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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

#31

Post by lizardking »

thehappypm wrote: post #12
malfist wrote: 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

Expensive is relative. Model 3s and Model Ys are often cheaper than the comparable luxury competition from the BMWs and Audis of the world. Sure, a Corolla or a Kia are cheaper, but that's not the same market.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#32

Post by onlyhumans »

Ekaros wrote: post #30
TexanFeller wrote: post #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 wil…

Or I could get Kia with 7 year 150 Mm warranty. For even cheaper than the Toyota... Not ofc, covering everything, but enough... That is lot to save on fuel and maintenance... Which I would estimate to be around 500 a year for maintenance...

Kia’s also get stolen and broken into because how easy they are to steal

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#33

Post by rad_gruchalski »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #10

> 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…

You know what’s common for metro Hamburg and Norway? Each has a population of 5.4 million.

You know what’s not common? Hamburg doesn’t sit on massive natgas and oil reserves.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#34

Post by r14c »

EVs are expensive and not that much better than a hybrid at the same price point. going full electric on cars isn't even that good of a plan. where's all of that lithium supposed to come from? it would be dramatically more cost effective to invest heavily into grid-tied public transit in urban areas, including suburbs which need to be re-zoned to mix-use so local transit can be more useful, and heavily subsidize switching to hybrid flex fuel vehicles in rural areas.

the black and white thinking in this domain is really frustrating.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#35

Post by thehappypm »

FullyFunctional wrote: post #29
thehappypm wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

1. Yes, the only relevant point 2. is only an issue for people who don't actually own an EV. With Tesla's charging network (which is getting adopted by _nearly_ all EV manufacturers), _nearly_ everyone will have no range issue at all. The exception is rural America and pockets of poor coverage, but that is a minority.

I have a Tesla, and I still have an issue with the range. I’m going skiing this weekend and having to build three charging sessions into my trip doesn’t sound very fun, plus cold weather kills the range, so I’m gonna take a friends gas car instead.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#37

Post by rahimnathwani »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #10

> 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…

> The damages are proportional to the root of the weight

No, road damage is proportional to the 4th power of axle weight. So a car that's 50% heavier will do 5x the damage to the road. (Assuming the same number of axles.)

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#38

Post by ohfoydoyd »

avgDev wrote: post #18
TexanFeller wrote: post #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 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…

why is tesla the only viable option?

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#39

Post by sokoloff »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #10

> 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…

> The damages are proportional to the root of the weight

I'm not sure where the root of weight estimate came from, because you seem to understand the overall effect of weight reasonably well.

In any event, road damage is roughly proportional to the fourth power (not square root) of axle weight (and linear with axle count).

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#40

Post by teaearlgraycold »

TexanFeller wrote: post #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 wil…

The new Prius prime finally has EV range comparable to the Volt. That should be most people’s sedan pick if they aren’t looking for a budget option.
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