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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

#341

Post by GuB-42 »

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…

Furthermore this argument would favor plug-in hybrids, not fully electric cars.

If only 30 miles is required most of the times, why go with these big, heavy, expensive batteries when you need only a quarter of it. Something like the Chevrolet Volt would be perfect, fully covering the 93% case with its smaller battery, but for the remaining 7%, the gas engine gives it a better range than any fully electric car.

And for emissions, we are 93% there with a plug-in hybrid, so clearly that's the solution.

Except, maybe not... because there is another trick in that stat. Maybe 93% of the trips are less than 30 miles, but 93% of the miles driven are necessarily part of a trip that is more than 30 miles. Same thing for that "40 miles a day", it doesn't account for days where no driving happens. So it means that it you take a random car on the road, there is a good chance it is doing a longer trip than 30-40 miles.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#342

Post by fxd123 »

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…

It's also missing the biggest point: no charger at home. I live in an apartment building, there are no chargers. I would be worried about my commute, since I would be driving to the other side of town for the rare public charger

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#343

Post by unglaublich »

gamepsys wrote: post #129
rdtsc wrote: post #66

> But an analysis from CarGurus found that EV prices were still 28% higher than gas-vehicle prices on average. To me that is bonkers. When EVs were becoming popular, I was expecting to see super cheap, under $10k vehicles. That was the promise: forget about all the IC complicated gears, alternators, transmission, fuel pumps and imagine getting a motor and batteries, what could be simpler!". But no, we ended up with m…

The last time I bought a personal vehicle (2022) I did some math. I drive X miles a year, I pay Y for gas, I pay Z for electricity. I then compared some vehicles in the segment that fits my needs and found the ICE options to have a significantly lower cost of ownership for the 8-10 years I expect to operate the vehicle. So I left the extra 15 grand in stock, which will see a much higher rate of return than an EV woul…

The motivation behind choosing an EV is not because it's cheaper. People like the features, low pollution, low noise, the imagine, etc. Buying a car is very often not about making the best financial decision. E.g. in Europe, SUVs are now the most popular car model, even though they are more expensive, use more fuel, are more dangerous, noisy, polluting, etc.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#344

Post by Throw839 »

BeefDinnerPurge wrote: post #260
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 have a 200 mile range EV, which is to say a practical range of 120-160. It's great for running around the bay area. It's not so great for the monthly travel I do going 500-2000 miles in a stretch because stopping every 120-160 miles for anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours is mind-numbing, and that doesn't even account for the mercurial state of the national charging network. It's also not so great in places less fr…

Car rental...

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#347

Post by lukas099 »

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…

> I could see being annoyed that they're _marketed_ into over sized solutions that aren't actually correct for their use case

Yeah, it's really not the thing itself that's annoying. It's just knowing that it's an unconventional opinion and I'm not going to change anyone's minds on it and I better just keep it to myself to be polite. Not the end of the world of course, but slightly frustrating.

If I were writing the post again, I'd definitely take the 'annoying' sentence out of it.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#348

Post by buckinkb »

jitl wrote: post #89

The electric offerings from most companies just don’t seem “there” yet. I don’t want a Tesla because AirPlay and adjustable aircon grates are non-negotiable for me, but the alternatives just don’t seem like a good bet yet. Hyundai is compelling, but most brands are offering electrified versions of non-EV platforms. An EV platform with low drag is much better, but outside of Tesla and Hyundai no one seems to be shippi…

You mean CarPlay? I worried about that before getting a model y, and it was really unfounded. If anything Tesla’s is better (at worst equal). I love not plugging in my phone every time (no maps on Bluetooth with CarPlay). Maybe turo a Tesla for a few days before making up your mind

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#349

Post by CalRobert »

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…

This is one of the great things about car share services or sites like turo, and why it's great Airbnb is in gasp residential neighbourhoods.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#350

Post by mythhabit »

pmontra wrote: post #303
matt-attack wrote: post #282

My biggest beef with EV buyers is their obsession with range, and their complete and utter disregard for efficiency. Why do we obsess over fuel economy for our ICE cars but have zero awareness of what the equivalent figures are for the various EVs. Imagine 2 seemingly environmentally conscious buyers debating between a Corolla and a Hummer: "How far can the Corolla go on a tank? 325mi. OK, well how far can the Hummer…

Nobody is concerned about the range of a gas car because we can fill their tank in five minutes and there are gas stations everywhere. The only times I've been concerned about the range of a gas car was when crossing Australia east to west on the Great Central Road on a Toyota Landcruiser. There was a gas station every 400 km and I couldn't skip one because the car couldn't do 800 km. Yet, we could refill in 5 minute…

In that case, I'd strongly advise anyone doing the same, to have enough fuel to cover 800km and some. If that means you have to lug 80L in jerry cans, so be it, because in such situations you cannot assume that those gas stations even have fuel, or it could be closed for the weekend. It would seriously suck to be stuck there for a few days because you do not have more fuel.
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