The year-old iPhone example is misleading at best, if you take this guy at his word on having "driven into the ground" multiple cars. If you don't believe him on that front, I see no reason you'd believe anything else in this essay, anyway.

We should ourselves and should encourage others to effect less waste in our world. We should not compare someone apparently doing so to those who clearly do not.

I think you are misreading?

> $17k minus an extra $2k added to my Camry's trade-in value

This says the dealer paid a premium for the Camry to secure the deal on the Leaf. The Camry's full trade-in value was not given.

Right, my initial statement applies: it's not "just $11k", it's a lot more.

How I read it, the deal could have been something like $5k (+$2k) for the trade-in car and $10k in cash. Later there is a $4k used EV tax rebate.

In this situation the cost works out to something like

5k + 10k - 4k = 11k