Sounds like someone in the German government has a lot of money invested in the EV industry then, eh?
I constantly hear about Germany forcing private industry to change. It sounds like absolute hell to live there. If there's a demand for EV charging and gas stations don't adapt, they'll simply go bankrupt and be replaced by a newer, more forward-focused fuel company. Regulation is necessary, but an industry shouldn't be forced by government to adopt specific products, the industry should perform market research, determine demand, and then decide to put out a product or not.
EV demand is held back by charging infrastructure. And we can’t keep letting the market decide when it does not account for climate change.
And it’s not exactly “hell” to live in Germany. In fact, I don’t know why gas stations being forced to install EV chargers would affect life quality at all.
Given the prominence of GHGs as the source for climate change, we won't free-market our way to a solution. Things have to change drastically, and rapidly, and regulation is probably the only reasonable avenue for making that happen in time. And more to the point: we need a lot of coordinated regulation across industries, multi-nationals, and countries to baseline our efforts. Almost all our GHGs come from fossil fuels, food and transportation industries. These stretch beyond borders, and we don't yet have enough momentum to stave off irreversible damages, tipping points, and unacceptable human suffering.
And for every reminder from someone that "fossil fuels are convenient", I'll respond with "regulations are powerful".
I constantly hear about Germany forcing private industry to change. It sounds like absolute hell to live there. If there's a demand for EV charging and gas stations don't adapt, they'll simply go bankrupt and be replaced by a newer, more forward-focused fuel company. Regulation is necessary, but an industry shouldn't be forced by government to adopt specific products, the industry should perform market research, determine demand, and then decide to put out a product or not.