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Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

businessinsider.com

581–590 of 1001 posts

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#581

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…

People have range anxiety because the electric range estimates are just that - estimates. If not lies. I have a '22 RAV4 Prime. I had a '17 Volt for 3 years before that. I'm aware of how it works. Here's real world for you, NW Arkansas: I'm 24 miles from Lowe's round trip. 11 miles freeway, the rest is country highway. 42 miles of "range" on my RAV4 this time of year, when I return home I have 6 to 7 miles remaining. It's off by 20% or more.

Do you think I could go to Tulsa and back, 212 miles round trip, this Saturday in an all electric thing? Cherokee turnpike for a large portion of it, cruise control at 82 mph.

I think a lot of you city dwellers need to re-examine how you think "flyover states" work. But I know you won't, as you don't care about us, so you'll just keep these wrong thoughts in your head pushing policy on us from afar. It's working great for relations in our country so far, keep it up.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#584

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 agree, but Tesla's charging network actually works, has lots of stations, and charges batteries reasonably quickly. Now that other manufacturers are adopting it, the range issue seems mostly solved, for anyone who doesn't travel long distances so frequently that a few extra minutes per trip are a serious burden.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#585

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…

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 entire point of ownership is to hedge against right-tail demand scenarios. If you don't care about them, you should just rent everything and own nothing at all. "Own nothing and be happy", as they say. You will just occasionally find yourself screwed when demand is high.

Probably we should let people decide for themselves what level of hedging is appropriate.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#586

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…

It's not just single trips - sometimes it's the cumulative distance of multiple trips throughout the week. Sometimes I can't charge in my garage or just the fact that charging is slow and I can't get a full charge in before leaving again causes the range to go down over time.

Luckily I drive a plug in hybrid but it still is an issue!

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#587
post #66

> But an analysis from CarGurus found that EV prices were still 28% higher than gas-vehicle prices on average. To me that is bonkers. When EVs were becoming popular, I was expecting to see super cheap, under $10k vehicles. That was the promise: forget about all the IC complicated gears, alternators, transmission, fuel pumps and imagine getting a motor and batteries, what could be simpler!". But no, we ended up with m…

The key to solving this is Graphene Aluminum batteries IMO.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#588

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 sense of self-entitlement in this thread makes me depressed. Intelligent, educated adults react like children when you tell them they can't have all the toys. > But I like living in this kind of excess! Sure, and I'm sure you deserve it. As do we all. But guess what? In the hard cold reality that we live in, it's not sustainable or feasible for everyone to own a huge hulking gas guzzling vehicle just to enable yo…

> In the hard cold reality that we live in, it's not sustainable or feasible for everyone to own a huge hulking gas guzzling vehicle just to enable your yearly road trip. Wish it was, but it isn't. Not even close.

It actually is. The only impediment is neurotic busybodies who are obsessed with making everyone poor because they've fallen for the current strain of doomsday millenarianism.

Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US

#589
post #449
post #242

Earlier 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…

I doubt there is any sustainable alterntive to a privately owned two-ton vehicle that is also a privately owned two-ton vehicle. They're all just incredibly inefficient, and pollute in their own way. > Hybrids can be smaller, cheaper, lighter and gentler on the grid. Each of these matter. EVs do not affect the grid as much as you would think, and might even benefit the grid once vehicle-to-grid and vehicle-to-home te…

From my experience, having an EV for daily driving actually changes the electrical consumption less than the months where the pool motor is on. Which makes sense since the pool motor runs all the time (even if it's dual speed).
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