I agree - subsidies encourage mediocrity. In fact I think all subsidies should be repealed for this reason. If the government is going to use economic stimuli, they should do the opposite and tax undesirable things instead. Then the market will optimize on its own without being told to progress to a specific solution.
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Do you live in Taiwan?
Cars are not used as practical transport for most people here.
That would be scooters. The majority of Which are nasty and create a ton of air and noise pollution. Its a no brainer to replace them with electric.
As for cars it doesn’t really matter gas or electric. The most important thing is that they are big and can make man child’s feel like they are real big men. As we have seen with teslas, electric cars are popular in Taiwan, providing that they are the size of a small bus.
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I’m sure model 3 and model y are the most popular Teslas in Taiwan, and they’re hardly the size of a small bus - they’re smaller than a Honda Accord.
He’s exaggerating, but they aren’t exactly small or low cost cars either.
They are huge. Thats the whole appeal, if they were small and practical then Taiwanese man child’s wouldn’t be into them.
Why drive a small car when you can drive a scooter and actually find a parking space?
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So you’d consider a Honda Accord what, a medium sized bus?
Protection from elements, crash protection, closed storage all seem like obvious answers.
Yes, for almost 40 years. Way too many people in the cities own cars. I don’t think scooters are necessary either for cities such as Taipei.
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Exactly. Why use a scooter to get somewhere when you could use the MRT to get you there in just triple the amount of time.
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No. Not if the cheaper alternative is a gasoline powered car or scooter.
Lastly, I’m old. I’m going to die relatively soon. Way before EV is the majority.
I don’t care.
Get off my lawn.
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Just use YouBikes, Taxi or Uber in extreme cases. I live in the city center and never had issues without a car or a scooter. The cost of maintenance, taxes, and parking fee can’t justify the convenience they brought me.
Yea and all your clever points go out the window due to driving a car being massively inconvenient.
My gfs dad is a Taxi driver. A professional driver.
The taxi(also small bus sized) is used for work and trips outside of Taipei only. Everything else - scooter.
You sound like a typical non scooter rider who wants to pass off their opinion.
Scooters beat the MRT generally for short to medium distances. MRT is still good but theres a reason scooters are still so popular. This country was more or less designed around them.
Youbikes are decent but theres no getting around it, you have to F around with traffic if you want to venture anywhere outside of the central most areas, thats not for everyone.
My wife gets on well even in Kaohsiung without a scooter using the mrt, trains , walking and youbikes. 399 ntd a month for mrt, youbikes trains and buses. She is fit and healthy. Who knew ! People used to say Kaohsiung you need a scooter but you really don’t. And it is seriously dangerous in Kaohsiung.
Honestly it’s fantastic value and really pretty convenient for public transport in Kaohsiung, Taiwanese (generalisation incoming) are really really lazy and have no environmental values , no fear of death and they all seem deaf too so there’s that 
.
I drive a car most places it must mean I’ve become Taiwanese (I do walk and use public transport and an avid youbiker), but I am seriously considering getting a gogoro and driving that more than the car. Cost of parking is going up and car maintenance too. I don’t worry about the fuel cost as much because it’s too low. I actually mainly have the car for weekends only. And that’s outside the city. In Kaohsiung the MRT gets really busy on weekends as people commute into the city and many leave their cars and scooters at home.
The government should subsidise public transport more and stop subsidising rich SUV and luxury car drivers .
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Real bicycle infrastructure would be great too.
Personally I bike more than anything else, especially now there are electric youbikes. But I have some driving / cycling smarts. I would not be happy about my gf doing the same.
Well cycling on the pavements are fine, it’s cycling through the junctions that is risky .
The only reason scooter are popular is because the city allow them to park everywhere and don’t pay parking. In a normal country good luck.
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Motorcycle parking is free in Australia.
I find a scooter more convenient in Kaohsiung than any other option. I’m a good 10 to 15 minute walk to 2 MRT stations on 2 different lines.
They keep giving cash handouts to citizens, at least taxpayers on ARC have the option to take advantage of cheaper fuel and lower inflation.
It’s not like they have the capacity to spend the extra money on a viable defence of the island.
Scooters are the last line of defence.
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Subsidies built and maintain TSMC, which is objectively a leader in semiconfab. Some of them are indirect, but basically it is a government project. If they had to pay market rates for electricity, for example, the low cost manufacturing model wouldn’t work.