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Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

businessinsider.com

521–530 of 1001 posts

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#521

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…

Yep. I have a Diesel. My average trip length will be roughly 60km. However, 4 - 8 times a year I need to go much further. Last year a single round trip for work was roughly 2200 km. And that was through extreme rural environments. The vast majority of places I stopped to refill the vehicle did not have electric service. Average trips being serviceable doesnt help me. I dont buy a vehicle assuming it will work on aver…

Straya

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#522
post #512

For myself, someone who actually wants an electric car, a big part of the hesitation is that I'll have to basically give up my garage to our cars. As is, it's basically a detached workspace - so my family having to park two cars in there makes an electric car a massive loss of usable square footage. It would also likely mean having to rewire my garage which had an actual Fusebox from the 70s - a cost I'd love to avoi…

There are outdoor chargers, if you have a driveway.

Also note that in city/commute use BEV needs to be charged about once a week, not every night.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#524

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…

The whole article is crap with an obvious agenda

https://electrek.co/2023/12/05/us-ev-sales-pass-1-million-20...

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#525

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…

I recently carpooled to the airport multiple hours away with someone with an EV. We got stuck in unexpected traffic, had to pull over to charge, and we missed the flight.

Sure, EVs work for 98% of trips. But they really suck for the 2% of trips where you’re driving 3 hours to+from an airport through a busy city where chargers are difficult to find.

And then there’s the experience of taking a 20 minute detour to go to a charger, only to find they’re all in use. This experience is even worse as a passenger in someone else’s EV because all you can think is “god I wish we could just pull over and fill up the tank”

I love EVs for short trips, but as a late adopter I’ll be waiting for range annd battery improvements before buying one.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#526

Earlier 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. No need to get the laggards onboard, you simply need to get to the inflection point where the petroleum supply chain is no longer sustainable (due to demand falling through minimum economic viable throughput). Still at least 10-15 years out, as the US accounts for ~35% global oil consumption. US EV uptake is st…

I read your comment as: "We will succeed when we make people who own ICE car's lives harder" am I wrong to read it this way?

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#527

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…

If the trip is beyond the range of the EV you can just recharge it on the way. This does cost you more time, but only for road trips. Your fallacy is to assume that road trips are impossible if they can't be done within a single charge.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#528

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…

This is the one good idea the Cybertruck has, in my opinion - the expandable battery[1]. If EV powertrains were standardized to the point where you could rent a battery pack to extend your range for these kinds of longer trips I think there would be a lot less anxiety about EV range. [1] https://electrek.co/2023/12/04/cybertruck-range-extender-opt...

$16000 for something that can be done with a couple of $20 petrol cans in any other car. Wow innovation!

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#529

One thing I have not heard discussed is the all-too-common family visit. If I drive 200 miles to visit some family and stay at their house what’s the etiquette for using their power to charge my car? I wouldn’t feel comfortable asking and saying “I’ve got to leave for two hours to find a charging station” also feels awkward. I want to maximize our time together and not burden folks with needing to pay to charge my ca…

If it’s really awkward you can charge on the way at a public charging station. In new EVs that’s 20-30 mins, not 2 hours.

The cost of domestic electricity to top up an EV will be around $15 (public chargers have relatively high markup), so probably not a big deal?

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#530
post #161

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…

> I refuse to average my entire life style down to my median day. My median day is boring.

I like how you summarize it with this line, I think there's a lot of truth in that.

Sure, we could only own that which we need daily to get to work and be a good worker bee, but that's depressing.

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