EVs may be great for someone with a home and garage to charge it, but for renters or more normal folks who have to park on the street, no ones going to add hours to their day sitting at a charging station.
Gasoline is cheap – but charging an EV is still cheaper
21–30 of 85 posts
Re: Gasoline is cheap – but charging an EV is still cheaper
#22I gas up a 40L tank once a month in climate where -15 happens for about two or three months. The tires are modest as the car doesn’t weigh much. The winter tires last a while and I just switched to my second pair of summers. Maintenance on a gas powered sedan is pretty minimal as my Honda is extremely reliable. I plan to run the car into the ground until the salt eats it alive. There’s a lot of sedans like mine in my…
It is a thing – I have one
Re: Gasoline is cheap – but charging an EV is still cheaper
#23EVs may be great for someone with a home and garage to charge it, but for renters or more normal folks who have to park on the street, no ones going to add hours to their day sitting at a charging station.
> Yeah but do they calculate your personal time value in sitting at a charging station for an hour?
An even more interesting calculation would be how much you are shortening your life by standing at a gas pump inhaling carcinogens. Not to mention breathing the exhaust of all the vehicles around you.
LA has some of the worst air quality in the developed world [1]. Do you want to live there and breath that everyday?
[1] https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2023-04-19/l-a-get...
Re: Gasoline is cheap – but charging an EV is still cheaper
#24Only if you do this weird unrealistic math. Usually you need to install some infrastructure or deal with overnight slow charging. Thats if you even have a spot at home for this. Factor in your time hunting for a charger or waiting around for the car, depending on how you value your time, and maybe filling up the gas car for $40 in 3 minutes really is cheaper when you’ve accounted for all the inconvenience you might b…
Also in most countries of this world, charging an EV effectively means charging with a majority of energy derived from burning gasoline (or equivalents).
You, ah, might want to check your numbers.
Fully 70 countries in the world generate more than 50% of their energy from renewables [1], and it's climbing rapidly.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_renewable...
Re: Gasoline is cheap – but charging an EV is still cheaper
#25Only if you do this weird unrealistic math. Usually you need to install some infrastructure or deal with overnight slow charging. Thats if you even have a spot at home for this. Factor in your time hunting for a charger or waiting around for the car, depending on how you value your time, and maybe filling up the gas car for $40 in 3 minutes really is cheaper when you’ve accounted for all the inconvenience you might b…
What's unrealistic about this math? Just because the math involves new parameters (EG amortized cost of charging infrastructure & cost of electricity) doesn't mean it's fabricated.
Even level 1 charging (as you call it "overnight slow charging") gives you ~5 miles per hour and only requires a cheap charger of ~200 bucks. Charge it from 8PM to 6AM and you get 50 miles of range. If you have a This situation might not work for everyone! Street parking of course makes this nearly impossible. But A LOT of Americans have a Then, if you need to go on a >200 mile trip, you have to use a public charger, and the math is less favorable as those will cost more and you'll have to hang out for a bit. But once again, you need to consider how often this is an occurance for you. For some people, it's weekly (or daily!). For some it's once a month or once a year. I agree that we're not at the place where from cost savings alone, it is maximally effective for everyone, but I don't think it's unrealistic for a very large portion of Americans.
Re: Gasoline is cheap – but charging an EV is still cheaper
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
> EVs also have much higher costs in repairs, maintenance and car insurance. Not sure about the maintenance cost being higher here. The only things that need regular service are brake and tires as all of the moving parts of an EV are contained within an electric motor assembly that are very reliable across manufacturers. By contrast, an ICE vehicle is loaded with moving parts, all of which need lubrication, have wear…
EVs need general battery repair or replacement after minor accidents. And spare parts are VERY expensive, like $5000 for LCD screen!
I don't think either of those examples count as maintenance.
Yes, post-accident repairs are generally more expensive.
Re: Gasoline is cheap – but charging an EV is still cheaper
#27EVs may be great for someone with a home and garage to charge it, but for renters or more normal folks who have to park on the street, no ones going to add hours to their day sitting at a charging station.
In London, many neighborhoods have added charging sockets to the existing streetlight posts. I park on the street and can charge overnight easily and cheaply just by parking on the road and plugging in.
I'm not saying this will work perfectly in every location or for all cities. But it is relatively easy in many areas to add charging ports with existing infrastructure.
Re: Gasoline is cheap – but charging an EV is still cheaper
#28EVs may be great for someone with a home and garage to charge it, but for renters or more normal folks who have to park on the street, no ones going to add hours to their day sitting at a charging station.
> for renters or more normal folks who have to park on the street
I think categorizing people into "with garages" and "normal" might be a little contentious. A quick search indicates 63% percent of all housing units have a garage or carport[1]. Housing Unit includes apartments and condos. I'm sure it's very geographic, and in large cities the number will be much lower - but many many Americans live in suburbs, where 80% will have garages - this doesn't make them abnormal or particularly wealthy.
[1] https://www.energy.gov/eere/vehicles/fact-958-january-2-2017...
Re: Gasoline is cheap – but charging an EV is still cheaper
#29So much wrong information in the comments here (or, rather, lack of information, because most comments are ill-informed). See for example https://www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-how-electric-vehicles-... for a good debunking of many common myths (good showing here). Yes, one should not accept the all-rosy picture of EVs being all-clean and ideal. But my EV a) is 4-5 times more efficient overall in converting energy int…
One thing EVs need to address is the cost of repairs.
Yes an ICE engine needs regular maintenance, but currently that cost savings in an EV is offset by the larger repair costs as well as wait times for repairs (due to parts availability, like dearth of OEM parts, like you can’t go down to NAPA and get parts.
Re: Gasoline is cheap – but charging an EV is still cheaper
#30So much wrong information in the comments here (or, rather, lack of information, because most comments are ill-informed). See for example https://www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-how-electric-vehicles-... for a good debunking of many common myths (good showing here). Yes, one should not accept the all-rosy picture of EVs being all-clean and ideal. But my EV a) is 4-5 times more efficient overall in converting energy int…
Do you have a credible source for B? Because it isn't necessarily true. As for the parts that are there, they fail more often (see TUV reliability index), they are less servicable and they require specialized people to fix them. Just wait until you get out of your warranty period.