Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

German government expands subsidies for electric cars

dw.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 154 posts

Re: German government expands subsidies for electric cars

#91

Post by C1sc0cat »

windsurfer wrote: post #37
Vysero wrote: post #35

I would love to be able to buy an electric car here in Montana (US) but how would I charge it? Either way I couldn't afford it. Even at a conservative estimate of 20k that's still too much considering I can go out and buy a used car that gets 20mpg for 5k and keep it for the next 100k miles. I realize this is a bit off topic but I get so bitter when I heard about other countries converting to electric. I just wish so…

May I ask why you wouldn't be able to charge it at home? It is my understanding that most people simply charge their electric cars overnight, much like their phones.

1 The US grid is "in need of improvement" see California

2 Not everyone lives in a house with of street parking

Re: German government expands subsidies for electric cars

#92

Post by C1sc0cat »

24gttghh wrote: post #49
Vysero wrote: post #35

I would love to be able to buy an electric car here in Montana (US) but how would I charge it? Either way I couldn't afford it. Even at a conservative estimate of 20k that's still too much considering I can go out and buy a used car that gets 20mpg for 5k and keep it for the next 100k miles. I realize this is a bit off topic but I get so bitter when I heard about other countries converting to electric. I just wish so…

No offense, but what hypothetical car are you buying for $5K that will last another 100K miles? You can get used Nissan Leaf's in the price-range you're wanting. In Spokane tho I guess... https://www.cars.com/for-sale/searchresults.action/?dealerTy... Or used Prius's in Missoula: https://www.missoulanissan.com/VehicleSearchResults?search=p... edit: I am genuinely curious about the $5K car good for 100K miles.

Toyta Hilux :-)

Re: German government expands subsidies for electric cars

#93

Post by devmunchies »

gpm wrote: post #64
GrayTextIsTruth wrote: post #55

Not electric motorcycles? They are electric AND require less energy to move from point A to B.

They probably require a lot more doctor time to move from point A to point B though.

And? its an environmental initiative. I'm fine with more human risk. Its the greener option.

This is Germany too, so there's already a lot more riders than in the US so drivers are accustomed to see them.

Re: German government expands subsidies for electric cars

#94

Post by wongarsu »

C1sc0cat wrote: post #88
richardknop wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an expensive car in European standards. 20k is what most people pay for a car here. 45k car is a luxury imho.

In which European state is this I bet there is a difference between the ex Warsaw pact sates where a Trabant or a 2 generation old Fiat was a luxury, and the Rich parts of Germany or the UK

Living in Western Germany I mostly see vehicles in the 10k-25k range. There is a difference if you go to the most expensive cities though, like Munich.

Re: German government expands subsidies for electric cars

#95

Post by raxxorrax »

gibolt wrote: post #57
dillz wrote: post #22

Blatant and obvious lobbying by the extremely powerful German car industry. The subsidy includes premium brand plug-in hybrids such as BMW 330e and Mercedes C class - i.e. typical company cars that will very rarely use the electric engine. As gibolt mentioned, it also helps VW selling their new models. Why not subsidize public transport instead? Why has the German government been unable to make (useful) climate prote…

The German auto industry is 5% of their economy, employing nearly a million people. Imagine the fire (no pun intended) Tesla is setting under them, as the premium (most profitable) sales plummet across the industry. They decided to subsidize the industry to drive growth and help their big players quickly get to scale where they can make a profit. The alternative is they cease to exist and Germany suffers. I'm all for…

There is some truth to that but they already do make insane profits. This is just another icing on the cake that primarily tries to incentivize people that are already well off (as anyone that buys an electric cars right now).

While they certainly have deficiencies in the software department compared to Tesla and Germany not being the best place to test autonomous vehicles, they had electric cars for years now. The produced few because the market isn't really convinced yet.

Companies are the primary customers. Some of our workers use electric vehicles because they got a company car, but nobody owns one.

Apart from a nuclear apocalypse I don't really see the large manufacturers ceasing to exist anytime soon. They have enough capital to invest in development.

Re: German government expands subsidies for electric cars

#96

Post by Vysero »

dawnerd wrote: post #80
Vysero wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps I am in the minority but my home is an apartment complex so I park in the parking lot. There are no chargers in the parking lot. Either way (I could be wrong) I don't think you can just plug it into a 120V outlet to get a charge.

I use my 120v outlet in my garage and it keeps the battery charged up enough - granted I'm not maxing out the range every day either. Takes about 13 hours to charge from half way.

Interesting, I didn't know that. WELL perhaps I just need to search for a lot with a 120V outlet and browse for a used electric car. If I can find a lot which I can walk to in a relatively short amount of time from my home, I would be alright with that.

Re: German government expands subsidies for electric cars

#97

Post by kwhitefoot »

lm28469 wrote: post #39
mooktakim wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Solution to these problems will come. Its a chicken & egg problem. I live in a flat in London and thinking of similar issues with electric cars. Maybe 20min supercharging every couple of weeks is enough for my weekend driving. I'm hoping soon every lamp post will have a charging plug.

> I'm hoping soon every lamp post will have a charging plug. I don't see any major city doing that anytime soon. The grid is not ready, power plants are not ready, it would cost billions to rewire everything, especially in old European towns. And even more for germany since they're shutting down coal and nuclear right now. It's not a big issue though, we should focus on getting rid of personal cars and that's somethi…

> grid is not ready,

The UK National Grid says otherwise.

See https://www.carbonbrief.org/rise-uk-electric-vehicles-nation... for instance.

Re: German government expands subsidies for electric cars

#98

Post by madengr »

hannasanarion wrote: post #59
vkou wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My apartment building does not have, and by my best guess, will never have car chargers in its parking garage. And I'm lucky enough to have a parking garage. At least ~70% of the people living in my area park on the street, where there are... Also no chargers.

Have you considered asking them if they would install one? They aren't that expensive, only about $1000 bucks, and I think there are some federal subsidies. With a service like Chargepoint, there is no cost to the landlord at all. They have a brochure you can print out on their website. Failing that you can park near a regular 120v outlet and use level 1 charging, which fills up most cars in about 8 hours.

The federal tax credit ended in tax year 2018. I installed two Open EVSE in my garage, and ran a 100 amp sub-panel. I did all the work myself and was able to claim about $300 of the tax credit; can't claim own labor so it was all materials. Even then, the credit was capped at $1k.

The EVSE run between $500 - $1000. Add in the cost of a residential electrician, and I'm estimating $3k total. If it's commercial, then double that. If you have to trench and do concrete work, double it again. Get into a ROW with other utilities, even worse. It gets expensive really fast.

The level 1 charger for my 24 kW*H Leaf says 24 hours for a full charge. Forget about it for a Tesla.

Re: German government expands subsidies for electric cars

#99

Post by pound »

close04 wrote: post #68
Vysero wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps I am in the minority but my home is an apartment complex so I park in the parking lot. There are no chargers in the parking lot. Either way (I could be wrong) I don't think you can just plug it into a 120V outlet to get a charge.

You can but with a standard 120V (12/15A) outlet you'd spend days charging an EV with a large battery. Anything that takes more than 8-10 hours is not really a feasible option. A 240V outlet can be 32A which would be a lot more reasonable in terms of charging time.

it adds about 5 miles per hour for model 3. So after charging overnight it would be at least 50 miles of range added. And this is enough for many.

Re: German government expands subsidies for electric cars

#100

Post by notJim »

Vysero wrote: post #35

I would love to be able to buy an electric car here in Montana (US) but how would I charge it? Either way I couldn't afford it. Even at a conservative estimate of 20k that's still too much considering I can go out and buy a used car that gets 20mpg for 5k and keep it for the next 100k miles. I realize this is a bit off topic but I get so bitter when I heard about other countries converting to electric. I just wish so…

I feel similarly to you, I really want to switch to an electric car, but when I really look at it for me, the infrastructure is just not there yet. I am hoping in 2-3 years it will be much improved, since so many more electric cars are coming out.
Post reply on HN