but you/stuff still needs to go from a to b. taxis (or individual self driving pods) should however be the future of public transport.

Frankly - I agree with this take.

If anything - my opinion at this point is that cars were a mistake in vehicle sizing caused by internal combustion engines.

For the vast, vast majority of ubran transit, something akin to a bike in size seems to make more sense.

We see this already in urban regions in India/Asia where scooters are the predominate transportation method, and I think even traditional scooters are heavy enough to be problematic.

But a class 2 ebike (so throttle with no need to pedal) can weigh as little as 40lbs (20kg), and go 30 miles at 20mph.

It's insane that we're not designing urban transit for bikes at this point. Much better density, much safer, much easier to store and park, much cheaper to operate and license.

Cars,those urban monstrosities the vehicles that weigh over 25 times their payload and take up 20 times the space on the roads.

Should I adjust the figures for American sizes?

Should I also add that they are engineered to travel at speeds over 120 mph and usually ply the trade environments where 30 mph is a dangerous speed?

I think you'd need a contract where you buy (or lease) the car without a battery and lease/rent the battery separately. With some guaranteed offer for a battery with minimum spec X at maximum price Y when you exit the battery program. Preferably, not a mandatory offer, because one hopes specs go up and prices go down over time.

Then have you pay something per month for having a battery (maybe depends on the specific battery installed), something per kWh for charge used, plus a rebate per kWh for charge added. Or roll it into usage tiers, whatever.

There's lots of people that love leasing cars. I don't understand it, but it makes a lot of people happy?

I used to own a truck whose fair market value would double, temporarily, whenever I filled the tank.

How's that any different than putting new tires on a shitbox?

Western car manufactures scamming their customer should not be what you look at for costs. Batteries pack costs have gone from $130-150/kwh in 2023 $80-90/kwh in 2026. Price for a pack will likely be under $50/kwh in another 3-4 years. Ie battery packs are becoming competitive with engines already and will be cheaper by 30-40% ie replacing a battery will be cheaper than replacing an engine/

> First, with range decreasing, number of charge cycles per mile, and therefore rate of wear, will increase.

By 10% over 10 years, assuming the worst case of nothing but ultra-fast charging. This seems minor.

Old cheaper cars could be 10% less convenient to use for very long trips. This should not shock anyone.

Rather than an expensive battery swap, sell it on at a lower price to someone who doesn't need 100% range.