To the editor: I agree with the motive force who says he’s bummed when his hybrid’s fuel engine kicks in (“Hybrid gross sales surge as automakers recalibrate electrification methods,” Dec. 29). No kidding. In case your youngster had bronchial asthma, would you need them to face subsequent to that tailpipe?
Gasoline is the issue. And the issue with this text is that it frames hybrids as a optimistic step that can “transfer the needle” within the transition to completely electrical autos. Positive, perhaps twenty years in the past! However no, the transfer towards hybrids is a huge step backward, due to President Trump and the fossil gas business that reportedly spent lots of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} to assist his marketing campaign.
Electrical autos have been obtainable to mainstream consumers since a minimum of 2011. At this time, they boast an common vary of round 250-300 miles and value roughly the identical as fuel guzzlers, but are less expensive to gas and keep: no oil modifications, smog checks or different conventional tune-ups required.
We should race to scale back climate-warming emissions, not backtrack. And firms like Toyota, blurring the strains with phrases like “electrification” after they’re nonetheless referring to vehicles with tailpipes, needs to be ashamed. That’s lethal obfuscation.
Zan Dubin, Santa Monica
This author is a former Los Angeles Occasions staffer and co-founder of Nationwide Drive Electrical Month.
