The EV Revolution Has Passed A Tipping Point

[cw30000]

Originally Posted by Igor Blevin

There are some scenarios where ICE is better than EV.

If you live in an apartment.

If your home or condo has no garage.

If you are poor and cannot afford the purchase price.

If you buy new but flip cars every 2 years. EVs don't hold their value.

If you need to tow a trailer frequently, like a food truck.

If you live in a particularly cold climate.

If you are scatterbrained and keep forgetting to plug the car in. The chime in a car says "fill me with gas". Where is the chime in an EV that says "plug me in before you go to bed"?

If you are bad with discipline and run your battery down to 1% all the time.

These are not issue. They don’t apply to enough people. For example, towing.

The only issue I see it is an issue is cold because you get less range in cold.

[Igor Blevin]

Originally Posted by cw30000

These are not issue. They don’t apply to enough people. For example, towing.

The only issue I see it is an issue is cold because you get less range in cold.

Renting is not an issue? 1/3 of all people rent today. Are they supposed to run a 500-foot cord down into the parking lot from their open apartment window during the cold of winter?

Some cities have a 30% poverty rate. Those who can afford cars have ancient beaters held together with "tape and bailing wire".

I think your perspective is flawed.

[303Guy]

Originally Posted by Igor Blevin

Fires are exceedingly rare in electric cars and trucks. The vast majority of serious fires are caused by those really crappy cheap chinese e-bikes and e-scooters. Those are mostly the ones burning down apartment buildings and shops.

Electric cars rarely catch fire. It is pure hell when they do, but it is rare. At the same time, there are very few old BEVs so who knows the fire risk when you have millions of 15 year old batteries on the road. We just don't know yet.

But as of today 2024, the cost to insurers from BEVs like Tesla has to be minimal. It is really mostly those crappy cheap Chinese e-bikes combined with stupid people who charge them in their bedroom overnight using the wrong charger, etc.

I'm not sure about Tesla costs being minimal. Maybe. Thing is, all motor vehicles are subject to accidents and any damage to the battery pack is a chance of a fire. Also, any BEV fire inside on inhouse garage has major costs. In one instance in my parts, a new home was destroyed plus half the neighboring home plus damages to the other neighboring home.

Then there is the Lutan incident - ±1,500 vehicles destroyed plus the car park they were all in, all caused by one hybrid catching fire.The battery caught fire. In addition, the airport was shut down because of the fire. Ok, the reason for the fire being so intense and destructive is that there were a number of EVs in that car park at the time.

But word has it that BEV insurance premiums are higher but that in my parts, the higher risk has been partially spread over all vehicle insurance. I have not confirmed this, although there was talk of it and then my premiums went up.

[ticking]

Originally Posted by Yoski

Despite EVs getting caught up in yet another US culture war, the train keeps moving and our pettiness won't stop it. The question is will it drag us along behind, or will we keep doing what we need to do to try and capture the manufacturing lead that China has taken and is determined to keep. Judging on how unfocused, backwards looking and shortsited we are as a nation, we will screw it up.

Currently we have a choice between electric or gas powered. The writing is on the wall though, at the rate we are pumping oil, we won't have enough gasoline down the line. We simply will have to switch over. I think it would be better to switch over sooner before we reach that point. Sure, we are pumping the most oil ever in 2024, but it isn't bubbling to the surface like it used to. Companies are expending more energy to extract, and that is very likely only going to get worse. The pricing of gasoline is bound to rise because of this. Seems sensible to avoid hitting oncoming wall TOO hard.

[BigCityDreamer]

Let me know when you can fully charge an EV in the time it takes to fill up a car tank with gasoline.

Then, I will think about buying an EV.

[Leo58]

Originally Posted by ticking

Currently we have a choice between electric or gas powered. The writing is on the wall though, at the rate we are pumping oil, we won't have enough gasoline down the line. We simply will have to switch over. I think it would be better to switch over sooner before we reach that point. Sure, we are pumping the most oil ever in 2024, but it isn't bubbling to the surface like it used to. Companies are expending more energy to extract, and that is very likely only going to get worse. The pricing of gasoline is bound to rise because of this. Seems sensible to avoid hitting oncoming wall TOO hard.

I think you’re right; eventually we will have to switch to EV because fossil fuels will be depleted. But that won’t happen overnight. There will be a period during which petroleum becomes less abundant and gasoline more expensive. At that time sales of EVs will increase naturally. I agree with many on this thread: pushing EVs prematurely won’t work.

[toodie]

In Chicago this winter, EVs wouldn’t start due to cold temps. They all had to be towed and owners were stranded. Batteries cost 10k to replace and are toxic after they die.
Has there been a fix for these?
Our grid isn’t capable of supporting huge numbers of them, either.

Unintended negative consequences are a foregone conclusion.

[dsjj251]

Originally Posted by 303Guy

Considering that each EV got an $8,000 taxpayer subsidy and the roads are in a state of disrepair ......

Then considering that motor vehicle insurance has gone up because of them ...... I'm told that EV insurance premiums are higher too but who pays the fire services who are now spending so much of their time fighting EV fires? I'm told that UK fire services are calling for a levy on EV owners to cover the costs.

That all boils down to a lot of wasted money!

1. All EVs do not get the credit

2. the credit hasn't always been around.

[dsjj251]

Originally Posted by Volobjectitarian

When any technology is a better value proposition across all or most measures, individuals within the market will adopt that technology voluntarily and happily. They will not need to be scolded, coerced, guilted or anything else. They'll do it quite naturally.

EVs are a better value in only a few areas, and ICE is better at most. That is today. I make no predictions on what is to come, but if/when EV tech is better across the board for most or all factors applicable to how we value owning/operating a personal vehicle, then you will no longer need to post threads like this, because we'll all already be heading in the direction the Invisible Hand is pointing.

Thanks for the virtue signaling scold though, we all appreciate it.

the difference between EV's and ICE at this point is infrastructure.

We built infrastructure for cars and we even had the government give cities money to build highways for cares ( as opposed to Public transportation), we widened streets, knocked down buildings, we built parking lots/garages . We made owning a car in general the standard.

for EV's to work, It needs to be explained to people that it removes our dependency on foreign oil.

Then, it needs to be explained how its cheaper, and finally, the push to make it viable with accessibility via charging stations and home chargers built-in

[mattja]

Any time I see statements like "Sale figures up 300%" I think of cancer rates. "Eating BBQ increases the chance of stomach cancer by 300%." So, it's up from 0.01% to 0.03%? I'll keep eating my BBQ, thank you.

Of the 152,000 F-series trucks sold, 7,700 were EVs. And of that 7,700, how many were sold to individuals as opposed to for govt. fleet use?