Ethiopia set to become first country to ban internal combustion cars
Ethiopia set to become first country to ban internal combustion cars
Ethiopia's Transport and Logistics Ministries have announced that automobiles cannot enter the country unless they are electric. (!)
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“Of course, I’m pro,” wrote one of the editors, “but I assume that Ethiopia probably doesn’t have a charging infrastructure ready … no matter how big of a EV fan I am, I can agree some markets are not ready for it just yet.”
So they did this without the charging infrastructure being ready. People need to think about if their part of the world is ready for EV. Before passing this type of law.
This is a weird piece to take from the article. An editor for the website who is not Ethiopian informally made the assumption that they don't have the infrastructure and you're saying it's a fact they're not ready for this.
Right before that it says; "(Minister) Sime further explained that efforts to establish charging stations for electric cars remain a high priority, and offered that the nation’s inability to access favorable foreign exchange resources has contributed to its inability to afford to continue importing gasoline and diesel."
So this sounds like it's more logistically viable than ice vehicles.
And the top comment on the article is someone from Ethiopia basically confirming that, and expanding upon it to say the country has been working towards full renewable energy for several decades. Why the pessimism?
155k registered motor vehicles in Ethiopia for a population of about 130 million. Is it really so unimaginable to you that a country may not be car-dependent?
and if they're smart they'll build out bike lanes and rail transit instead of multi-lane freeways. it's not like even American can afford that shit
Are scooters excluded from that count? I’m guessing scooters and motorcycles dominate the roads. Electrifying those are a little more challenging.
Getting cars off gas is a great start though.
Akschully, escooters and ebikes are still the most efficient and easiest to electrify.
And they charge quickly from any wall outlet, so not much additional infrastructure is required.
A single 400w solar panel will charge an ebike pretty fast.
The trade off from a 20 year old bike that gets 40+mpg doesn’t make sense.
Somewhat true in the short term. Also very appropriate to electro for an EV future.
It doesn’t even make sense in the long term, yet. If your 20 year bike can’t be fixed you don’t run out and buy a new EV, you buy a used gas bike because it’s dirt cheap and you don’t have the money to buy a new or used EV.
There’s different economics at play.
I have no idea what the specific requirements for vehicle registration are. I doubt this article is even true, frankly.
But electrifying smaller vehicles is much, much easier than electrifying large vehicles. The biggest cost center in an EV is the battery, and smaller vehicles need proportionally way less battery compared to large vehicles. An ebike that can go 20-30mph runs off of something not substantially different from a cordless tool battery -- a pack of cheap, commodity 18650s -- and otherwise functions off of totally standard, mechanically simple parts.
Does it matter? We are facing a climate catastrophe because of carbon emissions. Cars or no cars we need to stop.
Does it matter?
Yeah. If people can't buy or use EVs. What's the point?
The point is our planet is on a trajectory to not support human life. I would rather walk somewhere or bike than continue supporting the oil and gas industry. The stone age (which is usually people retort to this reply) is better than no humans at all.
People don't need to be able to buy cars. The vast majority can't anyways. So why should the second richest percent of Ethiopia be able to.