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Cars are like horses: people will soon realise EVs are just better, claims VW boss
(www.autoexpress.co.uk)
this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2026
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You know what horse can do that no car, electric or not, can do?
You can get on a horse, or horse-drawn carriage, completely wasted drunk out of your mind, or high, or just too tired to drive. Tell horse "home" and he will go to the stable he came from, dragging you with it all the way.
Horses consume no gasoline, no diesel, they just eat literal grass and drink tap water. And their shit is often packaged and sold as fertilizer.
How the fuck in the times of high energy prices, both gas and electricity, people are not just turning back to horses is beyond me. Horses are economically viable and sound, just grab the horses from working type, not sport type. Smarter than AI, calmer than Trump (and more reasonable), grass-to-fertilizer converter, biological motorbike.
I'm very much anti-car. I don't own a car. My apartment doesn't have a car park (at my request before it was built). ... But I think you're really over-egging the utility of horses. I don't think they are anywhere near as viable in dense urban environments. I'd say a bicycle is far more realistic alternative to a car (I say that from experience). Perhaps an electric bike depending on your needs.
Keeping a horse takes a huge amount of space and resources. Perhaps you can do that if you live in a rural area and own a bit of farmland; but otherwise, I don't think its is affordable or practical to own horse.
Ours sure is causing way more in vet bills than our car's lease, insurance and gas combined, while also unable to carry either of us anywhere. She'd also not go home, but to the next patch of greenery, whether or not she can eat it...
Tons of vietnamese have horses in rural areas, I should ask them their secret to affording vet bills. Maybe horse mechanics are just used to keeping the things running.
Who is going to stop the 1500 lb animal?
Well, I assume their horses will be less of a luxury pet. They probably pay less rent for the stables, treatment will be more DIY and the attachment to a working animal will be less emotional. I also don't know how expensive their vets will be relative to the general cost of living and the utility the horse provides. I imagine they'll have less overhead than our specialised clinics maintaining expensive equipment, dozens of specialised drugs and all the insurance and shit that goes with it in our system.
At the point we're at, a new horse with less health issues would be cheaper than all the money we've blown on ours, and she doesn't bring any utility. But we love her, and she's not suffering so badly that it would justify putting her down. As long as I can afford it, I will sooner invest in trying to heal what can be healed, manage what can't, provide the best life I can for her, own up to the responsibility I accepted when buying her, and enjoy our shared time.
But again: she's a luxury, maybe a step below actual sports horses with fancy lineages and tournament quality. I suppose if horses became more ubiquitous for transport, the affordability dynamic might shift, but for now, my remark should be taken as tongue-in-cheek and definitely won't hold up to comparison with working animals.
Ours is closer to 600, but voracious, headstrong and has shown a poor intuition for what's poisonous and what isn't. If she decides that a plant looks tasty, strength alone won't help you save her from herself. If you react in time, you can gently pull her head to the side, enough to turn her away but not so strongly as to hurt her.
I didn't see any stables, just horses chilling wherever.
Yeah, I am kinda confused how the horses eating Styrofoam and hanging out just wherever are alive at all. Some were left to wander, sone were tied up in areas to eat whatever.
Maybe generations of the ones that would be saved by not letting them eat poison culling themselves created a breed that is either immune to poison and the kind of dumb shit that usually kills horses.
I think farm communities here have a different relationship with animals where like they clearly groom them and make some effort for them to not die, there's not so much effort.
Stable owners hate this one trick to save 100% on your rent!
Honestly, I think they just self-selected for the ones not eating poisonous shit. I'm pretty sure the same applies on Iceland: The horses know what they can and can't eat, because the ones who don't know either learn or stop eating entirely.
We coddle our darlings way too much for their natural instincts. On the other hand, that makes us responsible for compensating.
Have you ever been near someone who just came out of a stable?
Like my wife? Or my neighbour?
Yeah, that explains it. :) I keep pigs, so I hate horses' smell.
Fair enough. When I moved into the city I had an urge to block exhausts of every car around.
Bring back the days of perpetual stank!
Like our cities, full of cars and trash, do not stink already.
Haven't spent much time around large animals huh. You should try shoveling some shit.
And this means, horses also create jobs!
Possibly, but let's be real.
Horses are statistically more dangerous than motorcycles (or skiing). I can't find any statistics on drunk riding because most horse owners aren't stupid enough to try it, but it seems very likely that riding a horse drunk is way more dangerous than driving drunk.
horses can poop alot randomly.
I mean, bicycles and pedelecs exist as well and I really don't need to be unconscious in traffic.