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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

#501

Post by 2rsf »

theshrike79 wrote: post #422
gamepsys wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I bought an EV because it needs way less regular maintenance. I don't need to do oil changes or replace parts at an interval defined by the manufacturer. I don't even need to go to a gas station. And every time I leave home, I've got a full tank, charged with cheap electricity. And as a bonus it's really comfortable to drive, including having the ability to keep itself cool/warm even when the engine is not running. I…

Maintenance, planned and breakage, is a huge differentiator in favor of EVs- there are simply less moving parts and the EV ones are usually simpler and more reliable.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#502

Post by gnufied »

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…

>hose 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.

There is a silver lining in smaller houses. They tend to be in denser neighborhoods and hence has some benefits in raising kids. There is no need to setup play dates, they can literally hear each other screaming and come out to play.

In my bigger house neighborhood, I see very few kids just playing casually outside and hence we have to setup play dates. Yes now I have place for table tennis table that I always wanted but I have to call my friends over because bigger house in my case also is bit more further in suburbs.

So big house might be great for parties and hosting guests but i probably traded away closeness to my existing friends for myself and kids both. I just made my median day more boring than before.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#503

Post by thomasahle »

mort96 wrote: post #488
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 like that you didn't tackle the actual "need" you're trying to criticize, namely the need for a car which is compatible with road trips. For some people, it would look like this: > We need a car which can take us to our vacation home (goes to vacation home once per year, it's unreachable by train or bus and in a location where having a car is important; they could just rent out a rental car for a month for a billio…

> they could just rent out a rental car for a month for a billion dollars instead of having a car

Renting a car for a month is more like $1000.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#504

Post by j-bos »

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 see your point, people do overvalue edge cases. At the same time people also undervalue edge cases, think health insurance.

> We need a dining room for when we have parties

(Our community group needs a friendly reliable place to meet weekly)

> We need a guest bedroom

(My in-laws hit hard times, they need a safe place, now)

> I need a pickup truck

(I get to help out my friends with their projects and when their pressed to move)

And

> I need long range to take the semiannual road trip

(There was an earthquake/hurricane/flood/tornado/(in many counties /civil disturbance) and I need to move my family/haul supplies now)

I have plenty more examples, and I doubt I'd ever have a dining room for example, but I have personally benefited from each of the above. Edge cases can make or break lives. Just look at software people rely on.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#505

Post by 2rsf »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #152
avgDev wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is one of the issues for me. Plus, the only viable EV now for me is Tesla, but they keep making silly decisions and are just an odd automaker. By silly decisions I mean things like removal of turn signal stalk, removal of parking sensors, lack of a gauge in field of view(y, 3), etc. I love ability to buy online. I hate the lack of an online parts catalog where I can purchase OEM parts. This is a big issue for me…

Tesla is the only one I'll buy until any car can use the tesla charger network, others simply aren't very well kept up.

Many cars can use the Tesla network now, and you are probably biased to your geographical area. In Stockholm (Sweden) for example the Tesla chargers are located far away from the city center, while there are many third party chargers available anywhere.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#506

Post by ZeroGravitas »

unhammer wrote: post #339

> Though the new-vehicle sales figure is high, data from Statistics Norway indicates the total share of EVs on Norwegian roads in 2022 was only about 20% I followed the link buy couldn't find the source for this claim. The linked page talks about Registered vehicles (many of which will be car#2 etc), while https://www.ssb.no/en/transport-og-reiseliv/landtransport/st... about miles driven isn't split into EV/fossil. A…

This guy creates graphs from the data:

https://robbieandrew.github.io/EV/

The distance travelled graphs way down the page are split by powertrain.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#507

Post by franga2000 »

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 glad I live in a prosperous society where this is possible and all, but it's kind of annoying.

You don't, you live in one that took a huge loan against the future and counts on dying before it needs to be paid. The kind of environmental and socoetal damage caused by these kinds of inefficiencies is immeasurable.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#508

Post by lukas099 »

darksaints wrote: post #183
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’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.

I would not consider my having a trunk as being an edge case as I use it weekly. Back seat less so, but still quite often. But if I didn't, I probably wouldn't choose a car that had them (assuming such options were available)

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#509

Post by lukas099 »

mvkel wrote: post #256
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…

You're could use this argument to explain away seatbelts in cars

Only if had argued that every single event with a low probability should be discounted every single time, which I didn't.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#510

Post by taneq »

> 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

I feel that the headline subverts the lede somewhat. This is in line with most articles like this, where the big headline is a surprising/edgy “EVs are FAILING due to this ONE WEIRD THING” and the body of the article is “EV sales climb for the 15th consecutive quarter, but the quarter-on-quarter increase is slightly down on last quarter.”

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