Serious question, are electric SUVs really helping or just greenwashing?

Last week I saw a guy in Denver driving a massive electric Hummer to pick up his kid from school, which is like a block away. Can we call it climate action when the battery alone weighs more than a Honda Civic, or are we just fooling ourselves with the label?

3 comments

3 Comments

susan_wright341mo ago

Heard about this from my friend who lives out in Arizona and saw a guy at a charging station with a Cadillac Escalade EV. Said the guy was bragging about how it was saving the planet while the thing was practically taking up two spots. Makes you wonder if these huge electric vehicles are really just making people feel better about driving a tank with a plug. Sure they're electric but they're still guzzling resources to make and charge. Doesn't feel like much of a win to me.

ryantorres1mo ago

4000 lbs of lithium for a car that parks like it's a lifted Ford Raptor

craig.john1mo ago

Read an article recently that pointed out the bigger these EVs get, the less the environmental benefit actually is. The Hummer EV weighs about 9,000 pounds, so the mining and manufacturing footprint is massive. @ryantorres is right about that battery weight. You're essentially swapping a gas tank for a giant battery and calling it a day. Someone I know works at a dealership and says they're selling a ton of electric trucks to people who never haul anything. Feels more like a status symbol than a real step forward.