Peter I am not that different in opinion as you may think. I think you stepped into this article with a particular bias. When you have decided what a writer thinks before reading what they write one has tendency to conform biases.

You may want to read this article where I criticize the technology focused solutions of Elon Musk, and where I champion solutions with a more political focus: https://medium.com/star-gazers/steve-jobs-elon-musk-and-utopia-71ee2feccdad

After all I am a social democrat. With that comes a belief in the ability of society to organize itself in better ways. I have done a lot of articles criticizing car oriented socities: https://erik-engheim.medium.com/barren-american-suburbs-a8749bd56f1

I am not sure if this will help you take me more serious, but I actually don’t own a car and never have. I am 44 and don’t have a drivers license. So if you think I am living and breathing some car oriented life you have misinterpreted what I am about.

Yet, I think it would be silly and unrealistic to aspire to a society completely without cars. When my kids get sick I sometimes need to get a cab to get to health care quickly. Companies come with cars to deliver furniture to my house. Electricians, carpenters and other craftsmen need cars, vans or trucks to get around with their tools and equipment. And being totally without a car is not something I necessarily recommend. It is difficult when you are a parent. It is hard to take your kids hiking, to the beach or other activities.

All sorts of goods and services needs vehicles which currently run on fossil fuels and which need to be replaced. We need electric diggers, electric trucks in the mining industry, electric cement trucks, busses and many other types of vehicles.

And while the excessively personal car oriented societies that exist today should perhaps not exist, we cannot change that in the short term. While we try to change politics to bring a new future, replacing fossil fuel cars with EVs is a good temporary solution IMHO.