He complains a lot, he decided to make a job of it. Every other week, our professional complainer shares his bad mood. This time, he is provocative with his oil-fuelled vehicle.
What ? How ? An Automobile-Propre columnist does not drive electric, not even a hybrid? This should already make some people jump. And in addition, it provokes with diesel. Vade retro satanas. In his garage, the complainer says it without complex here, he has a (compact) SUV with diesel engine, and nothing else. Or almost.
Oh, he hears you from here. “He could go electric anyway, it’s easy, nowadays there is no longer any excuse not to do so, with models that have more autonomy and more correct prices” . But the purchase of this diesel-powered vehicle dates back to 2014, with the main mission of long journeys across France (700 km), from west to east and vice versa. At that time, it was difficult to consider this serenely in electric.
The situation has changed, but the complainer has not changed car. And clearly, for him, it’s his green gesture. He could have looked at the essential Tesla Model 3, especially when it cost 36,800 € bonus deducted. And appear like this with an electric car, as a good defender of nature! But this entails building a new vehicle, thus using resources and energy, while its already manufactured diesel SUV is doing very well even after nine years.
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If the most radical believe that the best car is the one that does not exist, the complainer believes that his green car can be diesel if it is kept. This thought at the origin of this column came to him when he found himself stuck a few kilometers behind a granny driving an old Clio 1. The complainer said to himself that this grandmother pointed out in a ZFE had at least the merit of driving the same car for nearly 30 years, while some now change every three years thanks to rental offers. The greenest driver is not necessarily the one we imagine.
Obviously, the car returned after a rental then joins the second-hand market and will delight another driver, but this always pushes to manufacture more models. Brands are also starting to change their tune, seeming to anticipate a new trend, which is precisely to (re)make vehicles last. Peugeot has given itself the particular mission of extending the life cycle of its models, thanks to updates and refreshment of wear elements, including on board, when necessary. The moaner is ahead of the trends!
That’s not all. Besides keeping the same car for at least a decade, he decided to use it better. Or rather to use it less. If that’s not green, awareness! Thus, the grouch drives diesel, but over the years, he leaves it more in the garage. He learned to use his legs more. For some shopping, he can walk 15 minutes to reach the supermarket rather than getting out of his vehicle to drive 2 km. For longer distances, he competes with his car and the train. And he totally avoids the plane. At first because he was scared of it, but now he can say it’s out of ecology.
Enough to obtain a carbon footprint in terms of transport that could be similar to self-claimed self-free people… who regularly go to recharge their batteries on the other side of the world. But the goal here is not to blame them, just to bring everyone back to their CO2 balance. The complainer thus imagines a (utopian) carbon credit per person for travel, especially for leisure. Everyone would be free to use it as they see fit. But wouldn’t that be an extreme green idea? Before that, when his SUV is tired or less useful, the complainer will go electric, maybe even with a low-mobility machine.
