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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

#161

Post by mvdtnz »

lukas099 wrote: post #78
rappatic wrote: post #60

The article talks about range concerns as if they're simply incorrect or ill-founded: > Niedermeyer said that while an electric car can meet most people's driving needs, it struggles with edge cases like road trips because of the need to recharge. Since Americans have been promised a one-to-one substitute for their gas cars, this seems like a failure; an EV should be able to do everything a gas car can. This idea per…

People focus too much on edge cases when making life decisions, imo. > We need a dining room for when we have parties (has a party once every 2 years; room sits empty 99% of the time) > We need a guest bedroom (guests could stay at the hotel down the street) > I need a pickup truck (driver is an accountant who maybe picks up a couple bags of mulch from Lowes twice a year) I'm glad I live in a prosperous society where…

The edge cases are the important cases though. Those parties I throw are the highlight of my year. My parents staying here with me is important to me, I wouldn't have it any other way. Yeah I have a desk job but that landscaping work I do in my weekend is one of my favourite hobbies.

I refuse to live my life as if these things aren't important to me. I refuse to average my entire life style down to my median day. My median day is boring.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#162

Post by karaterobot »

> Drivers saw the vehicles around them getting bigger, so they wanted bigger cars to make themselves feel safer. Automakers argued that this was proof that people wanted only big cars, so they cut small models and made existing vehicles bigger, which made people with smaller cars feel less safe — you get the picture.

This statement (that drivers buy bigger cars to protect themselves from big cars they see on the road) is unsourced, and seems ridiculous to me. I found some surveys where people cite safety as a factor in purchases of SUVs, but that says nothing about whether an "XXL" SUV is (or is even assumed to be) safer than an "XL" SUV. It especially does not attribute causation: whether or not people are buying larger and larger vehicles reactively, and in an endless feedback loop. That last part sounds like somebody's personal theory.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#163

Post by qwerpy »

derwiki wrote: post #97
more_corn wrote: post #43

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.

I don’t as many people follow Musk as closely as you think. Everyone in my circle is buying Tesla if they are buying EV. It’s the “obvious” choice because you see them everywhere; if you want an EV but don’t want to think too hard about it you get Tesla.

I agree, in my circle (Asian tech worker) no one cares about Musk’s shenanigans. They just want a practical EV with a charging network that just works. It’s always fun going to dinner parties and the driveway is full of white Xs and Ys. The Tesla hate comes from an insular online bubble, but it doesn’t seem to affect EV sales much.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#164

Post by pedalpete »

I'm surprised nobody is pointing out the chasm.

EVs have so far captured the market for early adopters. The range limitations, early teething problems, and just lack of comfort of understanding how they work (is it on, is it not on, how far can I go, etc etc) only appeals to the early adopters.

My proof point in this is when I was renting an EV at Hertz a few weeks ago. The couple next to me were trying out an EV for the first time, and trying to select one. They couldn't figure out how to get the trunk open, there was no obvious button or handle (this EV only had a button on the key, which they hadn't taken from the car yet).

They were asking me a few questions as I just walked up to my car and started getting my stuff in it. They wanted to know which one they should take, how do they know if it's locked, etc. Many things which are not significantly, or any different from a regular car, but they understand that EVs are new, and they obviously weren't comfortable with the new.

So a "slowdown in growth", is somewhat to be expected as EVs make the transition across the chasm.

I'm embarrassed that i don't know this, I've read the book, but how is this properly addressed?

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#165

Post by seanmcdirmid »

mvdtnz wrote: post #161
lukas099 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People focus too much on edge cases when making life decisions, imo. > We need a dining room for when we have parties (has a party once every 2 years; room sits empty 99% of the time) > We need a guest bedroom (guests could stay at the hotel down the street) > I need a pickup truck (driver is an accountant who maybe picks up a couple bags of mulch from Lowes twice a year) I'm glad I live in a prosperous society where…

The edge cases are the important cases though. Those parties I throw are the highlight of my year. My parents staying here with me is important to me, I wouldn't have it any other way. Yeah I have a desk job but that landscaping work I do in my weekend is one of my favourite hobbies. I refuse to live my life as if these things aren't important to me. I refuse to average my entire life style down to my median day. My…

We were wondering if we could drive to glacier national park in our BMW i4. There doesn’t seem to be any charging infrastructure outside Kalispell, so we are better off flying and renting an ICE car (Yellowstone or Grand Canyon doesn’t seem very possible yet either). Same with driving up to Alaska ATM, which maybe might be possible in 5 years but is impossible today unless you leverage slower charging at RV parks. They are unfortunate sacrifices, they definitely do matter.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#166

Post by kube-system »

lukas099 wrote: post #78
rappatic wrote: post #60

The article talks about range concerns as if they're simply incorrect or ill-founded: > Niedermeyer said that while an electric car can meet most people's driving needs, it struggles with edge cases like road trips because of the need to recharge. Since Americans have been promised a one-to-one substitute for their gas cars, this seems like a failure; an EV should be able to do everything a gas car can. This idea per…

People focus too much on edge cases when making life decisions, imo. > We need a dining room for when we have parties (has a party once every 2 years; room sits empty 99% of the time) > We need a guest bedroom (guests could stay at the hotel down the street) > I need a pickup truck (driver is an accountant who maybe picks up a couple bags of mulch from Lowes twice a year) I'm glad I live in a prosperous society where…

> People focus too much on edge cases when making life decisions, imo.

Yes, but in life, many of the most meaningful things are the edge cases. That's what makes them special. If people don't statistically have many dinner parties, then the dinner parties they do have might be even more special. This is life, not a statistical model.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#168

Post by mh8h »

akira2501 wrote: post #150
lukas099 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People focus too much on edge cases when making life decisions, imo. > We need a dining room for when we have parties (has a party once every 2 years; room sits empty 99% of the time) > We need a guest bedroom (guests could stay at the hotel down the street) > I need a pickup truck (driver is an accountant who maybe picks up a couple bags of mulch from Lowes twice a year) I'm glad I live in a prosperous society where…

> but it's kind of annoying. Why? Do the life choices of other individuals really cause you that much harm? I could see being annoyed that they're _marketed_ into over sized solutions that aren't actually correct for their use case, but to just be annoyed that other people appear to enjoy prosperity as an edge case is unusual to my way of thinking. > People focus too much on edge cases when making life decisions, imo…

> Why? Do the life choices of other individuals really cause you that much harm?

Yes. Larger SUVs and trucks are making roads less safe for pedestrians, cyclists, and even other cars.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#169

Post by seanmcdirmid »

tw04 wrote: post #92
rappatic wrote: post #60

The article talks about range concerns as if they're simply incorrect or ill-founded: > Niedermeyer said that while an electric car can meet most people's driving needs, it struggles with edge cases like road trips because of the need to recharge. Since Americans have been promised a one-to-one substitute for their gas cars, this seems like a failure; an EV should be able to do everything a gas car can. This idea per…

I’d argue most families have two cars though. So you get one EV and keep the ICE until the charging infrastructure is where it needs to be. Another alternative is to just rent a car for that long road trip which I’ve done in the past. That being said, I think far more people worry about daily mileage than you think. People think in terms of time spent driving, not distance. They tend to assume every hour is 60 miles…

Parking in denser cities is limited, slot of us only have one space and so one car.
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