Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

businessinsider.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

401–410 of 1001 posts

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#401

Post by oblio »

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.

> I was previously spending $500 / month in gas.

To me this seems extreme, what would you say the average gas price is for you and what cars do you drive and what's their fuel efficiency?

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#402

Post by rib3ye »

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…

If people are paying a premium for something, they are going to expect it to hit the edge cases.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#403

Post by oblio »

onlyhumans wrote: post #32
Ekaros wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Didn't they fix that?

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#404

Post by wakeupcall »

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…

Range is an issue for me. I commute by public transport or bike. I only use the car for relatively long weekend trips (3/4 hours, 300+km).

For these trips, stopping halfway for charging makes no sense: I don't want to add another 30m to the trip. At the destination there is generally no charging infrastructure. If there was, that would be the only point I would consider for charging.

Charging infrastructure is still underdeveloped. I see many parking spaces converted to EV charging where the electricity cost is often double of your house utility cost, to the point that almost noone charges in such places if they can avoid. The utter nonsense of the app requirements for every single charging place.

Renting a car here is just a PITA. Go to the rental place, for which I need a car or public transport, waste 30 to 60m to get paperworks signed and car checked. I considered selling my car and just renting to get rid of the maintenance, but it turns out it's cheaper to get a used car like I do if you do at least one of such trips per month.

On top of this, EVs are still too expensive. I never bought new cars in the first place, so I'll be looking at EVs when the used marked starts to fill up with something at the same cost level of used ICE, factoring for the battery degradation.

People mention ICE maintenance, but honestly in my last 2 ICE cars, the engine was never a problem. It's usually everything else that starts breaking too often, requiring too much maintenance.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#405

Post by Vespasian »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #231

This article makes me even more dismayed at the fact that the Chevy Volt never really took off. I really believe it would be the perfect car for most people: 1. As the article points out, most people drive less than 40 miles a day, and the Volt provided 40-50 miles of electric range. 2. Since the battery is relatively small for an EV, no expensive home charging system is needed - just plug it into a normal 120V outle…

A coworker of mine has been commuting ~3 days a week (35km one ways distance) in his EV that has about 230km usable range.

Sure a shorter range would technically suffice but it's nice to not have to charge each day (since he can't do that at home and uses a public charge points near his gym).

That comes down to roughly charging 1-2 times a week which is no hassle at all and doesn't require a secondary drive train with all it's complexity and maintenance cost.

Hybrid sales are way down here in Germany (relative to EV and the whole market) and they won't come back I think.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#406

Post by peebeebee »

talldatethrow wrote: post #90

I think EVs give me LESS range anxiety overall. In my gas car days, atleast once a month I was late for work or an event AND low on gas. Having to remember and think about getting gas was constantly on my mind because I have a pretty long commute. With an electric car, I start every day, always, with a full tank. No matter how late I'm running, I know there won't be a surprise that I need gas in addition to being lat…

Problem is more apparent when you live in a city and have no outlet at home (no garage or driveway). But the anxiety is very minimal. People are exaggerating. Quick chargers are everywhere, and you just have to change your mindset just a little bit. (sometimes you might have to walk a few minutes from your public charge spot to your home) I will gladly take that bit annoyance when this leads to better air quality in the city.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#407

Post by nightfly »

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…

When I was car shopping after my car was totaled last year I worked out that at my then-current millage (90 miles per day 4-5 days per week) getting the cheapest electric car that would meet my needs would cost be about as much per month (payment, insurance, electric) as the cheapest ICE vehicle ONLY if I maintained that amount of daily milage. Any less than that and the electric option would start be more expensive because the base payment + insurance would be so expensive it would eat up most of the monthly cost.

Also renting a car for a day/overnight trips sucks. I used to live like two blocks from an Enterprise during the 7 or so year range that I didn't own a car and experience was always awful the 1-2 times a year I'd have to do it. The availability of vehicles was always terrible, the people working there were scummy, pickup would take 30-60 minutes every time. My last time there really sucked and their "remedy" was a 10% coupon off my next rental, which never happened.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#408

Post by okokwhatever »

I want to drive as much as I want the IC/EV car that I want with the range that I decide, whenever and wherever I want. I dont care If the common HN guy decides to buy the next Apple Car because the fancy screens or the expensive Tesla paid with the startup Options, I want a car I feel proud to own for many many years to dedicate time to work in the engine and to be able to fix it by myself. Somehow it's a matter of freedom that, I'm observing more and more this days, has been lost in the past of this forum.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#409

Post by elif »

Affric wrote: post #271
elif wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After taking an EV on a ~6500 mile road trip a couple months ago, I never want to road trip in a gas car ever again. Highlights: - by the 2.5-3.5 hour mark between charges, I'm ready for a 25-35 min break and its somewhere nice and not a gas station - stop anywhere and sleep with air conditioning for free - never have to use gas station bathroom - never have to calculate any routes or fuel stops - also no gas cars dr…

You make it sound like a dream. Where were you road tripping?

From Atlanta to Vegas to SF, up the coast to Washington, then back east though the middle of the country and back to Atlanta, going through Grand canyon, petrified forest, Yosemite, Shasta, redwood forest, Columbia River gorge, Yellowstone, Badlands, and car camping at some state parks on the way. I think it was 27 states total, 99.9% self driving and zero planning on my part.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#410

Post by calvinmorrison »

teeray wrote: post #106
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…

> The argument is a clear strawman; it's playing down what people have genuine concerns with and focusing on the range aspect that's obviously unimportant It’s not a strawman if suddenly it costs hundreds more to rent a car to go visit the grandparents for the holidays. That doesn’t scale either because everyone will want a long range vehicle for holiday travel, making costs for them soar and availability drop.

The whole line of questioning reeks of "I am smarter and know more about your use cases than you do. And if you don't listen to me, you are stupid or wrong objectively".

My car is 40+ years old. If I rented a car every 300 mile trip I would need to be rich. Gas is relatively inelastic cost so a old reliable can be really cheap to keep around

Post reply on HN