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Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

businessinsider.com

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Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#11
post #5

All car sales have stalled significantly. Now are there issues to EV sales, maybe? but a larger swath of people more than any other time in recent history can't afford new cars.

EV sales are still growing, as a percent of market share, just slower than some expectations

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#12
post #2

Such a garbage article. What happened to EVs is what happened to all new car sales. Reminds me of the time a couple decades back when a bunch of power plants went offline in Florida, and the only news article about it was about how a nuclear power plant stopped.

I think it makes a really good point. I drive an EV, and agree with two main points:

1: It was more expensive than an equivalent gas car

2: Range anxiety is real

I might have bought a $20,000 car with 100 miles of range, used it for almost all of my driving except long trips, and been happier having saved $25,000

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#13
The problem comes when you take the incentives that are supposed to make the cars less expensive and you use them instead to sell people more expensive cars. Turns out that pushing people to the limit of their ability to borrow is not a solid long-term business strategy. Gee who would have thought?

Guess who still knows how to build inexpensive cars?

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#14

> sales of EVs keep going up — a record 300,000 cars sold in the US in the third quarter of 2023 were electric — but the pace of adoption has markedly slowed This does not fit with the tone of the headline

Journalists are bad at math, surprise.

"pace of adoption" = % YoY growth. As the market matures and grows, it will no longer be able to "double" or "triple" in a short amount of time. A market with a fixed cap cannot sustain indefinite exponential growth; it will be a logistic function at best. This is simply a mathematical certainty; anyone who expected otherwise is a complete idiot undeserving to report on markets.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#15
I want an EV to be more reliable and save me more money in the long run. EVs start out ~10k more than the Corolla most people should buying. They then compromise the long term reliability and maintenance cost with high tech gee whiz features. I’d sooner have manual roll up windows than touch screen controlled air vents. When you integrate sensors and software controls into every little thing, we know those things will start failing and your intricate and overly proprietary systems will be expensive to repair. Their marketing says the electric motor will run longer, but a Toyota is already dead reliable for 300k miles and the bits in the cabin will last without repairs too. ICE cars are so reliable I don’t think anyone in my extended family has spent over $1k fixing them in any single year, with most years just the cost of an oil change.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#16

> If there's any direct inspiration for the United States' EV policy, it's Norway. As the story goes, Norway introduced some compelling subsidies for EVs Ah yup... Norway, sitting on gigantic oil reserves. Reserves so huge they could decide to just give the finger to the EU and not join. So huge there's a fund benefiting, AFAIK, all Norway citizens. I'm not criticizing Norway. But citing Norway as some kind of EV pos…

> But citing Norway as some kind of EV posterchild is quite hilarious when it's their oil business subsidizing EVs.

It's even more hilarious when you compare the population count.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#17

I would like an EV but not if it means I'm forced into an SUV, crossover, or some other huge land whale.

Yep. The Chevy Bolt (not EUV version) was the absolute perfect size in EVs - nice compact hatchback, plenty of storage room, still a standard 5-seat layout (albeit the seats were... not the most comfortable ever), could park it absolutely anywhere even in Seattle, excellent.

I sold that car in 2020. Fast forward about 4 years and the EV market is all just soulless massive tanks needing Oversized Load flagging trucks to go through narrow tunnels /halfjoke

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#18

I want an EV to be more reliable and save me more money in the long run. EVs start out ~10k more than the Corolla most people should buying. They then compromise the long term reliability and maintenance cost with high tech gee whiz features. I’d sooner have manual roll up windows than touch screen controlled air vents. When you integrate sensors and software controls into every little thing, we know those things wil…

That is one of the issues for me. Plus, the only viable EV now for me is Tesla, but they keep making silly decisions and are just an odd automaker.

By silly decisions I mean things like removal of turn signal stalk, removal of parking sensors, lack of a gauge in field of view(y, 3), etc.

I love ability to buy online.

I hate the lack of an online parts catalog where I can purchase OEM parts. This is a big issue for me. I have enough experience to do anything on ICE car myself, engine rebuild included.

The cost of a replacement battery is astronomical. I can replace an engine in an ICE vehicle for $2k.

It also appears that Tesla is more expensive to insure.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#19

I would like an EV but not if it means I'm forced into an SUV, crossover, or some other huge land whale.

Yep. The Chevy Bolt (not EUV version) was the absolute perfect size in EVs - nice compact hatchback, plenty of storage room, still a standard 5-seat layout (albeit the seats were... not the most comfortable ever), could park it absolutely anywhere even in Seattle, excellent. I sold that car in 2020. Fast forward about 4 years and the EV market is all just soulless massive tanks needing Oversized Load flagging trucks…

I've always been a fun and sporty 2-door coupe kind of person. I'm not aware of any EVs that fit that description and don't cost several arms and legs for some damn reason.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#20

A lot of common talking points from the anti-EV FUD going around - EVs are heavier, sales are going down (even though they're not, according to the data presented in the article), EVs don't have enough range. Ask an EV owner and they don't care. It's almost like there might be vested corporate interests (say, Big Oil?) pushing a narrative here? https://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html

Someone does need to pay to maintain the roads, however, and if ICEs become a smaller and smaller part of cars on the roads, the gas tax will cover less and less of the cost (and they already don't fully cover the costs of road maintenance).
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