Jump forward a bunch of years. Cities continue to get bigger and even more people need to get around. Uber/Lyft-like services have evolved and are more efficient and better than ever. Full autonomy has also been realized - there are no human drivers in the city. Autonomous vehicles of all sizes are dashing around and providing awesome, cost-effective, on-demand transportation throughout the city.
Question: who owns all of these autonomous vehicles?
As I’ve written about before, the carbon intensity of electric automobiles is totally dependent on the source of electricity you use. They can be a huge win, a marginal win, or in some cases, a net loss compared to internal combustion and hybrid vehicles. Claims that electric vehicles are, in general, “emissions free” are so obviously wrong that you have to doubt the motives and trustworthiness of the claimant.
Enter the EPA who, rightly, asserts that we have to modify our vehicle efficiency rating system, and has proposed a new standard for 2012 (link the proposed standard and to a WSJ article on the topic).