Auto execs in the US, Europe, and Japan never thought Chinese EVs were a threat. Now they’re coming to wipe the floor with their Western counterparts.
“You won’t believe what’s coming,” warned the title of a January 2023 video from the Inside China Auto YouTube channel. “Europe’s premium car makers aren’t ready for this,” warned another video from the same channel, uploaded in July.
Produced by Shanghai-based automotive journalist Mark Rainford, a former communications executive for Mercedes-Benz, the channel is one of several by China-based Western commentators agog at what they are seeing—and driving.
I’m in Portugal.
I moved from a big city tp a small inland city and public transportation is simply not very feaseable here. And it exists, nonetheless!
The local bus passes once every hour or 45 minutes. This is not a good way to move, as a simple shopping trip can take easily two hours. The quick and easier fix for this would be putting more vehicles in circulation - and people want it - but no more vehicles are added.
The bus here and on many more places in my country is faced with very wide routes, that require a good amount of time to run. We’re too scattered. Not doubting it works for others - I want here too! - but not easily doable here.
For shopping, particularly food, no offense but I like to personally pick what I buy. As someone who worked on a perishables provider, I still remember to this day the stuff that was shipped to customers and how stock was normally (mis)handled. Even clothing is a risk. Other items, sure; but food?
As someone who enjoys walking in general, I’d welcome more pedestrian friendlier cities but that also requires small shops to return and those are being hard pressed to cease to exist.
I’ve visited Portugal only once, so my experience is very limited with the country, but public transport wasn’t very good even in Lisbon in my experience. Don’t know if there are portugese cities with better public transport, but if that’s the best Portugal has, then your opinion is certainly understandable.
Not only that, Portugal sits close to the middle of the pack in population density, not far from France and their public transport is certainly only good in and around cities.
It still is undeniable that cars are quite costly. It would save Portugal money to actually invest in better public transport, maybe even make it free. Free or affordable public transport increases the frequency of buses as the ridership increases.
The biggest difficulty is changing the public perception of cars as a status symbol and the feeling of “freedom”. The freedom one gets from free public transport is difficult to comprehend, I think. One can just hop on the bus, step out at a random place, rent a bike, explore, and hop onto the next bus with barely any planning except for getting back.
In France, the number of visits people made to shops outside of the center actually increased.
Anyway, I wish you good luck in Portugal.