Changing times

Originally posted by StephenH Then I would be able to purchase one of those ICE vehicles and the taxes would not be that high either.

We are all readily able to come up with justifications for either continuing to do what we are doing or for changing. Humans are very very good at that.

So as always it boils down to what motivates one personally. These motivations are either helped or hindered by policy/incentives. Having worked in renewable energy for my whole career energy generation, transmission, and use is an area I both understand well and am passionate about. Others are indifferent or actively oppose changes. I'm not passing judgement on what's right or wrong here.

In the case of EVs however as I said before that particular ship appears to have sailed. There is a whole global economy in the midst of changing and the US is not leadng the charge. Asia and Europe are.

Sadly we as a country no longer appear to be able to align ourselves in the same direction (whatever that direction may be) as we used to be able to do. What might change that I don't know.

As for park congestion and deferred maintenance, that is the inevitable result of global population growth combined with a massive increase in affluence.

It is the same with pretty much all of our environmental resources, CO2 buildup, fresh water, fertile land, forests, fisheries, you name it.

In most of these areas humans are now depleting resources 3 or more times faster that they are getting regenerated. Obviously that is not sustainable, but, being humans, we are not well equipped to make the needed changes (some combination of more efficient use, reduced affluence, an/or reduced population) to try to solve these problems. So it will be solved for us at some point. Simple as that.

In the meantime expect parks to become yet more crowded and degraded. Placing more emphasis on visits to the less popular destinations helps spread out the demand. Leave the high season visits to the Yosemites, Yellowstones, and Smokies to others it's still possible to have a great experience at less popular destinations, many of them National Forest, state or local.

Then I would be able to purchase one of those ICE vehicles and the taxes would not be that high either.

StephenH touched a problem that many of us face.  Lots of us are retired and our vehicle purchase options are limited.  I'd love to go out and buy one of the Ford EV -f-150's, but I'll be driving my Ecoboost until I stop towing a trailer because the purchase of a new $50K+ vehicle is simply not possible on my retirement income.  The same applies to our 2015 Mazda CX-5, I'm hoping it'll last until I'm no longer able to drive because I can't afford to replace it with an EV.   As Woody Guthrie once observed, it all boils down to: "if you ain't got the do re mi."

People worried about range and charge times are not (yet) fully cognizant that you just don't drive and "fill up" an EV like you may have had to with an ICE vehicle. First you need to realize that you will never go to a gas station again. You will never change the oil or filters again. All of the people I know with an EV rarely use a "charging station", as they can fill up other places as part of their usual routine. They charge at home, they charge at the grocery store, they charge at work. Generally, charging happens when you're doing other things and you don't have to carve out time to do it.

I think that is a non-starter for any light-weight trailer. It would also likely bring the cost of a trailer up to the cost of a motor home. It compounds the charging problem as then not only the tow vehicle would need to be charged, but the trailer's battery would need to be charged also. How long would that take? I think anyone in line to charge behind such a rig would be very unhappy.