This amazing, modern tiny house is sure to impress! The entire home is luxury through and through, but best of all, this is a home which allows its owners, Bela and Spencer, to live a life of their choosing, enabling them to travel the world together with their young daughter, Escher.
Located in southern California, the home is designed to take advantage of the fantastic weather and has indoor / outdoor living in mind. A lot of thought has gone into making this a truly functional home for the family, while remaining luxurious throughout.
Best of all, Bela and Spencer are able to rent out their home for two thirds of the year, helping to fund their world-wide travels while also giving them a stable place to call home. You can find out more about Bela and Spencers adventures on their blog: https://thisxlife.com/
I see more and more EVs out of the road. When will they start to outnumber internal combustion cars on American roads? –Jane L., New Bern, NC
Electric vehicles (EVs) have been around about as long as cars themselves. In fact, primitive EVs were the dominant form of automotive transportation at the dawn of the auto age in Europe and the U.S. in the late 19th century. It wasn’t until the 1920s—when the U.S. road system was starting to be built out and cheap oil was available from newly tapped Texas oil fields—that internal combustion cars began to take over as the predominant vehicles across the United States.
It looks like we might have to wait some two decades for electric vehicles (EVs) to displace internal combustion cars as the kings of the American road. Credit: Mike, Pexels.
And we
never looked back. Until recently, that is. Nowadays, EVs (Teslas, Leafs,
Bolts, etc.) are indeed everywhere. Analysts estimate the EVs will be cheaper
to buy than internal combustion cars as soon as 2022. Beyond that, it’s
probably only a matter of two decades before EVs represent the majority of
cars, light trucks and SUVs plying American roads.
In
2018, EVs made up only about six percent of total U.S. new car sales, but that
figure represents an astonishing 70 percent growth from the year prior. Moving
forward, analysts expect around 13 percent annual compound growth in the EV
sector for the foreseeable future. Bloomberg New Energy Finance, a research arm
of the New York-based media company, expects sales of passenger EVs to overtake
conventional internal combustion-based vehicles by 2038 (with EV sales topping
50 million a year as compared to conventional vehicle sales of 47 million by
then). After that, EVs, with their lower ongoing fuel and maintenance costs,
will continue taking over more and more of the market every year, calling the
very future of the internal combustion engine passenger car into question.
As
technologies mature (allowing for better battery storage and extended driving
range) and manufacturers ramp up production and prices come down accordingly,
consumers will begin to look exclusively at EVs when shopping for new cars.
Indeed, a recent survey of 2,000 adults living in either California or the
Northeast Tristate Area (NY, NJ, CT) by consulting firm West Monroe Partners
found that the majority (59 percent) of respondents think their next vehicle
will be an electric car. Not surprisingly, the survey found that Gen Zers
(those born after 1996) are especially inclined toward EVs.
That
said, only 16 percent of respondents are driving around in EVs today, and
concerns including short battery life and lack of charging stations (limiting
the vehicles’ range), as well as high up-front purchase costs, are still
holding many of us back from taking the all-electric plunge. But the writing is
on the wall for gas guzzling passenger cars as we overcome these short-term
hurdles. With about 15 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions emanating from
the tailpipes of our internal combustion cars and light trucks, and gasoline
becoming more and more expensive, the inevitable switchover to EVs—despite
efforts by the Trump administration to reduce national fuel efficiency
standards and bolster the ailing oil industry—is going to be a win-win for
consumers and the planet. 2038 can’t come too soon!
Climate change is a reality, and the environmental threats disrupting our economies and lives are connected in unexpected ways. Find out what we need to do to prepare for a warming planet.
