I wrote a bit about the attitudes the young have towards driving a car in my very first post a little over a month ago, but I feel like there is much more to be said about this topic. In this post, I will open my thoughts some more about the attitudes and biases the young have, not only towards cars but also climate change and how does that affect their choices.
Climate change divides opinions strongly among the young.
Like I mentioned in my first post, there are some who refuse to drive a car because of climate reasons. On the other hand, I've noticed that the personal moving needs and the need for comfort that I mentioned earlier often exceed the climate argument. Still, a few of my friends, who I consider to be somewhat climate activists, have chosen to drive a car because it simply is the best solution for their life situation and needs.
However, I'm not saying that climate change is automatically thrown in the trash can when your own needs are against the needs of the climate. On the contrary. I've noticed a remarkable rise in recycling and services that help people sell and buy things used. I believe that many are kind of allowing themselves to have one "bad thing". The things I mentioned are probably the most common example. Some are choosing to drive a car but sort of to make that up, they recycle and do other things for the climate. Silli Auto had a great webinar about this a few weeks back, how to reduce emissions while driving a car and they came up with a couple pretty good ideas. For example, if the dash turned green when the car is driven the most economically possible, it'd maybe encourage or even challenge drivers to be more careful with their gas pedal. This same idea could easily be implemented to the already booming e-scooter and city-bike industry.
Are electric cars the ultimate solution?
Many have chosen electric cars to do their commuting to keep their comfort and fastness but do it more eco-friendly. Other temptation with electric and hybrid cars for the young is naturally their high-power output. The low-powered electric cars are not considered as tempting as their gasoline counterparts, but it seems like every solution that leads to higher power output is considered interesting, whether it is fully electric or some kind of hybrid system. Of course, for the young, price is often the stumbling block with electric cars since they still are kind of expensive even though the technology is getting cheaper and better. Charging is also a big factor for many potential electric car buyers, where they can charge their car, how easily can they do it and how much range will they get with on full charge.
The young do care
I received an interesting comment about that first blog post I made. He said, that according to his own observations, the generation Z is more interested in simply getting from point A to point B and not so much about how they get there, as long as it has an interface of their smartphone. I think to some extent this is true, there are many who just don't care about whether they are moving by bus or an e-scooter, provided the trip from A to B is as fast as possible. Yet, even though commuting is getting faster and faster year by year as technology advances, it still takes a huge part of our time in our lives. Just think about how many years of your life do you spend travelling and commuting. It's just natural that if you are using that much time on anything, you want it to be as comfortable as possible. I believe that need for comfort and reliability etc. is there regardless of the way people move. That's why companies like Siili Auto and car manufacturers are and remain to be important to everyone using any type of personal transportation.
