221–230 of 243 posts
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Rains a lot. Pretty cold. Snows. Lots of bikes. But really nice biking infrastructure — of the kind that’s hard to imagine in places like North America.
Doesn't snow as much, but the rain/wind can be pretty bad, and people still bike everywhere.
When you a dressed right it ain't bad
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The crucial aspect here is “yet.” Most car makers are on their very first foray into EV, but have been perfecting efficiencies in ICE for many decades. The summary judgement articles and whatnot declaring EV dead on arrival ignore that ICE marginal improvements are slow and expensive, while EV marginal improvements are fast and cheap. How long until EV are cheaper and more reliable? I’ll wager in the span of 5 years.…
As you say, The crucial aspect here is “yet” meaning at the moment, no. In the future, maybe yes, maybe still no. Until and if that day comes, then yes. But right now it's no. Speculation is speculation.
ICE is fundamentally too complex. The primary issue in EV is battery tech, and that is advancing so rapidly with so much investment that the 5 year roadmap of CATL and others already addresses almost all the issues, and there’s a ton of wildcard battery tech looming with intense interest.
There’s nothing on the roadmap on ICE. There is no roadmap, just entrenched interests.
Get back to me when there is enough infrastructure to support buying an EV as against an ICE car. That means having an electrical grid that can support charging millions of cars every night, having sufficient charging stations that you don't have to queue up to access one, having sufficient charging stations that you can be assured of finding enough of them through rural, regional or desert areas. In other words, eve…
Yep. I know most driving isn't long-distance in rental cars, but I was traveling a few weeks ago and offered an electric car instead of the hybrid I had reserved, but since I was going to be driving long distances through rural areas, I declined. Not interested in finding where the hell to charge the car, in general or close enough to the airport for it to still have an acceptable amount of charge left when I returne…
Thanks a lot Thrifty. Not going to rent from you again until you fix your electric car return policies.
Two years ago I spend nearly a month hunting for a decent electric vehicle. I had plenty of funds, and could theoretically afford a lower-end tesla. I was, at the time, driving a 2002 Honda Civic Hybrid, because to me, going electric makes sense. I was aware of the range limitations, and even had an agreement with my landlord to get a 220v outlet installed in the garage. I ultimately abandoned my endeavor because non…
This reads paranoid and hyperbolic. I’m gonna need sources that you actually cannot repair an EV yourself. Parts sourcing may be difficult, and I’m sure there’s some certification you need as a mechanic to work on high voltage systems in some states, but the vast vast majority of work on EVs is boring normal stuff like brakes, fluids, etc. Nobody is getting thrown in jail for opening the hood on their own car, that’s…
In a Zoe, there is no coolant to change, it's an integrated heat pump system for humans and propulsion system.
There is very little maintenance a home gamer can do on it, alas.
Electric cars do not make sense to own if you are not also owning a garage where you can charge them overnight. Also, if you are unwilling to add 1+ hour(s) to your travel time on longer distances.
There are 1.88 vehicles per household in the US so it seems like many American households could have one of those vehicles be an EV while the other is gasoline for longer trips if they need that functionality so badly.
The range anxiety thing is so overblown, too. Driving 300 miles at 60mph average is 5 full hours of driving. That’s so much.
If you assume that EVs are barely doing 200 miles of real condition range that’s still over 3 hours of driving before you need to stop at all.
And then if you are going much longer than 500 miles it starts to make more sense to fly in the US. For a family of four you can’t make a trip from Ohio to Orlando make financial sense in a car, like, at all. The airfare is too low and the car travel time is too high.
I have an acquaintance that bought an electric BMW for roughly €80,000. My Dacia has cost me €4500 when it was brand new 14 years ago and I'm still driving it. In my opinion electric cars are too expensive, yeah :)
You know you can buy €80,000 ice cars too right? Why would you compare cars that arent competing with each other?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This reads paranoid and hyperbolic. I’m gonna need sources that you actually cannot repair an EV yourself. Parts sourcing may be difficult, and I’m sure there’s some certification you need as a mechanic to work on high voltage systems in some states, but the vast vast majority of work on EVs is boring normal stuff like brakes, fluids, etc. Nobody is getting thrown in jail for opening the hood on their own car, that’s…
EV brakes are extremely complex because they need to feel like hydraulic brakes but be decoupled from the calipers unless the computer can't accomplish what the driver is asking for with regen, and then it must let the physical force of the drivers for continue through to the calipers. They have to fail safe when the computer is crashing and not calculating the motor field winding currents correctly for them to work.…
Coolant... sure there's less coolant, but there still is coolant, it's just usually for cooling the battery and motors and not the engine. Most are lifetime fill, although most gas engines have >100k mile coolant change intervals already.
What maintenance are you suggesting even needs to be done? Tire changes/rotations, cabin air filter changes... there isn't much else you even need to do.
Right now, electric cars are still at a disadvantage because of lower production volumes. It's not only the material cost of the battery and the motor that makes them more expensive, but also the share of the development costs that each sale has to recoup. In the not so distant future I think petrol and diesel cars are going to be at a disadvantage because of this. I still own a quite old (12 years, but low mileage)…
That’s not the only thing. Electric vehicles are generally cheaper-built compared to gasoline cars at the same price point. They have cost- and weight-saving compromises that make them tangibly feel less valuable.
Surprise surprise, quality of materials per dollar isn’t always what guides buying decisions.
If that was the case, brands like Lincoln, Jeep, Dodge, and Maserati would be gone by now.
This is probably why Tesla emphasizes speed and performance in its marketing, because it is a spec where EVs are very price competitive. If you’re a young man who wants a fast car (a pretty common desire in that demographic) you’ll have a hard time finding gas cars as cheap as a Model 3 that can get to 60MPH in 3 seconds.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
As you say, The crucial aspect here is “yet” meaning at the moment, no. In the future, maybe yes, maybe still no. Until and if that day comes, then yes. But right now it's no. Speculation is speculation.
No, as an EV owner I’m 98% confident ICE is over. The age of fire is ending and the age of maxwells equations is upon us. ICE is fundamentally too complex. The primary issue in EV is battery tech, and that is advancing so rapidly with so much investment that the 5 year roadmap of CATL and others already addresses almost all the issues, and there’s a ton of wildcard battery tech looming with intense interest. There’s…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You know you can buy €80,000 ice cars too right? Why would you compare cars that arent competing with each other?
I think the OPs point is more likely that there are no EVs for 4.5k.
Note that it's not 20k but another 1k. For that €1000 which is a rounding error in the price of a new car, I can find lots of second-hand cars that will work just fine and have far greater autonomy than the electric one: https://www.olx.ro/d/oferta/vand-dacia-logan-2006-IDhOqJI.ht...
I only know one guy that has an electric car, that BMW, for which he actually only paid half, the other was some sort of aid program for companies (he owns one). He also owns a regular BMW and says the quality is far superior, and convenience and autonomy wise they cannot be compared.
So for €40,000 he bought an expensive toy because he can afford it but for serious business, driving hundreds of Km in one go, quick refill, comfort, he uses the gas-based car. Just think that besides driving from point A to point B in the winter you also need heating and in the summer cooling. The battery autonomy falls dramatically if you use them. Then there's charging time which is a major inconvenience compared with time to refill.