Some electric ferry pioneers

[john61ct]

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-50233206

[misfits]

I belong to a FB Electric Boat Group, this is happening bigtime all across Europe. Gotta hand it to the folks in Europe, they always seem to be ahead of the curve when it comes to energy efficiency.

[john61ct]

Yes government policy (sticks) and subsidies (carrots) have driven almost all of mankind's big technical innovations.

Free market left to its own devices is usually too timid.

But then a lot of technology has not in fact been of net benefit to humanity as a whole, so maybe in that case less is better 8-)

[Woodland Hills]

Europe is way behind the curve on EVs, they hitched their cart to diesel and had to lie to regulators and the public to meet emission standards, then wound up poisoning the public with gross polluters. Look at the new Porsche Taycan: more expensive than a Tesla but only 1/2 the range.
The only reason people think they led in efficiency is that taxes, high fuel prices and narrow city streets encouraged small cars which are inherently more efficient than big ones.

[misfits]

Maybe they are behind the curve on EV's but when it comes to heating equipment including solid fuel they were way ahead of the curve due to high fuel prices & emission standards. It took the U.S. close to 15 years to adopt many of the advances. But when you have cheap energy....

Hopefully the EV advances will seriously move forward.

[Woodland Hills]

Originally Posted by misfits

Maybe they are behind the curve on EV's but when it comes to heating equipment including solid fuel they were way ahead of the curve due to high fuel prices & emission standards. It took the U.S. close to 15 years to adopt many of the advances. But when you have cheap energy....

Hopefully the EV advances will seriously move forward.

What good are high emission standards when the companies have no ethics and just cheat? Can you be certain they aren’t cheating on the solid fuel standards too? How can you trust them anymore? If Robert Bosch GMBH is involved I’d be very suspicious.