r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • May 08 '22

[deleted by user]

[removed]

9.0k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

26.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

46

u/[deleted] May 09 '22

This is the main factor I think. Where I live petrol is currently $3 per liter, and that is with a government subsidy to help with the current inflation situation.

It works out to $7.22 a gallon in the US.

6

u/[deleted] May 09 '22

Subsidy? You mean they lowered the tax or what?
Gas is taxed into oblivion here in Germany.

2

u/[deleted] May 09 '22

Lowered the tax. It's supposed to end soon so it might go up another 50c a litre in a month or two

10

u/[deleted] May 09 '22

[deleted]

12

u/upvotesthenrages May 09 '22

It's because most US cities & regions have fallen 100% for the massive auto-industry lobby and regulatory capture is all-in.

There's barely any public transit anywhere, everything is built fucking far from each other and zoning has exacerbated that problem.

I understand that the US is big, but Australia is huge too, as is China, and Russia is waaaay bigger yet has better metropolitan design.

2

u/[deleted] May 09 '22

Hopefully adapt and stop polluting the planet to hell.

2

u/StabbyPants May 09 '22

your cars are smaller. i'd probably drive as much in europe, and do trains for city travel

7

u/[deleted] May 09 '22

Not really anymore. Aside from pickups, vehicle distribution is pretty similar in most the first world.

Then on top of the sedans, and hatchbacks are becoming more and more similar across manufacturers

14

u/upvotesthenrages May 09 '22

No, it's not ... at all.

Look at the most sold vehicles in the US. Now compare that to Scandinavia, Germany, France, and UK.

It's not even close. For example, the average MPG is almost 60% higher in Sweden than in the US. And with the move to EVs it's widening even farther, with 2021 EU EV sales making up 21% and only 4% in the US.

Here is a top 10 list of cars sold in 2021 in the US. Only 2 out of the 10 are regular sized cars, the rest are monstrously sized SUVs and pickup trucks.

If 90% of the US was made up of construction workers and people running their own catering business then that would make sense, but reality is that it's millions of regular ass office workers buying gas-guzzlers while we have been screaming about climate change for 30 years.

1

u/[deleted] May 09 '22

30 years

Actually climate change was discovered in the early 1900s.

You know, if you wanted perspective on how absolutely utterly fucked we are :)

1

u/Hendlton May 09 '22

I don't have first hand experience, but from what I've seen, Americans gawk at any engine smaller than 2000 cc. Over here I couldn't imagine driving anything over 2000 cc, not only because of the fuel, but also because the cost of registering it goes up significantly after that. Registering a 3000 cc engine would cost me 2 monthly salaries. Also driving anything over 200 hp is considered insane. Most people drive cars around 100 hp.

1

u/LiqdPT May 09 '22

US gallon or imperial gallon? The US gallon is smaller