Fuck Cars
A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!
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It’s no bubble, it’s just that nobody wants a Hummer EV, and in this economy, who can afford one? EVs are still selling in quite well in Europe and Asia. Did any automakers fund democrat PAC exclusively?
Literal decades of marketing telling Americans that they need a (high margin and emissions exempt) pickup truck to drive their kids to school still hasn’t overridden basic economics.
US automakers designed EVs that are really just toys for the wealthy, not a family mover or grocery getter or daily commuter. It's not just the EVs: I'm in Canada and the market is different but not that different, and I don't know anyone who drives a US-brand vehicle smaller than an F150. I haven't set foot in a US dealership in maybe 30 years. US automakers are apparently baffled that they're not selling luxury second vehicles at a time when affordability has been on the decline for 40+ years.
Meanwhile, in markets with reasonably affordable, well-built, and compact EVs available, they're selling like crazy.
Also Trump and Musk absolutely destroyed what little of an EV charging infrastructure we had. I would absolutely love to have gotten an EV for my last car, but with Trump literally forcing the pentagon to buy coal power, there's no way in hell I'd trust being able to charge it away from my house on a trip, and they're still too expensive to have an 'extra car' for when i drive around town, and another vehicle for road trips.
Charging is very fragmented and generally uncivilized. The need for apps, the range of costs, etc. I think Aging Wheels’s video about long tow with his Chevy is telling - he’s an advocate for EV and there’s still special steps that need to be planned for.
Plugin hybrids can really help with the long trip situation while also allowing full electrical function for short trips - and engines don’t like running for lots of 10 min journeys when they don’t properly warm up.
I am able to afford (the cheapest available) EV for town use and it’s great for that, but I still have a gas car for trips. When I go road tripping, I’m a person for whom stopped time is wasted time. Fuel, meals, and toilet in 10 min. I’m bad at stopping to smell the roses. I don’t mind the option but I frequently do a trip that has no charging at the destination, and is 350km away. Easy to round trip with gas. Not so much with electric.
I really wish we had gone with the idea Tesla originally pitched 10 years ago, where you would drive up on a platform, a robotic arm would remove the empty battery, it would slide in a fully charged battery, and you'd be on your way. I really feel like the future of EV would be when you buy the car, it comes with entitled access to to fully charged ones whenever you need.
Nio is the only car manufacturer that has swappable batteries at scale, they just celebrated their 100 millonth swap.
But on the other hand, the latest gen of evs are doing the usual 10%-80% percent at under 20 minutes and that is with 100kWh+ batteries.
It’s really unnecessary cost and complexity. There’s no reason for it
Even without counting the newest high speed charging vehicles
I really don’t see how swappable batteries would help with charging speed or cost, by any noticeable amount
Even worse, how could you scale out? We’re already taking way too long building out chargers that are arguably just a power outlet. How could we possibly add the inventory problems of a different battery per vehicle, special automated lifts able to handle like a ton of battery, and scale it out to every highest, city, town? It’s just not possible
One of Musk’s ADHD moments.
I think battery tech will greatly improve. Internal combustion has been refined for at least 120 years and intensively since 1950. Too bad we were focused on one time use fuels instead of rechargeables/solar
If I didn’t have that regular trip, I’d sell my gasser and rent a car for long trips. I already do that if it’s multi day.