The car industry is gone, never to return. Not worth talking about. There are things that we used to do that we can do again. There are new things that we can do. Making motor vehicles, conventional or electric - never.

The car industry is gone, never to return.
ttbn,
With the present mentality, yes ! But hopefully, the COVID-19 turmoil will jerk many into a more pragmatic & responsible attitude & with that the general mentality of blaming Govt for everything but themselves crowd may come to see the benefits of being less selfish !
Kids staying put at home now will adopt a healthier mentality than their grandparents who brought this situation to the boil !

Even $20 billion over 11 years isn't quite like the $30billion we fork out to the fossil fuel industry every year and the consumer has to pay more for diesel because some industries are allowed to pay less.

Many bitch and moan about the loss of manufacturing and it's outsourcing to places like China but it's the same consumer who demands everything at the cheapest possible price and the the only solution they come up with must be paying our workers (but not themselves) the equivalent of a bowl of rice a day as per our competitors.

Considering our relatively small population, what other local industries are deemed "non-sustainable"?

In the absence of forward thinking maybe all we're good for now is to dig up rocks for people to burn in a declining industry that employs less people nationally than KFC or just wait for something to happen overseas and react. There will soon be a lot of people looking for jobs that no longer exist and are unlikely to return in a changed global economy.

What will never change for some is the undying notion that everything bad that's happened is somehow the result of the ALP or Greens.

Rache- There will soon be a lot of people looking for jobs that no longer exist and are unlikely to return in a changed global economy.

What will never change for some is the undying notion that everything bad that's happened is somehow the result of the ALP or Greens.

Answer- Communists are Globalists too. Locke Liberalism of both so called left (ALP and Greens) and right persuasions are also Globalist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density_Extended_Reference_Table

Gasoline + Oxygen –> Derived from Gasoline 13.3 MJ/kg

battery, Lithium ion[18][19] 0.46-0.72 MJ/kg

One issue with battery driven cars is the batterys low energy density compared with Gasoline. I was pleased to see some research being done to capture CO2 and using renewable energy converting it back into gasoline mainly hydrocarbon molecules consisting of 7 to 9 carbon atoms from memory. So potentially we could mine the atmosphere for CO2 and capture the exhaust from our cars.

If the energy density is low it makes the vehicle less energy efficient even though the immediate by-products may be less polluting. The vehicle has to carry around the heavy low efficiency energy device.

There are a couple of ways of increasing the energy storage efficiency 1. you could store the energy in a stationary position and transmit the energy to the vehicle in some way- trains use overhead wires to achieve this (but trains are also very heavy and they can only go where there are tracks).
2. you use an energy storage method of high energy density. The ultimate high energy storage method is anti-matter but this is currently science fiction. Nuclear Fission batteries exist as do TEG's they aren't rechargeable, usually have a very long service life.

Elon Musk is a big fan of lithium batteries and I respect his expertise but I think he could be wrong in this case.

I understand the necessity to reduce pollution.

I think the best way to reduce the effect of any human impact on the world is to reduce the humans. Most western nations have a low birth rate and modest populations. Nations/ Regions such as Africa, India, China have unsustainable populations. What purpose does so many humans serve. We don't need so many humans in the world

The reason for large energy use and large populations seems to stem from competition between the nations over ideological positions and ethnic dominance.

There is nothing wrong with principles this is what gives life meaning and also principles are required for life. Principles are not free- sometimes you must fight for them to the death.

If every nation made a commitment to manage their populations things could be better.

There are those that prefer chaos and destruction to order and creation because they benefit from it.