Look, I'm super bullish on EVs and can't wait to see the full conversion to EV, but there is zero possibility that we could shift to only selling EVs within three years.

In 2021 there were 1.66 million new car sales. That's with issues related to COVID-19 and the chip shortage. The high sales point was 2019 with almost 2 million new car sales. Of 2021 sales, approximately 75,000 of them were EVs.

So to fully convert to EVs we would need to find the capacity to make, sell, and charge around 1.9 million EVs, or roughly 20x our current capacity. In three years.

Car manufacturing is definitely a meaningful part of the Ontario economy.

I suspect the 2035 date is just realism. It's just not practical to have ALL new cars be EVs on a timeline much faster than that.

And conversely, causing the death of the ICE industry. What do people think will happen to gas stations when only 10% of cars on the road burn gas? You certainly aren't going to find one on every street corner. Once we hit a certain level of critical mass for EVs we're going to see pretty rapid adoption. More EVs = fewer gas stations = harder to get gas = more incentive to have an EV = more EVs = repeat the cycle.

Sprinklers would like a word.

The library system for my city of ~500,000 residents did this. It has not been the death of libraries. The librarians I know are supportive. Libraries are essential public services for some people. The harm that fines do by excluding poor people from the library system very much outweighs the benefits of fines.

I've upgraded to USB-C as products have broken or become obsolete; I haven't deliberately trashed anything just to get USB-C. Hence why I still have a Kindle 3 as my hold-out item -- it works fine and is in no way obsolete for its needed purpose. I guess technically I also still have a DSLR that has mini-USB on it, but I don't ever use that USB port because card readers are much better for transferring images.

I dunno, I've seen a lot of broken Lightning cables. But even if we accept that Lightning is the be-all-and-end-all of cable connectors, Apple sealed its fate by making it exclusive. Given the choice between the "perfect" connector and the connector that is good enough and works across all my devices, I'll take the latter.

Wut? Pretty much all the devices in my house are now USB-C. The only exceptions are my Kindle 3--which is now 15 years old and will get replaced whenever it finally breaks (if ever)--and my camping head lamp, which does not yet come in a USB-C version. Of all my devices, literally the only thing that doesn't work is using my Nintendo Switch charger for other devices. But you know what? Other chargers work on the Nintendo Switch, so I've thrown out the Switch charger and have zero compatibility issues.

Given the number of $75k trucks I see on the road it always surprises me when people wring their hands over a $45k EV.

Solar thermal no longer makes sense. PV prices have dropped to the point where it’s better to just use it to generate electricity heat water, inefficiencies and all. This is especially true once maintenance costs are included.

Honestly, at that price point this one is probably for adults (similar to the $500 Star Wars Lego sets). And that's okay.

Orrrr we could release the patent. A lot of these countries have domestic manufacturing capabilities; they're just not allowed to make the vaccine.

So welders won’t buy the electric version of the F150. Got it. Fine. But plumbers, carpenters, electricians, drywallers, glaziers, weekend warriors should have no problems with it.

I dunno, there are a lot of other major pieces of maintenance that you have on an ICE that you don't have on a BEV. I had to do the PCV system on my car (condenses and collects burnt gases) and that was a CA$750 DIY job or a CA$2,000 shop job. Had to replace my muffler at CA$450. Then there's things like timing belts, catalytic converters, and so on. That all adds up pretty quickly.

They do have plug-in hybrids. The Chevy Volt is an example. Problem is that you miss out on one of the biggest advantages of an EV, which is mechanical simplicity. Instead, you end up with a car that's MORE complex (with more to go wrong / more to maintain).