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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

#931

Post by PH95VuimJjqBqy »

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…

agree with absolutely everything you said.

I purchased my corrolla off the lot in 2004 and _chose_ to go with manual everything for because it's cheaper and more reliable.

here we are 20 years on and that car is rock solid reliable with 168k miles and regular maintenance. I'm hoping to get another 20 years out of it.

When I decided I needed a minivan I went out and bought a 2007 Honda Odyssey, put a few thousand dollars into it and it runs like a champ (has just under 190k miles on it). But the Odyssey has an ongoing problem I'm trying to figure out and rectify ... the power sliding doors. I'd honestly rather just open them manually.

People love their convenience, but you know these vehicles with all their fancy whizbang features are going to be a maintenance burden during their lifetime.

There's something to be said about simplicity.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#932

Post by [deleted] »

pjc50 wrote: post #673
jvanderbot wrote: post #186

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 l…

Yes, it's very misleading report that the second derivative has changed.

[deleted]

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#933

Post by jvanderbot »

pjc50 wrote: post #673
jvanderbot wrote: post #186

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 l…

Yes, it's very misleading report that the second derivative has changed.

"Markedly slowed" is apparently what we say when growth is 87% of what it was last time this year.

And this somehow means that sales are less than they were? The spin doctors have lost their minds.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#934

Post by Symbiote »

rtkwe wrote: post #731
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…

That depends massively on having home charging. If you live anywhere without it like an apartment complex, a high rise, with street parking only or a multiplex you'll have to count on charging at work.

In many European cities there are 7 or 22kW chargers on the street, used for overnight charging. Sometimes they're built in to lamp posts, more often they're independent.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#935

Post by Symbiote »

ecmascript wrote: post #623
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…

Yesterday close to where I live there was a big queue that still isn't resolved in a winter storm (over 1000 cars got stuck). With a gas car, you can physically go and get gas and fill it up manually but an EV would run out of battery, die and would need to be towed. Maybe you live in a place where winter storms are not a reality but where I live the range isn't the problem it's the weather combined with the range. E…

Every hour with the heater on but the car otherwise idle uses around 1-4km of range.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#936

Post by Aqueous »

charles_f wrote: post #749
Aqueous wrote: post #688

Sorry, but in what world do sales of electric cars going up and market share of electric vehicles increasing lead to the thesis that "fewer people are buying electric cars?" Oh - I get it. It's the world where this publication wants clicks for ad revenue. "Sure, electric vehicles are becoming more and more widely adopted, but wouldn't it be better for this article if they weren't?"

The actual title of the article is "What happened to EVs" and the page title is "Why America's electric car push isn't working". I don't know where the HN title is coming from, whether it's an update of the article's title because of precisely what you're advancing, or if it's heavy editing from the submitter. Generally speaking the article exposes that the pace of adoption as stated by DoT didn't grow enough to meet…

So "the fewer people are buying electric cars" canard is still living in a caption under the banner: "Fewer people are buying electric cars — the slowdown hints at a problem at the heart of America's EV push."

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#937

Post by warunsl »

christiangenco wrote: post #778
atestu wrote: post #664

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in that first group and I don't see how it makes the most sense. They are not more convenient. I can "charge" my gas car in 2 minutes basically anywhere in the country. I'm going on vacation next week, driving with 2 young children. It'll be about a 11 hour drive which is not crazy for a US vacation. I don't want to plan where I stop and stop for 45 minutes to fuel up with 2 toddlers in the car. And they're all m…

My wife and I own a single family home, a gas-powered car (Toyota Rav4), and an electric car (a standard range Tesla model 3). The electric car is much more convenient for us for city driving and the gas-powered car is much more convenient for road trips. Refuelling the Rav4 is an errand that takes time, planning, and mental energy. For my wife it's also a low-level danger: women find gas stations spooky, apparently.…

> Refuelling the Rav4 is an errand that takes time, planning, and mental energy.

I have never seen anyone say fueling a gas car needs planning and mental energy. Unless the first car you ever drove was an EV, it is hard to believe that it NOT almost a second nature to drive to a nearest gas station as soon as your car beeps about remaining mile range. This is greenwashing at its finest.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#938

Post by thebruce87m »

iamleppert wrote: post #534

Until they can produce an EV that doesn’t feel like a massive downgrade in connvience, performance, cost, basically all the ways normal people measure the decision of buying a car, I’m not sold. I like the fact it takes a few minutes to refuel my car, and it’s the same process regardless if I’m traveling 5 miles or 500. I don’t need to deal with charging stations, and if I run out of gas I can take a gas can to the c…

Lots of FUD in this post, but this one sticks out:

> When’s the last time you have seen a gasoline car spontaneously combust just sitting in a garage? Despite having a lot of flammable liquid it just doesn’t happen.

I’ve never seen an ICE or an EV catch fire. I can count the number of car fires I’ve seen on one hand, but ICE cars do spontaneously combust:

Hyundai/Kia:

> Some of the fire risk issues were so severe, vehicle owners were encouraged to park their vehicles outside and away from their homes or other structures in case the car spontaneously caught on fire.

Ford:

> Ford issued a fire safety recall for over 39,000 vehicles, urging vehicle owners to park their cars outside due to the increased fire risk. Drivers reported fires while their cars were unattended and a burning smell and smoke from the front passenger area while driving.

Mercedes:

> This defect allows water from external sources to get into the electrical connections of the wiring harness. Water on electric components can cause short circuits, leading to an increased fire risk if the ignition is turned off for long periods of time.

https://normantaylor.com/blog/which-cars-catch-fire-the-most...

Sure, EVs catch fire. But they are 20x less likely to than an ICE. https://thedriven.io/2023/05/16/petrol-and-diesel-cars-20-ti...

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#939

Post by Symbiote »

genocidicbunny wrote: post #455
peebeebee wrote: post #433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? What emergency? You will always have solar on your roof. I think in emergencies, gas will run out much quicker than electricity? And where do you live that you have a mess of public chargers? The quick charger network is excellent where I live (Benelux)

> You will always have solar on your roof. Methinks you assume too much. Rooftop solar is only really an option for someone that owns a SFH, or is in a townhome with a fairly permissive HOA (In the US). Someone living in an apartment probably has no ability to access reliable solar except via the primary grid (which we assume will be down in case of emergency.) And in other places, like California, having solar panel…

It's a terrible idea to keep petrol on an apartment. It's illegal here, for that reason.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#940

Post by taylodl »

outlace wrote: post #627

EV’s currently make the most sense for people who own a single family home or otherwise live in a community with readily available near-home chargers, where EV’s are on average more convenient than gas cars. People who rely on street parking and apartment dwellers would likely find EV’s more inconvenient than a gas car. We may be close to saturating the market for the former group. Another factor that could be at pla…

> We may be close to saturating the market for the former group.

Not even close. Maybe 6% of the households in my neighborhood have an EV, and I have no reason to believe we don't represent the average upper middle class neighborhood. I would imagine that percentage to be considerably lower in middle class neighborhoods. That's why I say we're not even close to saturating the single family home market.

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