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BYD is seeing a flood of new EV buyers

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Re: BYD is seeing a flood of new EV buyers

#71

Post by Marsymars »

triceratops wrote: post #56
bluGill wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to insure each, pay license and taxes... most also need a parking spot.

A car's ownership costs are dominated by fuel and depreciation (which is a proxy for repairs and maintenance - brake pads, oil changes etc). You're probably going to come out ahead of the fixed costs of licensing, insurance, and registration on gasoline savings alone. The parking spot may or may not be an issue. If you can charge an EV at home, you likely have a garage or driveway. If not, then sure this doesn't appl…

> A car's ownership costs are dominated by fuel and depreciation. You're probably going to come out ahead of those fixed costs on gasoline savings alone.

Depends how much you drive. If you don't drive much to start, and then having two vehicles cuts that in half, your effectively-fixed costs go up - e.g. you start having to replace your tires because the rubber is getting too old long before the tread wears out, insurance doesn't scale down linearly for low-mileage drivers, etc.

Re: BYD is seeing a flood of new EV buyers

#72

Post by morkalork »

paxys wrote: post #31

Genius strategy by the USA to disincentivize EVs, disincentivize solar and wind, increase dependency on oil & gas, and...start a war that makes oil and gas more expensive for everyone. Markets are now forecasting oil prices will stay above $100 a barrel for multiple years . Best of luck to the economy.

It IS a great strategy if you're an oligarchy or you've quasi-annexed an oil rich central American country. Just sucks for us peasants.

Re: BYD is seeing a flood of new EV buyers

#73

Post by macintux »

arzig wrote: post #61

It’s been a month. Not long enough for a trend. Every time gas prices spike these celebratory pieces come out and then when gas prices drop at the end the consumer markets revealed preferences are made bare again. Let’s find out if this can sustain for more than a year after gas prices drop.

Last time gas spiked above $4/gallon nationally people were trading in their huge gas guzzlers at an extreme loss (because no one else wanted them either). I read an article about someone who was contemplating losing $30k on their trade-in instead of continuing to pay high gas prices.

(I don't know what my point is, just that people have short memories, and are generally speaking not rational about purchases, or money in general.)

Re: BYD is seeing a flood of new EV buyers

#74

Post by mikestew »

bdcravens wrote: post #21
PedroBatista wrote: post #10

I'm sorry to be that guy, but can we reintroduce a good dose of skepticism in our mental diets? BYD was already selling a ton of cars when the oil prices were "low", of course there's some very creative accounting business moves you would expect from a Chinese company like BYD ( companies from other places have their own peculiarities too ). Gas prices have been "sky high" for a week and people who are under financia…

Very true. It's not like EV owners were feeling regret when gas hit the (mythical ) $2/gallon. Honestly, while it's fun to know I've "saved" $5k or so in gas costs during the 4 years I've owned my EV, if saving money was my only goal, I would have paid cash for a slightly used efficient four cylinder gas car.

It's not like EV owners were feeling regret when gas hit the (mythical ) $2/gallon.

Gas could be free, and I'd still have no regrets. Because an EV is simply the better vehicle. And I think after over a decade of mass-produced EVs that maybe it's time to get away from "saves on gas" or "good for the environment", and maybe start marketing as "full every time you pull out of the garage", or something. Kind of like Mazda's old commercials for their Wankel engine cars: "piston engine goes 'boing', but the Mazda goes 'hmmmmm'".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHzeGEHWMjo

Re: BYD is seeing a flood of new EV buyers

#75

Post by fpoling »

louwrentius wrote: post #47
jrjeksjd8d wrote: post #3

I finally put my money where my mouth is and bought a PHEV. In the past month I've done all my errands around town exclusively on battery power (30-40 miles per charge) from a home L1 charger. I know EV purists will complain about the complexity of maintaining the gas engine, but this hits the perfect sweet spot for me - it doesn't weigh a million tons, it cost under 40k new, and the one weekend a month when I need t…

I still feel that PHEVs combine the worst parts of both worlds. The battery of a PHEV is relatively small and will be strained much more (as compared to an EV), especially if you drive a lot in EV modus. PHEV batteries tend to wear out faster for this reason. This drives up cost of ownership. Then you still have the maintenance / cost of the ICE drivetrain. It does not make sense to me. I feel that a lot of people bu…

Toyota hybrids are very reliable and probably the reason taxi drivers around Europe prefer those. And with the proper PHEV the wear is even less.

Re: BYD is seeing a flood of new EV buyers

#76

Post by dangus »

Marsymars wrote: post #68
dangus wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally understand the learning curve aspect, but I think if you owned one that stress would fade away pretty quickly. I will first point out that for DC fast charging, there are only two connectors to think about. It is not really more complicated than that. It's a learning curve, but not much different than learning the difference between gasoline, diesel, and which octane to put in your car. You would have your…

> I don’t really understand why it’s such a burden to plan the route ahead of time. It’s gotta be less of a burden than getting multiple oil changes per year or visiting a gas station every week or two for your typical commuting. Well it depends on your specific configuration/workflow. I just get oil changes when I have my vehicle in for seasonal tires changes anyway - I drop it off in the morning on my way to my off…

How often do you stop at the gas station to fill up for regular commuting?

With an EV, it's 0, unless you are doing a long road trip.

Re: BYD is seeing a flood of new EV buyers

#77

Post by Pxtl »

roryobrien wrote: post #15
jrjeksjd8d wrote: post #3

I finally put my money where my mouth is and bought a PHEV. In the past month I've done all my errands around town exclusively on battery power (30-40 miles per charge) from a home L1 charger. I know EV purists will complain about the complexity of maintaining the gas engine, but this hits the perfect sweet spot for me - it doesn't weigh a million tons, it cost under 40k new, and the one weekend a month when I need t…

PHEV is the absolute way to go. Next car is 100% going to be this. I rented two EV's and had serious stress about charging in locations I wasn't familiar with. All the different plug types and speeds was also not helpful. PHEV is a great gateway into full EV.

I drive a PHEV with an old AC J1772 port on it.

Now that I'm comfy with "oh, install yet-another charging phone app" (a handful offer a website too) and the prevalence and backwards-compatibility of modern DC chargers and learning how to check which standards are supported by where, I'd be comfy with a full-EV, but I could understand being intimidated by that without the practice of driving a PHEV.

But to be blunt: It's a hump you'd get over, as long as you had access to an overnight charger of any kind (even just 110V mains) at home.

The port war is basically over here in North America - CHADEMO and CCS2 aren't a thing here and any charge station that offers those is just an old station that was hedging their bets. The only real standards you'll see are

- J1772 (the old AC power system),

- CCS1 (DC upgrade to J1772, backwards-compatible with J1772 chargers, looks like a J1772 with extra bits on the bottom)

- NACS (the Tesla port).

And unless you've got an old J1772 AC-powered car (like my Prius Prime), you can get adapters. So basically if you get a CCS1 car you need 1 adapter, and if you get a NACS car you need 2 (both CCS1 and J1772) if you want to be able to charge literally anywhere. The only wrinkle then is how fast you need to charge, and AFAIK NACS standard has more options for crazy-fast charging.

Re: BYD is seeing a flood of new EV buyers

#78

Post by paxys »

mlinhares wrote: post #70
wrs wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Strategy", you say.

It is a strategy, the oil producers in the US are making bank right now. They're getting exactly what they paid for by buying this presidency.

There's a sweet spot in oil pricing that maximizes profits for producers, and $110 a barrel is well over that. If there's a recession then nobody is buying your product.

Re: BYD is seeing a flood of new EV buyers

#79

Post by macintux »

mikestew wrote: post #74
bdcravens wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very true. It's not like EV owners were feeling regret when gas hit the (mythical ) $2/gallon. Honestly, while it's fun to know I've "saved" $5k or so in gas costs during the 4 years I've owned my EV, if saving money was my only goal, I would have paid cash for a slightly used efficient four cylinder gas car.

It's not like EV owners were feeling regret when gas hit the (mythical ) $2/gallon. Gas could be free, and I'd still have no regrets. Because an EV is simply the better vehicle. And I think after over a decade of mass-produced EVs that maybe it's time to get away from "saves on gas" or "good for the environment", and maybe start marketing as "full every time you pull out of the garage", or something. Kind of like Maz…

I'd be more interested in EVs if they didn't come with significant privacy and complexity trade-offs.

I don't want a door handle that can't open in an emergency. I don't want my vehicle constantly phoning home to the mothership (sadly I have to deal with that today, I really need to go disable that functionality). I certainly don't want a touchscreen through which all controls are routed.

I have a 20-year-old Jeep with significant mechanical problems; I should really convert it to a BEV.

Re: BYD is seeing a flood of new EV buyers

#80

Post by soco »

epistasis wrote: post #18
roryobrien wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PHEV is the absolute way to go. Next car is 100% going to be this. I rented two EV's and had serious stress about charging in locations I wasn't familiar with. All the different plug types and speeds was also not helpful. PHEV is a great gateway into full EV.

Rental cars as EVs are pretty much the worst possible case. We are at the transition where we don't have chargers everywhere, but we will soon because chargers are way cheaper than a gas station. Also rentals tend to be driven for longer trips, and for uncertain distances! And on top of it all rental companies tend to not give people any choice, education, or help with the EV. I wouldn't bother with a PHEV for a vehi…

I'm in Western Europe and while there are chargers everywhere, you need hundred apps to register to charge, some slots are broken (empty yet show busy), some refuse to charge my PHEV... we're not there yet.
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