Are electric cars too expensive to tempt motorists away from petrol vehicles?
1–10 of 243 posts
Re: Are electric cars too expensive to tempt motorists away from petrol vehicles?
#2It is not only this. For me it is public greenwashing, that 'modern is always better' fallacy, subsidies (follow the money!), environmental impact of battery components, daily and seasonal inconveniences, even more SW instead of easily repairable mechanical parts, being forced by a vocal minority tru tax, social, and other penalties, etc. etc.
Offer me an Hyuandai N74 and we'll talk.
Re: Are electric cars too expensive to tempt motorists away from petrol vehicles?
#3If fuel costs aren't a large part of your cost of ownership, yes.
If you commute from the suburbs, maybe not.
Re: Are electric cars too expensive to tempt motorists away from petrol vehicles?
#4Just get rid of the damn cars.
Re: Are electric cars too expensive to tempt motorists away from petrol vehicles?
#5It's a very specific perspective to assume that the sticker price is relevant.
Almost no-one I know owns a new car regardless of their income bracket. 5-10 years old is the norm. Many have cars that are just on the cusp of the emissions regulations (approx 15-20 year old petrol car in London).
A car that costs 3K is perfectly serviceable, you can drive across the country with it. I don't think I could find an electric car with even a 200 mile range for less than five times that.
Since the Ukraine war electricity has been more expensive than petrol too.
Re: Are electric cars too expensive to tempt motorists away from petrol vehicles?
#6Answer: yes. The article concedes that TCO over the lifetime of the vehicle is only just at parity with the middle of the petrol car range, the upfront cost is higher, insurance costs tend to be higher, and on top of that you have “range anxiety” to worry about.
There are certainly pros to electric cars, but as yet price is not one.
Re: Are electric cars too expensive to tempt motorists away from petrol vehicles?
#7It is not only this. For me it is public greenwashing, that 'modern is always better' fallacy, subsidies (follow the money!), environmental impact of battery components, daily and seasonal inconveniences, even more SW instead of easily repairable mechanical parts, being forced by a vocal minority tru tax, social, and other penalties, etc. etc. Offer me an Hyuandai N74 and we'll talk.
As an aside since we're apparently bringing out the woodworks here, why is it that nearly all electric vehicles look like crap?
Seriously, their designs are nearly all terrible compared to gas/diesel cars.
Re: Are electric cars too expensive to tempt motorists away from petrol vehicles?
#8This reminds me of the discussions some years ago whether one should invest in an SSD when buying a new laptop or stay with a spinning disk.
Nowadays, barely any new laptops are released without an SSD.
When it comes to electric versus petrol, I often think about the fact that the sun sends more energy to earth in an hour than all of mankind uses in a year.
I guess that in theory, all that energy could be captured with parts that need no service at all and do not degrade? Of course, we will not practically reach that efficiency. But we will continue to improve towards this limit. When I think of what it takes to dig for oil and all the steps needed to turn that into a moving car, the way we are heading seems clear.
Re: Are electric cars too expensive to tempt motorists away from petrol vehicles?
#9Yes?
Not only that, most of them look terrible and the driving technique has to change dramatically to get any half decent range. It's a lot less engaging to daily an EV.
Re: Are electric cars too expensive to tempt motorists away from petrol vehicles?
#10Where I live (Italy) is still a matter of infrastructure. Situation is improving, but I'm not ready to live with the constant fear of not finding a charging station, especially if I need to travel thru the country or in the countryside.
I'm not ready yet. I'll be more for plug-in cars in a 5-years span.