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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

#41

Post by grecy »

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…

> Norway, sitting on gigantic oil reserves

The US is currently producing more oil than any country at any time in history. [1].

Also the US has much, much larger reserves than Norway [2] Norway has 0.31% of the world's oil, the US has 2.1%

So I'm not sure why Norway's oil has anything to do with this discussion.

[1] https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/19/business/us-production-oil-re...

[2] https://www.worldometers.info/oil/oil-reserves-by-country/

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#42

Post by brightball »

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…

I bought a used Model 3 for a little under 40k with a payment of about $500 / month. I was previously spending $500 / month in gas.

The vehicle is literally paying for itself based on my usage.

Now, if you’re driving less the math may not work out but the cost of fuel alone has to factor into those annual maintenance costs.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#43

Post by more_corn »

One big problem is that the ceo man-child has made Tesla toxic. This has cost the brand and the market a significant amount of credibility. Their abysmal build quality and parts monopoly don’t help matters either. Now he picked a fight with the labor unions of Scandinavia.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he tanks the whole industry.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#44

Post by AlphaWeaver »

rahimnathwani wrote: post #37
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.)

That's an interesting formula - why is it the 4th power of the axle weight?

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#45

Post by iknowstuff »

Dumbass "journalists" with the usual clickbait.

Explicitly MORE people are buying EVs:

> Sure, sales of EVs keep going up — a record 300,000 cars sold in the US in the third quarter of 2023 were electric

The only thing they're seeing is "but the pace of adoption has markedly slowed" -- no shit, have you seen the interest rates and price diffs?

And which manufacturer grew the most? Oh that's right the only all-EV one. Just so happens Tesla dropped prices to keep monthly payments roughly the same.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#46

Post by zip1234 »

BobaFloutist wrote: post #20
nostrademons wrote: post #4

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).

In the US gas/fuel taxes cover only 41% of road costs. All usage fees together is 55%.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#47

Post by femto »

Why don't electric cars use replaceable battery modules with a standard form factor? Advantages would include:

1) It allows the battery to be easily replaced as the car gets older.

2) With a suitable generic form factor, it would allow batteries to be upgraded as technology changes.

3) It would allow people to only populate enough battery slots for their daily needs. Communing to work: you only need to insert a few battery modules. Going on a road trip: you can buy/rent extra battery modules and populate every battery slot.

4) Matching battery capacity to the task at hand is also safer, as there is less energy in the system in case of an accident.

The manufacturers may be using batteries as built in obsolescence or differentiation, but surely there is enough competition for someone to break ranks and build a car with some modularity. It could stimulate sales by giving people confidence in the battery, the weakest part of an electric car. Maybe Framework should start building cars as well as laptops?

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#49

Post by robotresearcher »

brightball wrote: post #42
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…

I bought a used Model 3 for a little under 40k with a payment of about $500 / month. I was previously spending $500 / month in gas. The vehicle is literally paying for itself based on my usage. Now, if you’re driving less the math may not work out but the cost of fuel alone has to factor into those annual maintenance costs.

How are you charging it for free? At the office?

My car insurance is very much higher for a Model 3 than a similarly priced car because repairs are more expensive. This should be added to the TCO.

I like the Model 3 still, because it’s a fun car to drive. It’s not cheap though.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#50

Post by iknowstuff »

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…

Total Cost of Ownership is already significantly lower than a Corolla's so idk what's stopping you buddy.

https://cleantechnica.com/2019/06/22/toyota-corolla-vs-tesla...

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