> These days, where we use enormous ovens to cure and dry car coatings, it is comfortably the most energy intensive and carbon intensive parts of making a car.
I guess so if you don't count what it takes to make aluminum and steel.
It would be better phrased as "most ... intensive part of an automotive assembly plant". Generally, the only big thing that assembly plants actually manufacture is the body (including painting the body)
Once production was shut down at my plant because it was too cold and the natural gas company said they had to use the gas for residential customers.
a friend (a paint engineer) believes there are massive energy savings to be had from the painting (baking). He was shocked to see how wasteful the process is in automotive plants compared to his other clients. All because the paint has to be perfect and last long
I guess so if you don't count what it takes to make aluminum and steel.