My first diesel was an old Jetta. Bought it for 300$ because the guy selling it didn’t know about the cold start valve. I think it had about 100,000 miles or so. That thing froze up solid the first winter. Ole Mercedes’ guy at work, “ after you thaw the thing out, put in about 3/4 tank of diesel, one gallon of kerosene and 1/2 gallon of gasoline. Then fill the rest of the tank with diesel”. It was quite the gas station dance but, it never gelled again. Every winter that was the mix. Got 200,000 miles out of it and when the cv axle went bad, I sold it for 300$. Can’t do that anymore. I’ve been a VW diesel guy since. I miss the simple diesel. In its Purist form. Black smoke? Yup. Worse environmental contribution in history? We’ll see about that. Number crunchers say there is NOT, not even close, enough precious metals on earth to make a battery, of any kind, for everyone. Poor countries all using old smoke belching diesels digging holes and making some of the worst chemical lakes in their wake so that the people with money can sell expensive new battery, well, everything items to the population that can afford them. No huge messes here. It’s the poor workers digging and refining and polluting their butts off so that people that can afford it can run clean on batteries. Look up and see what it takes from beginning to end to make a battery. Oh, I forgot, the batteries have a shelf life so goes what? More batteries for everyone! We’ll, except the ones digging, and drilling and scraping the earth to the bone.
Ahh yes. No real way out. Man is unable to direct his own steps.