Hello; I recall the mopeds during the late 1950's and early 1960's. I could not have one but knew other who did. I was not aware of the differences for USA models.I don't like to date myself (prefer women), but way way back in the US Mopeds became a thing, but at the time they were all made in Europe (France mostly I believe). I had a buddy that worked at a bicycle shop that sold Mopeds. I used to stop and and shoot the breeze with Skip off and on. As he was fixing a Moped in the back workshop he was telling me the European makers of Moped were flummoxed at the high rate of repair and damages Mopeds had in America as they didn't see that in Europe. Then he said eventually they were building the US market Mopeds with heavier bodies, more dummy proof motors, cheaper parts to keep repair cost down. It just turned out that people (mostly kids) in the US treat their stuff with less care and respect than folks in Europe do.
Our US auto market and our culture is very different than places like Norway, Denmark, Belgium etc. So our EV use and infrastructure problems are going to be uniquely American. Just because EV's work in Sweden doesn't translate to working in Wyoming or Montana with -14 degrees. If it's going to work it will need different approaches and better technology than I believe the current state is in (note just IMHO).
Meantime ...
Greater distances are certainly one point, but there's also a cultural difference as well. Most European countries are essentially socialist, and this socialist bias gets more and more extreme as you go further to the north. Sacrificing the needs of the individual for the good of the nation (or planet, in this case) is an idea that Europeans have a general tendency to accept, and this tendency is much stronger in the north. If the government says, "electric cars are good, gas is bad", then people will buy electric cars, and if this requires changes to their daily routine, so be it. In northern countries what the government says, goes. Couple that with astronomical taxes on new gas vehicles, which only a handful of people can afford, and you will get a lot of EVs on the streets.
Man are "they" pushing hard for us Americans to become this. So far the independent self sufficient people are in the majority. However "they" are starting to win the kids.
More political ramblings - yawn
You may call it whatever you wish, but that won't make it less true.
In your misguided and uninformed opinion ........
Hello; And thus, we have the cubby hole such discussions can be limited to. Most anything, however tenuous, can is some way linked to some aspect of what can be called politics. What I took from Vlad's post was a description of the differences in that part of the world which allows top-down edicts to take hold and have populations subdued.
I do. But I don't think you understand what 'politics' means. Calling a post political just because you happen to disagree with it doesn't necessarily make it so.
