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Because people can’t afford them.
In the US, EVs are still in the upper high end of car prices.
And cheaper ones are being kneecapped by the government because they want to keep supporting the incumbents
Most are quite firmly mid range. $40K to $100K.
I make $50k a year. Most Americans make less than I do. Mid range or not, that's not in reach for most people.
Also true
Nonsense. If you bring home more than $350 per week, then you can get up to $30,000 in credit for only one dime down.
It's a crime to pay more than a dime.
And now I have a new monthly payment, which depending on where I get it can be rather tough depending on a variety of factors. I'm not a banker, I can't weigh in too intelligently on this part, but I have had a car payment before and been laid off. That monthly payment ate through my savings damn fast while I was looking for a job. Lesson learned, I'm not inclined to buy anything with a loan any time soon. I just don't trust it
My man, a mid range car should be priced at like 20-30k Canadian, not 40k us which is like 55k canadian
People seem to think "mid range" means "affordable to the average person".
Look at the range of prices for new vehicles. The middle is very expensive.
How many new cars are available in Canada for 10-20k?
The answer is only two.
Your "mid range", is really the floor for new cars.
That’s because a brand new one is way too expensive for most people, and a used one is still expensive and could have half the range left in the batteries, you have no idea.
We need an EV mini wagon, like mid-80s Nissan Maxima wagon sized, and battery tech needs to get cheaper.
Also the car will report its expected range based on battery health, it doesn’t just naively assume the battery is perfect
Based more on recent performance than battery sensors.
But the point is that batteries are degrading to 75% of new, not 50% of new.
Restoring some fuel economy (increasing range) to a used ICE car can be as simple as replacing spark plugs and cleaning fuel injectors. Even if you're not into doing that work yourself, that's not prohibitively expensive.
Doing the same for an EV entails replacing the entire EV battery, which is prohibitively expensive, and which a shadetree mechanic would be hard-pressed to do themselves.
... and also an engine rebuild with new piston rings and possibly even cams and lifters if the old ones have worn down enough. When a ICE car drinks oil like its gas, there's things you have to do.
I take your point on individual maintenance, but that can also apply to EVs. But statistics show that in general ICE cars degrade faster than EVs
You can get a used Jaguar ipace with reasonable mileage on the odometer for less than a new camry if you're willing to go to where it is.
New vehicles are almost never worth their price.
Man I would love that! Can we get an EV sports car too? FRS, Z car, Miata... Anything like that.
Ngl I love my minivan. I can cart my wife, kids, and niblings...or a stack of 4x8 plywood and some 12ft linear boards.
I do wish station wagons were back though. The car would be so much better with a lower center of gravity.
I guess being so tall has the benefit of being easy to get in and out of, especially the third row...but hear me out...what ever happened to rear-facing third rows?
Rear facing third rows, probably something about being unsafe in a rear end collision.
called no one makes enough to buy one and our leaders refuse to make companies pay living wages so we could afford one
plus the electric vehicle infrastructure is not government run and not robust enough to handle a full transition
I wont buy an ev until they stop being mobile spying devices, especially considering the price tag. Same with any new/more efficient car. If that never happens, I just won’t ever have one. That’s the way it has to be because I am not a product, especially if I’m paying thousands of dollars. If it’s free, I’ll think about it.
I live somewhere that I can’t really survive without a car, but I’ve reduced my driving substantially (once a week now at most) I’d like to get an e-bike, but can’t really justify the spend at the moment.
I've got bad news for you, it's not just EVs.
Uh, yeah I know, I mentioned that in the comment you replied to.
Used is also a great option. Sure, you’re probably not going to find a deal on an electric, but from an ecological and cost perspective, using a piece of equipment that already exists is more environmentally friendly by a long shot than buying something new. I’ll be driving my 1.8t mk 4 Jetta into the ground, thank you very much (and then I will fix it, as I am the warranty at this point).
Used doesn’t fix the spying problem, only helps with the price. And that’s not even a guarantee anymore. So you aren’t wrong, but it doesn’t help the issue I specifically have with them (which I have with all newer cars).
My current car is 2012 civic coupe, and if I don’t drive it much, it’s perfectly fine for what I use it for without upgrading, other than that it’s starting to need bigger work more frequently, and not stuff I know how to do. Decent mileage and all, but fully ice. I’d like to upgrade to electric or at least hybrid, but they all have the same spying problem. So I just cut driving as much as I can. I live in a rural town, closest grocery store is half an hour away by highway, so zero driving isn’t an option, unfortunately.
I can guarantee you that my 2003 VW has literally zero wireless connectivity. It doesn’t communicate with anyone but me and my mechanic, and I am my own mechanic.
I have a 2012 civic too, we are twins.
Even if we made enough to buy them, the infrastructure is still not great to support the people who need them most. Live in an apartment? Maybe you're lucky enough to have chargers nearby but for millions of Americans they can't charge at home. If I have to go somewhere to charge that adds time to my commute either to work or on the way home. If I'm already spending an hour or more on the road each day just in commute time that 15 minute charge every other day or what have you adds up.
More people need to feel comfortable asking for chargers in their apartments' meetings. As one lady was scared of being chewed out for supporting new technology.
I don't disagree with that but I have never been to an apartment meeting in my life. I have lived in apartments for the last 15 or so years, and most of them have been owned by huge conglomerates who barely fix amenities when they break. I waited on a tap for my tub for about a week, a replacement garbage disposal for about 6 months. The drain for the pet grooming shed was flooded for about 2 months before they did anything about it at the most recent place. They let the gutters freeze and fall off the building during the winter and didn't replace them til 8 months later. EV chargers are just not something I think the management would even care about unless it's making them money. And even then they'd weigh that against the number of people living there who drive EV's and probably decide against it.
I have a few friends with EVs who live in apartments. Some people can charge at work or while shopping. When nothing lines up, sitting at a supercharger once every few weeks isn't terrible.
Depends on their lifestyle a whole lot. That's the point. If you're single with no kids? Doesn't seem like spending 20 minutes a week to charge is a lot. If your commute is about 20 minutes each way? That may be fairly reasonable. My husband drives 71 miles each way per day 5 days a week. He can't charge at work and there are no chargers in the area. Our apartment complex doesn't have chargers. The closest ones are a 15-20 minute drive away and always packed. This is what I mean when I say it's doable for some but not for all or even a majority.
That commute should be illegal.
I move every time I have more than a 15 minute commute. Spending that much time driving is seriously mind-boggling.
You get used to it. I was the same before i became a field tech. Now, i could casually drive from Naples to Miami (100+ miles one way) and back without a second thought if i wanted something
You know, I think it's not as bad as this anymore. While one of the best convenient features of EVs is waking up to them charges every day, not having that and having to use public charging isn't necessarily different than having to get gas.
I do have EVs but I also have a motorcycle. I hate filling it up because where I live waiting in line for the pump is a 15 minute ordeal usually. The few times I've used public charging around here that's about how long it took for me to get it done.
My work does have chargers, but they are expensive so I don't use them.
Here's my point:
You have to charge roughly as often as you need to get gas. If you don't have access to a charger where you live it's still worth it because it's so much cheaper, even if it's slightly inconvenient. If you don't have fast chargers near you though I doubt this works.
I just went back and looked at my charging stats, and for two cars I'm averaging between $38-$42 / month since 2022.
Road trip supercharger costs are higher, averaging $14 per stop.
Why did they include someone's opinion about environmental impacts without a fact check? I hope she uses ethically sourced oil.
Well, considering that the price of the one that meets my minimum specs is 40k, yeah, that checks out.
I'm actually debating about if I save up for 40k on a car, why not go 65k and get a BMW idrive instead y'know
I'm not personally interested in owning a Tesla, and none of the other EVs I know of really appeal to me, at least not at the prices I've seen them at. Last year we got my wife a Rav4 hybrid. It's been a great car, we're really happy with it.
I have no idea why someone downvoted you. I don't align exactly with your opinion, but your opinion is valid and you insulted nobody by giving it. Upvote to restore sanity.
You are skeptical about EVs because you’re afraid of change.
I am skeptical about EVs because modern cars, regardless of propulsion type, are pervasively networked and festooned with sensors, and generally have live connections to servers somewhere, sending who knows what to who knows where (because it’s all proprietary, and can’t be easily explored outside of reverse engineering).
We are not the same.
Good point though I'm down for more evs.
Listen, I can keep driving my 15 year old car for the next 5 years. Assuming the frame holds up, I intend to drive it another 15-20 years.
I don't need a new car every 5 years. That's 80-120 grand I don't need to spend. If I had 5 grand, I would consider an EV conversion kit.
I don't want to buy a multi-ten thousand dollar tablet that I climb inside and it spies on me. Take the dumb bullshit out, give me a simple interface with mostly physical buttons.
A simple electric car with buttons would be so good!
What Biden push? The one where he slaps 100% tariffs on the cheapest EVs in the world so that American companies can continue charging an exorbitant premium for EVs? Sorry, the tax credit which the car companies have jacked prices up far beyond isn't enough in this scenario.
this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2024
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