It is not trivial to get electricity service upgrades that many homes need to charge electric cars. It is expensive and many utilities are backed up with service upgrade requests. PG&E in the SF Bay Area is currently quoting 12-18 months for service upgrades.
Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US
841–850 of 1001 posts
Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US
#842Earlier quoted context omitted.
Safer for the occupants, not safer overall.
They are safer overall because if you don't choose one, you are at a disadvantage. There is no risk to owning a larger vehicle. Conversely there is a risk with owning a smaller vehicle. When designing a vehicle for safety it is the primary objective to increase the safety for the occupants. They are the customers of the safety product. I am not paying for features that diminish my safety for the safety of people that…
Well there is the risk of seeming like an asshole to everyone else. Like, EVERYONE else, not just a single person. But that doesn't seem to be your concern.
Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US
#843Earlier 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…
I drove from Reno to LA recently in a Model Y and my charging stops all lined up with bathroom breaks and food. I never actually waited for the charging process itself. It doesn't take 45min and it's not like I have any interest in sitting for more than 3h-4h straight without stopping at all. I've done plenty of long distance trips with my kids and the Tesla and, really, charging is a non-issue. The only actual negat…
Different strokes, different folks.
I prefer stopping every four hours, and making the stop take less than 10 minutes. Having my EV is very much worth it overall, but it _is_ annoying to add more than an hour for every eight hours of driving.
Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US
#844EV’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. From what I’m reading EVs are around 1% of total cars and around 10% of new car sales in the U.S., while at least 60% of housing units are single family homes.
Not all single family homes have driveways or garages- so not all are equipped for electric vehicle charging.
Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US
#845Earlier 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.…
> It took me an afternoon hanging out with my electrician cousin and about $400 in parts from Amazon to build our own at-home electric refuelling station.
This is a big reason I haven't even considered an EV. How I'd find someone to do this work on my garage, and how much it would cost is a huge unknown, and that's just enough friction to simply not consider getting an EV.
My vehicles are first and foremost utilitarian; I use them to get from A to B. EVs make that simple equation "complicated", and I have other issues maintaining a household that demand my attention.
Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US
#846Earlier 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.…
>ith only a ~220 mile range the Tesla needs to stop about every 150 miles for 40 minutes which is brutal.
If you ask my Eastern Europe wife, that's pretty much the way she needs to road trip lol. I think if we get it to 3hrs / 15 minutes break it would be perfect. 240km/40 minutes is a bit of a reach.
Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US
#847HN title is wrong. From the article:
"Sure, sales of EVs keep going up — a record 300,000 cars sold in the US in the third quarter of 2023 were electric..."
Discussion is about a more slowly growing market - not one in decline. YoY sales are up like 40%. This is FUD.
Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US
#848> While bigger batteries allow drivers to travel farther between charges, they also make the cars heavier, more dangerous, more expensive, and worse for the planet. Bigger vehicles in general are safer than smaller vehicles. If you are in a 2,000lb car with a 5 star safety rating, you will still probably be killed in an accident with a 6,000lb truck that has a 3 star safety rating. Despite all your advanced driver ai…
I'd love to see a small 2,000 car with a 5 star rating that's built like a ramp that redirects the collision from larger vehicles over the roof.
Ah, the battlebot strategy
Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US
#849I think this is a US only problem. People in the US probably take longer road trips than the rest of the world. When I take a Roadtrip, I need a 20 minute break every two hours anyway, and as far as I have seen that is enough for a charge for the next two hours. It's not perfect but I don't think it's as bad as the people in this thread are making it out be. I'm in Europe btw.
Driving from San José California to Los Angeles with 20 or 30 minute recharging stops every two hours works great for me. I get to walk around, stretch, maybe do some shopping if the charging station is at a shopping center. Yes, it adds time to the trip, but (at least for me) it’s a lot less stressful.
Re: Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US
#850Earlier 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…
I feel the same way and after speaking with many EV people i've realised the main benefit is how cheap they are to run. This comes down to the increase in efficiency compared to an ICE - ~80% of the battery energy finds its way to the wheels on EV's, vs ~30% on an ICE. If you live somewhere where electric costs are very low then a 0 to full charge your EV costs about $10. (Someone please correct me if i'm off on this…
EVs are still solidly in the "luxury" category; they're specifically being sold to folks who are not paying attention to the price at the pump in the first place. So I don't understand why "they save you money" is even a selling point at all right now.
Once you see folks replacing their beat-up 1992 Honda Civic with EVs then you'll know that "they save you money" is actually a thing.