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kEiThZ said:
North Americans have a particularly weird blindspot on this. Unlike Europeans we don't see Chinese EVs on our roads, so we don't understand how far they've come.

It may take centuries to full get off oil and gas. But even a lot of conventional forecasters have prediction of peak oil demand inside 10 years (by 2035). Some, like Bloomberg, have it inside 2030. And if you travel enough, you'll understand why.
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I'm seeing that alot in Hungary at the moment. Alot of cars are electric here and everywhere you go there's electric scooters, bikes and bike lanes.

My cousin has a company van (he works doing repairs for a bearing company) which is 100% electric.

Yes you have diesel cars but there is a big shift to renewable energy here.

Mind you though.. North America is different. Major cities aren't 3 hours apart (Ottawa is a 5 hour drive from Toronto). In Europe, large cities and infrastructure are in place every 50 km or so.

There's a definite mindset in North America where gas vehicles are used to given distance. Once long range EVs come to fruition you will begin to see more of a transition. Right now EVs are good for putting around town but not driving the family to Algonquin.
 
Richard White said:
There's a definite mindset in North America where gas vehicles are used to given distance. Once long range EVs come to fruition you will begin to see more of a transition. Right now EVs are good for putting around town but not driving the family to Algonquin.
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What are you talking about? Most EVs sold today can easily make the 290km from Toronto to Algonquin with a full charge. It’s harder to find one that can’t these days. And to boot there are EV chargers at the park.

Every single car on AutoTrader’s cheapest EVs in Canada—with the exception of the obviously-not-a-long-distance-family-car Fiat 500e—can easily make the trip to the park. Some, like the Hyundai ioniq 6 can nearly make the trip and back. That’s getting very close to the equivalent to the best case scenario tank-range of the most fuel efficient car sold right now; the Mitsubishi Mirage ES.

 
Richard White said:
Mind you though.. North America is different. Major cities aren't 3 hours apart (Ottawa is a 5 hour drive from Toronto). In Europe, large cities and infrastructure are in place every 50 km or so.

There's a definite mindset in North America where gas vehicles are used to given distance. Once long range EVs come to fruition you will begin to see more of a transition. Right now EVs are good for putting around town but not driving the family to Algonquin.
Click to expand...

Not really that different. Ottawa to Toronto is 450 km. Plenty of EVs can and do that everyday. And not every family needs two cars capable of driving 450 km in one stretch.

What Europe does really well is charging networks. Mostly because they standardized on charging standards earlier. Now that we have NACS, you'll start to see a lot more development in North America.
 
I've said it before, but by far the most important thing for EV adoption is cheaper batteries with current ranges (400-600km), then more, as well reasonably priced, charging coverage, then faster charging. Larger batteries (longer ranges) don't really offer much benefit outside of really energy intensive applications like towing.
 
zang said:
What are you talking about? Most EVs sold today can easily make the 290km from Toronto to Algonquin with a full charge. It’s harder to find one that can’t these days. And to boot there are EV chargers at the park.

Every single car on AutoTrader’s cheapest EVs in Canada—with the exception of the obviously-not-a-long-distance-family-car Fiat 500e—can easily make the trip to the park. Some, like the Hyundai ioniq 6 can nearly make the trip and back. That’s getting very close to the equivalent to the best case scenario tank-range of the most fuel efficient car sold right now; the Mitsubishi Mirage ES.

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Don't forget.. an EV fully loaded with camping gear will have far less range than one which is not.
 
And ... here we go again. https://www.thestar.com/business/cu...cle_155caf91-e977-4370-b746-7c9948f90974.html
Screenshot 2025-07-11 at 10.56.30 AM.png
 
kEiThZ said:
The developing world is moving faster on renewables and electrification than the developed world in many cases. They don't have legacy industries to defend and legacy infrastructure as sunk costs. See China at 50% of car sales now having plugs. Thailand swapping their Tuk Tuks to electric. Or Pakistan's completely unplanned solar boom.

North Americans have a particularly weird blindspot on this. Unlike Europeans we don't see Chinese EVs on our roads, so we don't understand how far they've come.

It may take centuries to full get off oil and gas. But even a lot of conventional forecasters have prediction of peak oil demand inside 10 years (by 2035). Some, like Bloomberg, have it inside 2030. And if you travel enough, you'll understand why.

This is also why oilbros have a hard time getting industry onboard with an East bound oil pipeline. Gas? Definitely. Oil. Hard sell. Industry can see how fast Europe is electrifying. And they can see the Chinese happily selling solar panels and EVs to Africa and Latin America.
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This has happened before with telecoms (which is a well known story) but also with other things like banking (I've talked to newcomers who can't believe how old fashioned Canadian banks are and had never seen a cheque before they came to Canada). So it's not a smart bet to assume this won't happen with energy.

Also, most North Americans don't really understand what it's like to not have reliable access to electricity (and losing your power briefly after an intense storm doesn't count), and why cheap Chinese solar technology is so attractive for people in the developing world who would rather be self-reliant instead of relying on what are generally undercapitalized and incompetent utilities.
 
Richard White said:
Don't forget.. an EV fully loaded with camping gear will have far less range than one which is not.
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"Far less range"? Come on. 6-8% range reduction with 5 passengers and cargo:

evdances.com

Understanding the Impact of Vehicle Load on Electric Vehicle Range

Electric vehicles (EVs) are praised for their efficiency, low operating costs, and environmental benefits. However, like all vehicles, their energy consumption is influenced by external factors—one of the most critical being vehicle load. The weight carried by a vehicle, including passengers and...
evdances.com evdances.com
 
PinkLucy said:
If they think Canadian banks are old fashioned, they should go to the US
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These kinds of off-topic gratuitous attacks on the US are so tiresome. I don't get why people can't talk about Canada without triggering their superiority complex vs the US. Even in a thread about Canada.
 
It’s not a superiority complex or a gratuitous attack. It was a response to a comment about the Canadian banking system in comparison to Europe. I own property and live in the US for half of the year and am always surprised at the differences with things I take for granted in Canada when it comes to banking.
 
On banking, certain reforms that allow open banking and facilitate real-time payments are indeed within the bailiwick of the Government of Canada.

Canada is late to that party.

Most here, will have encountered the simple matter of paying a routine bill through your bank electronically. It looks (but is not) real-time if you do it on a weekday, during business hours. But try paying on a Saturday, and you'll get a note saying your payment will occur the next business day, (Monday, assuming its not a holiday).

That is well and truly antiquated at this point.

There are a host of other related matters including those for peer to peer transfers and even the way stock trades are managed that not where they ought to be.

****

It is true that U.S. retail banking has been further behind, particularly in the use of Chip Cards and flash / contactless payment.

But as with all other matters, its important that we as a country compare ourselves to our peer group as a whole, and to world leaders, not laggards on any given file.

We should aim to be the best or among the best, not 'good enough'.
 
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