How is the Western approach more sustainable? Once EVs get bootstrapped, they are better than ICE vehicles in almost every respect. Once your society is built around EVs, there’s barely a reason to use anything else. That feels a lot more sustainable than having a hard dependency on fossil fuels in perpetuity.

They have been saying this for years but it still isn't the case. Even the best evs take longer to fill up and have the same or worse range as ice cars and are infinitely less user modifiable. Slower to charge, only manufacturers can repair them, and less infrastructure. Without government subsidies people always choose the ice cars unless they are willing to fork over money and time for the environment, not a better vehicle.