Hey, Your Top Automobile News for February 04, 2021

Your Daily Automobile updates From Around The World [img] Sponsored Content [img]( [The Automobile News]( [Four Reasons to Hold Your Applause For Automakers’ Big EV Promises]( Credits: usa.streetsblog.org General Motors made waves when it announced last week that it would aim to manufacture only electric vehicles by 2035 — but advocates are skeptical that the move will have much of a climate impact without a slate of accompanying policy changes. On its surface, the news that the automaker behind many of our roadways’ most notorious environmental nightmares seems like a big shift. But the path that the United States’ largest car company (and its peers, should they follow suit) will need to take to net zero emissions will almost certainly be slow — drawing the public and policy focus from the quick carbon-cuttingsolutions that experts say we need most urgently right now. Here are four reminders about why EVs are a harm reduction strategy rather than a real cure for our climate crisis — and why G.M., in particular, doesn’t deserve a standing ovation just yet. 1. Offering EVs allows automakers to sell more gas guzzlers Even if every automaker introduced a range of electric vehicles to dealerships tomorrow, it might not make our total vehicle fleet any greener. That’s because car makers can complement those green new offerings by producing more gas-guzzlers — just like they’ve done for deacdes. Many consumer don’t realize that the U.S. regulates its greenhouse gas emissions on the basis of an automaker’s average fuel efficiency across its entire catalog, rather than setting hard caps on the allowable emissions for individual automobile models. In practice, that means that every electric vehicle that GM introduces will give it a little more room to release a high-polluting vehicle that could erase the climate gains of the brand’s “green” offerings — and if last year’s record-setting truck and SUV sales are any indication, consumers are far more likely to go for the gas-guzzler. Put another way: the ostensibly net-zero electric Hummer could give GM legal license to sell an even dirtier original-recipe Hummer for the next 14 years if it wanted to. If you look at the entire auto industry, that doomsday scenario isn’t just theoretical. Researchers have already found small increases in fleet-average emissions thanks to the way we structure our emissions standards — and if EVs had never entered the mix, under our current messed-up rules, our net emissions would actually be lower than they are today. Biden has already committed to restoring the tougher Obama-era fuel rules that then-President Trump rolled back. But environmental researcher John DeCicco noted in the Conversation that General Motors has been “notably silent” on strengthening those standards, which could signal that it probably won’t pump the brakes on its biggest gas guzzlers right away as it crawls towards becoming a fully electric brand. “Adopting clean-car standards that grow progressively more stringent each year and require automakers to cut CO2 emissions from all the vehicles they sell would ensure that technological promises translate to actual emission reductions,” DeCicco wrote. So would investing in non-driving modes. 2. There will still be a lot of gas-powered cars on the road Praising an automaker for giving consumers an electric option is one thing. But actually getting drivers to trade in cars that run on fossil fuels is another — and even the most enthusiastic proponents of EVs recognize that there’s no way we can decarbonize driving fast enough to curb climate change while still putting the same number of vehicle miles on our roads. The most recent Long Term Electric Vehicle Outlook report projected that five years after GM electrifies its entire fleet, a respectable 58 percent of new cars sold will run on grid power, assuming that EVs cost about the same as gas-powered cars by 2030 worldwide, and 2022 in Europe. But even in that arguably optimistic scenario, 69 percent of the vehicle fleet would still be made up of older, gas-powered cars — and they’ll still be driven for more miles than clean vehicles. And even that 58 percent doesn’t sound quite so respectable when you consider that a recent study found that EVs would need to represent 90 percent of the U.S. vehicle fleet by 2050 in order to meet our national transportation emissions goals, if we keep driving as much as we do right now. Researchers noted that absent a massive, global, and near-compulsory cash-for-clunkers program the likes of which the world has never seen, that would be pretty much impossible, and emphasized that shifting away from driving and to greener modes is a climate must. 3. We have almost nowhere to charge EVs — and not enough clean energy to fuel them Electric vehicles have struggled to get a foothold in the U.S. partly because owners struggle to find places to plug them in. At last count, there were only 28,o00 charging stations in the entire country, and about three times as many charging outlets — but a third of them were in the state of California alone. The state of North Dakota had only 36. In addition, a good chunk of chargers are only usable by customers of Tesla, which has developed a proprietary “supercharging” technology. Biden has vowed to build 500,000 new charging stations by 2030, but there are few details available about how his administration will accomplish that feat. To date, most chargers have been installed by a hodgepodge of municipalities, private companies, and EV owners themselves; there is no single government body responsible for standardizing the new technology, or making thoughtful plans about how stations should be distributed throughout our communities. [Read more]( The post [Four Reasons to Hold Your Applause For Automakers’ Big EV Promises]( appeared first on [TheAutomobileNews.com](. [Read Full Story]( [This Modified Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 Gets An Edgy Makeover]( Credits: www.gaadiwaadi.com Check out this customised RE Interceptor 650, built by EIMOR Customs, which looks sharp, stealthy, and beautiful Back in November 2018, Royal Enfield launched the Interceptor 650 and Continental GT650 in the Indian market. The ’650 Twins’, as they are commonly known, managed to garner a lot of popularity among Indian motorcycle enthusiasts, owing to their brilliant price-to-performance ratio. As with other Royal Enfield motorcycles, modified examples of the RE 650 twins can be found everywhere, on the streets as well as online. Here, have a custom-built RE Interceptor 650, affectionately named ‘DCPTR’ (stylised version of Deceptor), which has been built by EIMOR customs. The motorcycle sports plenty of changes, which we shall list here. At the front, we see a new, sharp-looking LED headlamp along with a single-pod digital instrument cluster. The handlebar and switchgear seem stock, but aftermarket rear-view mirrors have been added here. The front fender is short and sporty-looking, and the bike also gets a custom bash plate and engine guard. On the latter, two auxiliary LED lamps have been mounted on both sides. The centre panels have been replaced by custom two-piece units. The tail section has been chopped short, and a custom fender has been added. The motorcycle also sports a new taillight and pillion grab rail. The new seat is thickly padded and looks huge, although the pillion section is quite short. The entire bike has been painted black, including the engine and exhaust. On the tank, we see silver pinstripes and custom aluminium insignia. There are silver pinstripes on the centre panels as well, along with a faint ‘#1’ sign. The wheels are stock wire-spoke units, but have been blacked-out and are shod with ribbed balloon tyres. The exhaust system gets new, shorter end cans. On the tail, ‘DCPTR’ lettering can be seen on both sides, which completes the look. Overall, the bike looks extremely edgy and sharp, and we love it! No changes have been reported to the powertrain of the motorcycle. [Read more]( The post [This Modified Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 Gets An Edgy Makeover]( appeared first on [TheAutomobileNews.com](. [Read Full Story]( ------------------ Sponsored Content                                                                                                                   ------------------ Connect with TheAutomobileNews on Facebook and Twitter [fb](  [tw]( ------------------ You received this email because you operate or create content for a website/service and based on your website it seemed like this could be important information to you and your users. TheAutomobileNews daily newsletter is managed by Postbox Consultancy Services Pvt. Ltd. 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