Electric Vehicles Start to Enter the Car-Buying Mainstream

[Zorro]

While sales are still skewed toward affluent buyers, more people are choosing electric vehicles to save money.

The first wave of people who bought electric cars tended to be affluent, environmentally aware technology enthusiasts who lived in California. The second wave may be people like Russell Grooms, a librarian in Virginia.

Mr. Grooms last year bought a battery-powered Nissan Leaf, spending about $20,000 after government incentives, as a way to save money on gasoline.

“I don’t have the disposable income to throw $50,000 or $60,000 at a car just to help the environment,” said Mr. Grooms, a resident of Manassas, who works at a community college. “It really came down to numbers.”

Mr. Grooms, who is married and has a 5-year-old daughter, figures he is saving about $1,200 a year on gasoline, and he has so far spent nothing on repairs or maintenance. (Electric vehicles don’t need oil changes.) “It keeps our expenses much more predictable,” he said.

https://tinyurl.com/t7pkjpfz

[ananda]

1. No charger access here.

That's why I got a hybrid last year.

It's doing well gaswise.

[WhiteTara]

6. I'm lucky in that I can charge in my garage

We bought an electric/gas hybrid. It certainly saves on gasoline, but I wish I could by-pass them forever.

[arlyellowdog]

2. My son has had an order for a Ford F-150 lightening for 2 years

It’s not the desire to buy EVs, it’s the availability. Make them, make the affordable. Make charging easier. It’s what people want. My husband worked on EVs in the 1970s before the Republicans and the fossil fuel industry crushed them. My son says, “sure, Elon Musk is an arrogant asshole, but he was the arrogant asshole the planet needed.”

[hunter]

4. Musk has done nothing to make the world a better place. Absolutely nothing.

He's a despicable racist space pirate who exploits the hopes, dreams and, yes, vanity of affluent people who don't know any better.

Musk can go straight to hell, do not pass go, do not collect $200.

"All men have an emotion to kill; when they strongly dislike some one they involuntarily wish he was dead. I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction." -- Clarence Darrow

[Zorro]

7. Sorry I'll have to disagree

More than anyone Musk has forced the entire automobile industry to embrace EV technology, and has likewise confronted the established rocket manufacturers to look at more cost-efficient production methods to compete with SpaceX.

I get it that many people hate his guts, but to assert he's done nothing to make the world a better place is no different than asserting that the world would be better remaining dominated by the fossil fuel industry.

[hunter]

13. The problem isn't what powers cars, it's car culture itself.

The human population is now 8 billion. This planet cannot support a car for every adult, no matter how those cars are powered. It's not just the cars, it's the infrastructure required to support them -- the roads, highways, bridges, parking lots, etc.

What we need to do is rebuild our cities, recreating them as attractive places where most people find car ownership unnecessary. Let's tear down some freeways.

Personally I have no influence on the car market. I bought a new car once in the mid 'eighties when I was young and full of myself and thought buying new cars was something adults just did, but I won't ever do that again. This car lasted long enough that my kids learned to drive in it. I eventually gave it away when they passed it back to me after buying cars for themselves.

My favorite kind of car costs about a $1,000. Since I'm a pretty good mechanic, another $1,000 in parts will leave me with a reliable vehicle, good for another 100,000 miles or so.

I rather resent the fact that I have to own a car in this culture to be considered a fully functional adult. The cars I own reflect that.

If someone gave me a Tesla I'd give it away like a hot potato to someone who cared. I wouldn't even accept title. Maybe Meals on Wheels would take it.

Tesla products are little more than high end consumer goods in our high energy environmentally destructive consumer culture.

I'm not hostile towards my neighbors who drive Tesla automobiles and have installed Tesla PowerWalls, these things are not uncommon here, but I don't pat them on the back for their environmental activism or look upon them with any kind of envy.

[hurple]

3. The charging infrastructure needs some massive growth

Before these go mainstream. For example, I want one soooo bad, but I have literally nowhere to charge one unless I get a home charger installed or go 10-15 miles out of my way every time I need a charge. And those are in a parking lot a a nearby college. So, what the hell would I do during the time my car is charging?

I've thought about trying to start a charging business. My thought is pair a row of chargers with a building featuring a gaming arcade, little booths where you can watch TV privately (like maybe $2/hr), and a restaurant, because every charging station I have seen so far has just been a bunch of chargers sitting there, in an out of the way area like a parking garage or far corner of giant mall parking lot. Pairing these up with something fun to occupy the customer's time will be a huge boon to the company who does it first.

[tinrobot]

5. Biden put $7.5B towards chargers in the infrastructure bill.

Hopefully, that will put more in your area.

But home chargers aren't all that expensive to install. About $500 for the charger, plus the electrician costs. Plus, charging at home makes it really easy to own an EV.

And, if a 220V charger is not possible, charging on slower wall sockets could still give you 30-40 miles of range every night. That's enough for many.

[hurple]

11. Unfortunately, not for me.

I drive 60 miles to work and the same back. So, even the cars with a 300 mile range is troublesome... if either a. I can't keep up with the charges overnight, or 2) I have an emergency and have to run a long errand after work (which has happened a few times as I have a kid who lives 60 miles away in the opposite direction from my home tha my work. So that would mean 60 miles to work, the 120 miles to her, then 60 miles home... 240 miles total, with nowhere the charge on the route. (At least, not yet)

That's pushing a little too close to the limit for my tastes.

But, man, I want one of those long-range electric Mustangs so bad... I got to take a weekend-long test drive of one last summer. Amazing car!

[hatrack]

9. 56,206 public charging stations and counting (this includes Levels 2 & 3 in US, Canada)

It doesn't include private (i.e. fleet) charging stations.

Tens of thousands more on the way in the next two years.

https://afdc.energy.gov/stations/#/find/nearest?fuel=ELEC

[hurple]

12. Yep!

And wife and I are investing heavily in one or two of the companies. Hoping for early retirement!!!

[hunter]

15. There's no shortage of car chargers where I live here in California. Even WalMart has them.

Apartment owners are installing them as well, hoping to attract more affluent tenants.

It's not rocket science to install a car charger. Any electrician can do it.

Unfortunately, until we start building more nuclear power plants, at least half of the electricity for these new electric cars will come from fossil fuel power plants.

That's better than gasoline, but it's hardly enough to save the world.

We need to quit fossil fuels entirely.

How did so much of the U.S.A. become a "CAN'T DO!" nation?

It's especially frustrating in regards to things that other people are doing or have already done.

What makes things like universal health care, housing the homeless, or installing electric vehicle infrastructure so difficult here?

It's a rhetorical question. Nothing happens here unless it increases the wealth and power of the billionaire class.

[Celerity]

8. good

[BannonsLiver]

10. It's amazing there are people here who still defend and like Musk.

I’m often embarrassed for them.

[Igel]

14. The $20k subsidy was nice.

With that, her car cost less than my ICE car two years ago. Feds picked up over 50% of the price.

Then again, it helped keep us warm and got us around during the week-long power outage that February.

I currently spend $600 on gasoline.

(And yes, it was a subsidy--except that has a negative ring, so we call the same things "incentives" or "investments". It's all about the ω.)