Newsletter #3

💡 One idea: Unaffordable electric vehicles destroy demand

📈 One data figure: 1,000 square meters of arable land per capita

✨ One success: NatureMetrics, DNA-based biodiversity data

💡 Unaffordable electric vehicles destroy demand

Putting electric vehicles (EVs) within everyone's reach is a goal that both car manufacturers and policymakers have been trying to achieve for too long. A few years ago, the industry narrative was that, price-wise, all-electric vehicles would compete with their combustion-driven counterparts in 2025. The assumption was that battery production and economies of scale would gradually make new EVs more affordable as more and more consumers switch from dirty to clean cars. This would simultaneously drive down the CO2 emissions of the much-polluting sector; road transport roughly represents 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately, the reality is quite different.