What will it take to make you seriously consider an EV?

Eh. We shall see.
The guys whose products consumers buy end up dominating.
Look around, the best product is not always the popular product and vice versa.

 

I think that 40k average is very skewed. Post pandemic? who's buying cars? only those that can afford it. The ones that could barely afford the 35K average before are not buying and if they are it isn't from a dealership where it's getting calculated into the numbers. They are probably buying used from independents.

i had this long rant about the pains and stresses of owning an EV car but I shortened it as much as I could.

Basically, I don't think EVs are the future, but they are going to be part of it. Too many low income folks can't afford 35-40k cars. That stat is BS and probably doesn't take into account the independent used car sales or the fact that the folks that could afford the cheaper cars before can't even afford it now. EV cars just trade in one mental stress for another. NO oil changes, no coolant, brake maintenance in exchange for having to think about charging every 2-3 days and a constant battery degradation that just eats away at your soul. Repairs too costly for the average person.

In other words, I'm not proud to own an EV. in fact every time someone asks me if i like it, I just go meh. in fact our next car, we're going back to gas.

 

The lack of a charging infrastructure is very well known. The efficiency of a vehicle wasn't known until most roads became at least asphalt. A weak charging infrastructure makes it less inconvenient, not impossible.

If you believe in driverless vehicles, that car will simply drive itself to charge.

35k-40k vehicles will not be that unreasonable provide batteries can go 500k-1m miles. That is 2-4x the life expectancy of an ice vehicle.

 

Sounds like someone who made the mistake of buying an ev that’s not a Tesla. Was it a Bolt or Leaf? The degradation complaint sounds like Leaf.

 

Nope Model Y did I buy this hahaha

 

Then you must know that your car is under 5 year unlimited warranty and 8 years battery warranty, repairs literally have cost you $0 so I’m not sure what you mean when you say it’s too costly for an average person. Degradation is also proven and tested to be ~10% over the life of your vehicle, so also not sure why it would be eating at your soul when it levels off over time. Lastly, why are you not plugging in every night like for your phone and instead waiting 2-3 days to worry about charging?

 

People get obsessed with the strangest things

 

You do not have to plug in an ICE vehicle every night. The 2 minutes it takes to plug is completely unacceptable but fighting traffic in a gas station for 15 minutes is ok.

 

Yup, it’s been completely useless and a utter waste of time the last 7 years. Totally did not create generational wealth from it or anything. Wish I spent more time obsessing over large men trying to put a ball through a hole more, that would have been a more productive obsession.

 

That's right, you don't have to plug it in every night but every other day is about right for our usage. Sometimes 2 days in a row because I'll actually drive nearly 100 miles but 160 will actually come off the range leaving behind maybe a little over 100 miles in range so if I want to do another 100 mile day tomorrow I have to plug up that night. That's 2-3 times a week I have to think about charging. ICE engine, I don't think about it until after a week and a half or maybe 2 with the same driving behavior. What gas station traffic are you referring to? Gas stations are everywhere. If one isn't convenient I can just go to the next one. You should be able to tell if a gas station is busy from a block or two away. I have a SC station 3 miles from home and 1 mile from work. I have free miles for the year and I want to use it but the stations have become inconvenient to use lately. Either some stations charge slower than a 110 and I have to find one that actually works right or it's packed or just not working. While road tripping, there are multiple gas stations at one exit. SC stations haven't been reliable as of lately for road trippers or even locals. Long lines on holidays or stations not working at all w/o notice. Charging infrastructure will get better but I'm not sure it will outpace the demand for EVs. There are folks out there that can't charge at home because they either live in an apartment, rental or a residence where they aren't allowed to install a fast charging outlet. Those are the folks that probably shouldn't think about buying an EV but they do anyway because it is a cool car, but it's far from the cool future changing car folks make it out to be. Hell maybe I'm not the demographic that the car is meant for. In the end, I feel like I've just traded the inconveniences of a gas car for the inconveniences of an EV car. A poorly designed EV car at that.

 

We get it. Its not for everyone right now. The charging network has to be improved. You can't run your EV in the gig economy right now.

Do you complain you have to press a button to close the garage door? Listen, we all have had that gf who has run the oil down in their ICE vehicle and destroyed the motor. Adding oil to a vehicle can be complicated. If its too complicated to plug in your vehicle every night, you're best served sticking with ICE for the time being. no biggie.

 

Basically I'm just saying that folks in the market for EVs shouldn't expect this magical less maintenance experience or expect the range to be any where near a gas car as the numbers may state. The ability to drive the car without maintenance stress is far from gone.

 

I think EV might make a dent in the future but no way it's going to be 100% anytime soon...or ever. You are definitely trading in one set of inconveniences for another. For some, it doesn't matter. They like tech and being early adopters but the average joe.....they ain't ready.

Getting EV adoption to be 90-100% is like trying to make Houston a walkable city.

 

im not against EV at all, but for me its going to depend if they can find a way to make them sound good. i like sporty cars that a nice exhaust note. i know EV are ridiculously fast, but without the sound to go with it, its a no from me....

 

That's what they did in the movie The Dilemma. Kevin James makes an electric car that they basically put speakers in and program to sound like a V8 engine responding to the accelerator pedal.

 

This is basically what a lot of cars do nowadays -- pump fake engine sounds into the cabin through the speakers to make up for sound deadening throughout the car (and the fact the car doesn't really make those sounds). But at least they have engines, so I get it. Pumping fake engine sounds into an electric car just seems dorky.

 

Guys who drive lifted trucks and loud cars have more in common with asian lady bois than 95% of the drivers on the road.

Driving a loud car after you're 21 is like catching @Roscoe Arbuckle at the clubs.

 

The fuel economy label on an ICE vehicle is almost always 10-20% higher than actuals, all depending on usage. I shouldn't expect different on an EV.
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The maintenance on an EV is quite a bit less, unless you consider recharging maintenance. Maintenance on an ICE goes up dramatically as it gets older if you wish to maintain its longevity and efficiency....which most don't.

We only have a decade of experience with Teslas and Pries. Its largely why I would not touch another EV manufacture until they have had vehicles on the road for at least a full decade.

 

I’m so confused about your charging situation. Do you have charging at your residence? If so, what’s stopping you from plugging in every night so that the next day starts at full charge? Why would you intentionally wait for 2-3 days without charging then have to “worry” about charging? This seems to be your entire issue with EVs, an entirely self inflicted inconvenience.

There is definitely inconvenience with road tripping in an EV, even for Tesla. But for everyday commuting, the ability to fill up at home every night is a time saver and benefit of EVs vs gas. You are doing it wrong.

 

I would consider it battery maintenance. You have to be cognizant of how you treat the battery to get the most life out of it. It's not like a gas tank where even after 10 years, the tank is still the same size as it was when you bought it. The capacity is there, but you just have to maintain the engine to keep the efficiency. in an EV you have to maintain the battery. The maintenance is minor and takes little thought but you do have to think about it a lot more. It's like trying to make sure you don't get burn-in on a plasma. Things like don't charge to 100% unless you're taking a road trip. Don't charge to 90% if you're at a SC. There is up to 10% battery degradation during the 1st year. Things like that right off the bat chop a fairly sizeable chunk off that rated 326 on a Model Y. In all my gas cars, I've gotten pretty close to the mixed EPA ratings so for me, those ratings are pretty accurate. For EVs they are wildly inconsistent. i can start with a range of 275 and by the end of it all, I'll maybe get 150 before I have to put it back on the charger because i only have 35 miles left. That's like a 50-60% difference from what is stated on the car. My driving habits haven't changed, so it's a matter of getting used to and tolerating the huge discrepancy in estimated range. Either Tesla needs to get better at estimating range based on driving habits or just start advertising the car's battery size and give a low end to high end range estimate instead of one number. Say Model Y comes with a 75 KWH battery pack and range can be from 220-326 and base it off the 90% that they say you should only charge to. It's not false advertising but it's leaving a lot of important information out when advertising a car.

In the end, a lot of this is my fault. I usually don't buy cars w/o doing a ton of research. It usually takes me nearly a year before I buy a car because I want to make sure it's what I want. I started doing my research on Teslas just before I put the deposit and order in and fully expected to have a couple of months to do more research and reading, but was a bit thrusted into it, as the car we ordered was available a day after we put in an order because there was one on the lot. From order to delivery was just a little under 3 days. I had to watch as many reviews and read through forums as much as i could so I definitely wasn't as thorough as I liked. All the unexpected battery maintenance was a shocker to me and a disappointment that I still haven't gotten over apparently. When we picked up the car, there was no salesman, no person to give us information about the car. I basically had to learn everything about the car as I went along or read up on it. The only time I have fun is when I'm just purely driving the car with the music blasting. Once I stop that's when all the thoughts start coming in. After it's all said and done though, I like where EVs are headed. It's promising to hear that other EVs are getting more accurate range to what they are advertising. I like the VTL features other EVs are adding. By my estimate, it would take a car with a rated range of 500-600 to probably make me feel stress free of range anxiety.