The country likely hit peak sales of gas-burning cars in 2017. The next two years saw car sales decline, then plummet after Covid. Except EVs. They’re the only growth market in the automobile sales world. Lots of reports suggest EVs will overtake gas car sales entirely by the 2030s, and that by the 2040s, the vast majority of cars on the road will be EVs.
And, for us avid outdoor recreationists, EVs have entered the picture as viable alternatives for adventure vehicles with the release of Rivians, the new Ford Lightning F-150, the new VW ID.Buzz, the Hummer, and lots more. But many critics of EVs point to the heavy environmental footprint building them leaves behind—trucks most of all. Sure, they’re zero emissions once built, but these unfathomably heavy vehicles are far from efficient and making them consumes hideous amounts of energy.
The folks at Drive put together a pretty well-researched article looking into how EV trucks match up against their gas-burning cousins. How long would you have to drive a Rivian, for example, as compared to a Ram 1500 say, before the zero-emission Rivian overtakes the Ram in terms of overall carbon output?
The lesson you’re left with after reading the piece is if you wanna run out an buy a Rivian to save some carbon emissions, you might do just as well finding a gas-burning Toyota Corolla wagon or something, and making that your adventure rig—for now.
Read the whole thing, right here.
