Alright, so you guys think it's worth waiting at the expense of emitting more carbon emissions from my GTI for the next couple of years?
I would say your statements are designed to exhibit highly emotional responses from people. I would say a large number of folks here understand that the claims of EV's emitting less carbon are dubious at best. Your VW dumps very little pollution into the air comparably, ICE engines have gotten very efficient and clean over the years. Unless you are planning on a large solar install, or something to charge it with, if you are actually trying to "save the planet", I'd stick with the VW you already own. The additional environmental impact of creating a new vehicle vs burning petrol in one that has already been created is likely to be a wash. One would assume you will be selling your old car so someone else can emit carbon with it, rather than taking it to a junkyard to be crushed for scrap. I could be wrong.
As I type this my 2020 Niro EV is charging from my solar array / power plant that runs my house. I did this to prove I could, and because I could afford both the car and the solar equipment, and I think the technology has long term benefit for the world, not to try and be "green". I would suggest you turn off tik-tok,twitter, and the news stations, and take a walk in the park. When you get back home take some time and do some real research on the effect of CO2 on plants, those annoying things that grow and provide food for the world. Water World was a Hollywood movie, if you separate the fear being spread with media propaganda, and the hysteria of "Social Media" from reality you can make a more informed decision that may actually have a realistic impact on the environment if that is truly what you care about. And don't surround yourself with a blanket of being a good person because you want to buy an EV and save the planet. As someone who was alive long before the Great Lakes caught on fire, I would say we have made some stunning REAL environmental improvements in the last 60 years. We need to make sure we keep a balance, and prevent 'superfund' style catastrophe's, you know, like having discarded transformers leak PCB's into the ground and groundwater requiring millions of dollars of cleanup effort.
Long term EV's are likely to take over a larger and larger portion of the worldwide vehicle fleet, as the technology improves. They are far from optimal for many workloads, for example making your routine 180+ mile roundtrips will may have charging challenges depending on your available infrastructure at home. Charging an EV away from home, is generally more expensive than buying fuel for a reasonably efficient ICE/hybrid. Further if you are charging in the middle of the day commercially, it is likely your are using demand electricity generated by natural gas or coal. Charging from home with solar means your car must actually be at home when the sun is shining during the day. The Hyundia Sonata PHEV I had would do 27 miles on a charge and another 500+ in Hybrid mode with 14 gallons of fuel. It was a very Luxurious comfortable vehicle, that got over 45 mpg. If you really just want to get a new car a nice hybrid that pushes 50+mpg would probably be a better choice at the moment both environmentally and from a hassle perspective. If you treat your ICE vehicle well and take it in and actually do the routine maintenance these days and times they truly will last a very, very long time with minimal fuss, and minimal environmental impact.
OTOH if you have, say, a Nuke plant nearby live in a single family home, and have good off-peak electricity rates (Which I actually have here) an EV with a ~250 mile range might be a choice, as long as you keep in mind rain, wind, and cold have serious negative impacts on range, and you may need to sit at a commercial charging station from time to time. General maintenance is also somewhat lower with an EV, there are trade-offs. If you have home access to inexpensive charging, and your commutes are fairly short an EV is a pretty big win. If you don't have home access to charging I would not recommend and EV. It's going to be frustrating and you likely will not be happy with it.
