Title is misleading. It is saying growth of market has slowed. EV sales are doing really well, considering interest rates.
Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US
561–570 of 1001 posts
Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US
#562I won't buy any car, electric or ICE, that comes with a data connection to someone else's server. That appears to include all EVs.
I've got some bad news for you...
Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US
#563Earlier 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…
You’re valuing your own time at $0/hr that is spent at gas stations, doing oil changes and other ICE maintenance, unless you have a personal assistant to do that stuff for you. My calculation was 15 minutes/week for gas, 1 hour every 3 months for oil changes, and 1 hour a month on average dealing with other ICE problems (for instance I had a water pump failure cause my engine to overheat on a busy highway, had to wai…
Where in the world does it take 15 minutes to fill up a tank of gas? You change your oil every 3 months? Are you driving 20,000+ miles per year? 1 hour per month on ICE problems? What are you driving, a 1985 Pontiac Skylark? My parents' 2003 Camry has never had a single mechanical problem.
Sometimes you just want something and that's OK...but your calculations are not based in reality.
Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US
#564I've lived with an EV for 3 years now, and take some legit road trips from SF: Utah, Vegas, LA, San Diego, Tahoe. I have also been all over the world and done many, many trips (far to many to count). I submit the optimum mix for most Americans right now is roughly 1 EV and 1 hybrid, solar roofing and a battery storage system. The average American has a spouse. Even if we ignore kids, we can roughly assume, unless tho…
> I submit the optimum mix for most Americans right now is roughly 1 EV and 1 hybrid, solar roofing and a battery storage system. What geographic locations do you have in mind when you’re recommending solar? Youre in basically the best location for it.
As far as the US is concerned, there are no stricly "bad" locations for solar. Even using them in Alaska makes sense.
Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US
#565Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is even worse for people like me, despite having a charger in my home. I almost never drive short distances, I walk everywhere locally. When I do drive, it is very long distances, and in those cases range and refill time counts for a lot. On their best days EVs have inferior range and in many conditions they have markedly inferior range. Add on top of that the lengthy recharge time (topping off a gas tank is idea…
> "We will know EVs have arrived when Americans in the mountain west start trading their Subarus for Teslas." The sort of people who used to buy brand-new Subarus are already buying Teslas. The people who buy used Subarus will be buying Teslas (and other EVs) in 5-10 years time when they're going cheap enough on the resale market.
Why would anyone buy a used Tesla when 1st buyers already have issues getting dying batteries replaced?
Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US
#566The 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…
> 93% of trips are less than 30 miles, but the vast majority of drivers take occasional trips that are beyond the range of an electric car I live in a dense city and don’t own a car. For most of my regular trips, a bicycle is faster and more convenient than a car. Any time we do rent a car, it’s for trips longer than 100mi. Weekend trips and such. An EV absolutely does not fit our usecase. We tried renting a Tesla on…
[deleted]
Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US
#567The 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…
> 93% of trips are less than 30 miles, but the vast majority of drivers take occasional trips that are beyond the range of an electric car I live in a dense city and don’t own a car. For most of my regular trips, a bicycle is faster and more convenient than a car. Any time we do rent a car, it’s for trips longer than 100mi. Weekend trips and such. An EV absolutely does not fit our usecase. We tried renting a Tesla on…
> But there’s lots of people living in dense cities. That’s why they’re dense.
Well, some populous cities sprawl, especially if they were built a little more recently.
Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US
#568Earlier quoted context omitted.
I disagree. The sustainable alternative to EVs is hybrids, not gas guzzlers. Hybrids can be smaller, cheaper, lighter and gentler on the grid. Each of these matter. Heavier cars cause significantly higher road wear [1], particulate pollution [2] and occupy more space. EVs by necessity, are heavier. This is especially evident in America's favorite product categories : SUVs and Trucks. The Ford- F150 lightning is 1.5x…
beware, lots of hybrids are basically scams. Range extenders probably aren't what you expect - You still have to charge. For example the bmw i3 range extender won't let you drive on gas. It will put charge in the battery while you are driving or stopped, but it won't generate nearly enough power to keep up with freeway driving. Other hybrids are basically ICE cars that can capture a little power and feed it back. and…
The complexity is the killer for me. I think with the advances in efficient (>90%) propane synthesis and direct fuel cells, we will see some fuel cell hybrids to give the fuel cells time to warm up. But even then, the extra complexity is very high.
Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US
#569The 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 vast majority of drivers take occasional trips that are beyond the range of an electric car. [...] no one is concerned with the EV getting through their commute In a prosperous society, the economic activity that you describe (daily commute, occasional trip) is important. Commuting keeps workers working, and trips are part of people's quality of life. So let's agree with your point that consumers are choosing t…
> At the same time, US car manufacturers know their business well and have not delivered small EVs or small hybrid vehicles because the manufacturers have chosen to aim at Tesla's demographic (i.e. rich and "spendy"). It's clear that physics absurdities like the F150 Lightning or the Dodge RAM "RAM charger" are also aiming at rich and spendy customers.
They're aiming at it because like almost everything (including ICE cars), you need to make it work before you make it cheap.
Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US
#570The 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…
> this one-size-fits-all solution fails to address our broader transportation problems
This just about sums it up. Even the best EVs today present a combination of strengths and limitations that mean they can't replace any given ICE car - only some of them.
I didn't buy my ancient gas-guzzling Lexus because it's good at doing things a public bus can do. I bought it because it's good at taking me into the sticks to see my loved ones.
The problem with EVs has little to do with the powertrain at this point. The biggest barrier is infrastructure. I need to be able to charge this thing anywhere along an interstate, without specifically planning every single stop ahead of time. We can figure out charging times later, just get the damn stations out there so we at least have something.