems. We have to completely rethink the concept of car ownership and start seeing cars as a service. Within a decade, city dwellers will have access to a huge range of transportation options, among them…
