Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US • Hacker News Board

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#181

Post by 0x00000000 » Thu, Jan 04, 2024, 5:06 AM UTC

ac29 wrote: post #141

iknowstuff wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Their most expensive electricity scenario is 20c/kWh. Maybe that was realistic when the article was written 5 years ago, but electricity is definitely more expensive than that in California now, even with a special EV rate plan.

Mine is over $0.60/kWh in Silicon Valley ironically making most gas cars cheaper per mile.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#182

Post by lukas099 » Thu, Jan 04, 2024, 5:06 AM UTC

iteria wrote: post #94

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…

It's about how often the edge case comes up. 4 to 12 times a year, I need to drive 300 miles to visit my family. 10 to 30 times a year, I'll drive 50 to 60 miles to visit friends/family or see specialist doctors or take trip to some interesting event. But on the vast majority of days I drive less than 10 miles a day. My edge cases come up fairly frequently and I don't really have a good fall back for them i could spe…

Your 'edge case' seems to be practically weekly, so that's fine for you but not what I was talking about.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#183

Post by darksaints » Thu, Jan 04, 2024, 5:09 AM UTC

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…

I’m willing to bet you do the exact same thing. The vast majority of people drive alone every day, and only occasionally have passengers. Do you have a passenger seat? A back seat? A trunk? If so, you’re buying for the edge cases, not the average, and you’re not special.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#184

Post by rdl » Thu, Jan 04, 2024, 5:09 AM UTC

I just got my "configure your Cybertruck" email. Unfortunately, I have an outdoor parking spot in a rented apartment and running power to charge there would be difficult/impossible. Yet, I would like a cybertruck.

I am going to try to buy a house in 2024-2026 so I can have a charging spot/garage so I can buy the EV, although not in a huge rush given the local real estate market (Puerto Rico), hassle of moving, etc (and relatively few miles/yr on my present car, although it's a 2006 and gets about 10-12mpg).

I wonder how many people are in similar situations. A PHEV would actually be the optimal new vehicle for me -- no need to charge, exempt from 40% import duty, and highly efficient in stop and go traffic -- but I want the Tesla. (I've also never owned a new vehicle, and kind of enjoy owning an old/cheap enough truck that if anything happened to it I'd be relatively unconcerned.)

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#185

Post by cozzyd » Thu, Jan 04, 2024, 5:09 AM UTC

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…

yes, a lot of environmental harm is caused by unnecessarily large vehicles (and houses, for that matter).

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#186

Post by jvanderbot » Thu, Jan 04, 2024, 5:10 AM UTC

Title is incorrect.

> Sure, 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

So, from that we're to conclude that electric cars are doomed?

In fact, fewer more people are buying cars:

> Electric car registrations accounted for more than 16% of the market in the first seven months of 2023, up from 14% this time last year. The rise saw the number of electric cars sold rise to 175,978 from 127,492 by the end of July (a rise of 38%), according to the latest official figures from the SMMT.

https://www.electrifying.com/blog/article/electric-car-sales... (and their first citation)

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#187

Post by jvanderbot » Thu, Jan 04, 2024, 5:10 AM UTC

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…

> However, experts are warning the growth rate in electric vehicle uptake isn’t strong enough, particularly with private car buyers, to reach the 22% target without greater incentives such as a cut in VAT on public charging and a more robust charging network

Yeah - you need robust charging network to incentivize more uptick in electric cars. Everyone knows that. This is classic. We can't handle 100% of use cases yet, so we're doomed.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#188

Post by cardy31 » Thu, Jan 04, 2024, 5:10 AM UTC

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…

Lots of American Exceptionalism in this comment and the replies.

The Norwegian state makes so much money off of oil because of how well they manage the revenues. The US could do the same thing but chooses not to.

The difference between the US and Norway isn’t in the amount of fossil fuel reserves one possesses vs the other. It is in how the money from those resources is used. The US privatizes it while Norway puts it towards the public good.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#189

Post by lukas099 » Thu, Jan 04, 2024, 5:10 AM UTC

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?

I meant more emphasis on the 'kind of' in 'kind of annoying'.

Maybe 'frustrating' would have been a better word. It is frustrating when seemingly everyone around you is on a different page than you are.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#190

Post by lukas099 » Thu, Jan 04, 2024, 5:11 AM UTC

kbrackbill wrote: post #91

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…

I think what makes it hard to be realistic about these things is that they're all aspirational. People want to be the kind of people who have parties, have guests often, do big projects that need a truck. Admitting to yourself that you don't need these things is admitting that you're not living up to the ideal in your head.

Great point.