What kind of data do you want? For example more then half of all cars sold in Norway right now is electric. A fact that wouldn't be the case if Tesla wouldn't exist. Every yeah the market share of electric vehicles is increasing with projections that almost no gasoline vehicle will be driven in 2050 in west EU.
You just have to look at the pandemic to see what difference no combustion engine cars would make for the world. Cities that were covered in smog suddenly had clean air because of the stay at home directive.
None of that is direct evidence that Tesla's movement of "electric vehicles to the mainstream" has "significantly reduced" climate change. Yes, 50% of all cars sold in Norway are electric. Yes, EV market share is increasing. Yes, emissions decreased in major metropolitan areas at the onset of the pandemic.
Despite all of that, climate change itself has not been "significantly reduced" in any way, nor has there been any evidence that increased adoption of EVs has slowed down or altered climate change's progression.
internal combustion engine cars create 7% of the worlds CO2 emissions. That's highly significant. Electric cars will reduce that to near 0%. A fact we have to give Tesla massive credit for. 7% is country level huge.
I don't disagree with those numbers, but I still don't understand how they bolster the assertion that, "the chance we get into serious trouble due to climate change is significantly reduced". Just because something could happen doesn't mean that it will happen, or if it does, that it will happen when we need it to or that it will even be enough.
Two years ago we needed to start reducing emissions by 4% every year. We didn't. We must now reach a whopping 50% emissions reduction by 2030 to limit temperature increases to 1.5C, because the current path we are on could increase temperatures by 4.4C by 2100.
Getting every nation to ditch their ICE vehicles has to happen, yes, but it's not that simple. You can't just ban the sale of new ICE vehicles and expect that 7% to drop to 0%, because everyone who already owns an ICE vehicle is going to keep driving it until they've decided they're done with it for whatever reason. So, the only way to get to 0% ICE vehicles by 2030 would be to make it illegal to operate one - today.
Politics is involved. Getting large swaths of America (or anyone in any nation with an affinity for an ICE vehicle, but this subset of folk is a great example) to give up their gasoline and their trucks and their mustangs is like asking someone to stop breathing. Asking developing nations with little money or ability to modify their infrastructure to support only ICE vehicles over the next eight years is an outstandingly daunting task. I could go on and on, and while I admire your hopefulness, what you're saying requires the entire world to accomplish the same goal in a far shorter amount of time than we actually have.
I want to view the future through rose-colored glasses. I want to have high hopes that EVs will save us.
7% is HUGE. Like country level huge. Besides Teslas impact is not only the EV they have sold. They made EVs popular and desirable. Electric vehicles are definitely mainstream. In my country(Netherlands) 20% of all vehicles sold are electric. In Norway it's more then 50%. You really can't get more mainstream then that.
4. Tesla was able to make EVs profitably thanks to government policy designed to incentivize exactly that outcome. If Tesla didn’t exist, some other company would’ve filled that role.
