People arguing about the price of gas, but as soon as someone mentions driving an EV they're "stupid" and woke
this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2023
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Gas is too expensive!
EVs are not ready for the broad market. Sure, they work fine for getting to work and running some errands, but I wouldn't trust going on long road trips with them yet. Plus, changing the batteries when they wear out is wayyyyy too expensive, might as well buy a new vehicle at that point.
Have any sources to back up your claims?
According to KBB, the average American drives around 37 miles per day. That means that the overwhelming amount of driving could be accomplished by a plug-in hybrid, let alone a fully electric vehicle. When it comes to the occasional long road trip (what, once a year or less for the average person?), is it worth burning - and paying for - gas for the thousands of miles that could be easily covered by even the most pathetic of electric vehicles' range without issue just so you can save a bit of time pumping fuel and hitting the convenience store rather than stopping a bit longer to charge up? In those cases, it may even be cheaper to rent a gas vehicle for the occasional road trip if if is that big of a concern for you.
Your use case may be different than mine, but I can't think of too many trips where I couldn't stop for a half hour here and there to charge up a bit. Most people, especially people with kids, have to stop periodically anyway, so use that time to charge up and you won't even notice. It's true that, especially in the particularly sparsely-populated western United States (speaking from a US perspective), some route planning may still be required, but that will get better as more people buy EVs.
Why are battery swaps even entering the conversation? Are engine swaps a concern for most people purchasing a new car? According to J. D. Power, every EV in the US comes with at least an 8 year or 100k mile warranty on the battery. Some manufacturers, like Hyundai, have a lifetime warranty on the battery. Most batteries are expected to last somewhere between 100k - 200k miles, which is often longer than the rest of the car will hold up and certainly competitive with combustion vehicles.
If you want a serious argument detailing a real struggle with which EV manufacturers and the market/government must contend, then here you go: apartment dwellers. From a US perspective, you pretty much have to own your home or work somewhere that provides charging parking spots to be able to fully take advantage of the benefits of an EV. While using a public charger is a viable option, it is more expensive than charging at home (though, in my research, it is still cheaper than gas).
EVs make sense for a super-majority of the driving that takes place today by normal people in North America. If you don't own your home, want to tow a boat, or travel hundreds of miles a day on a regular basis, then EVs will serve your needs somewhere between "fairly well" to "not at all".
If "range anxiety" is the only thing keeping people from pulling the trigger on an EV, I strongly suggest they consider the possibility of renting a car for the rare cross-country trip if finding a DC fast charger every once and a while and spending a little extra time at each stop isn't a viable option for them.
Most EVs hold a charge for over 400 miles, that's the same as a tank of gas now. For the vast, vast majority of Americans that will do for most of their driving habits. Most Americans commute to work and run errands around their house, even on busy days most Americans won't come close to 200 miles in a single day. Charging every night at home then makes it very reasonable.
For myself, we're a 2 car house, one EV and one gas, and gas is only used now for those (very rare) long journeys. Even those though are so rare that honestly renting a car is a valid alternative (while we're building the charging infrastructure).
The only real excuses right now are if you
regularly drive over 400 miles in one trip, so for most people that's across their entire state, and plan on not being able to charge at all in the middle (which, if you're on the interstates now is pretty much a non-issue, and remember you can always rent a car if you're going on a super long road trip too if you're really worried about it. Even in the Midwest that was maybe once or twice a year that I went on road trips long)
Rent or live where you can't install an EV charger in your home. This is a valid one, and I hope we start pushing for chargers in rental properties.
Not only are the points you made on EV good, but you can also fill up an EV at home. You never have to leave the house in the morning without a full tank ever again.
I don't think they realize this. If you have a garage with a charge port (which can be added fairly cheaply now) then you never have to worry about getting gas before work again. You just always leave with a "full tank"
And if you have solar panels and a smart charger, you can do it with just the excess power you'd be sending to the grid otherwise. Under the right circumstances you could just drive for free.
You can't fill up an EV at home if you rent, most of the time. Higher wattage charging requires a charger installation.
I'm a proponent of EVs and I'm looking forward to getting one at some point but "most" EVs don't hold a charge for over 400 miles. Many are offered with a high range option that almost meets this mark, but that's also under ideal conditions. I have several coworkers with EVs and we talk a lot about the range effects in the winter, or in hilly areas, etc.
Also you'd have to be crazy to plan out a trip that depletes your battery all the way, so that wouldn't be for a 400 mile trip.
One thing that's turning me off from EVs (currently) is the constant battling over charging standards. This creates more uncertainty than I'd like.
Ha, we posted around the same time and said basically the same thing. Nice!
I'm just tired of the "what about this niche thing I did one time" argument. Like I said in the other comment, unless you tow like, once a week or even once a month then fine, maybe you need a truck, but even then Ford claims the lightening can tow for a good chunk of miles and so can the rivians.
Most people if they really analyzed their driving would find that they usually just drive around town, which is the perfect use case for EVs, and most other cases could be solved by renting a vehicle for a couple of days a year. Surprisingly enough, we do not need to drive massive trucks around every day when we're just going into the office.
But if you do want that sort of status symbol, like I said the lightening and rivians are there.
Could not agree more!
That said, I did call out one legit problem with widespread EV adoption in apartment dwellers. I really hope something is done soon, either governmentally or through the market, to make EVs a more viable option for renters.
And if you have this use case, why wouldn't you want everyone that commutes 50km/day or whatever in their Camry to use an electric car instead? That just means cheaper petrol for you, and less of a line at the petrol station to boot. Imagine how cheap it would be if we could go back to only needing to use the oil that basically bubbles up from the desert floor by itself instead of spending millions sifting oil out of tar sands up in Canada.
Towing and cold weather also play an important factor in the range as well.
I'll agree to add towing, but again unless you're a professional truck driver that's a very rare instance, and I'd point to my 2-car household thing as a solution. (Call me crazy but for those rare times I need a truck I rent one. The only times I toe are when I'm helping friends move and the only time I've needed a truck is bringing something big home from home Depot, and for both U-Haul has charged me max $20 bucks for the day)
For 99% of driving an EV is fine. The cold misnomer was true in the early days of EVs, but is pretty much solved now, but even then the 2-car household solves that again.
For the other 1% of driving you can easily rent a vehicle that suits your needs. After all, we don't all own moving vans just because we move occasionally.
It takes me 28 hours to drive from South Florida to New Hampshire in my EV instead of 24 like Google says. That would probably be 25 hours with gas stops though. And it's actually kind of nice to get out and walk around while it's charging, especially since I bring my dog. Maybe other routes are worse for charging? I haven't had any issues.
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