This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Literally every single person that I talked to that seriously tried an EV (like, as a daily driver for some time, not just the rental you had for a day) said they were never going back to combustion engines.
Yeah, I drive an EV and will never go back to gas.
I mean maybe if I had a project car or something but even then my thoughts drift towards how I might swap an electric drivetrain…
I don’t have an EV, but I can imagine it would be nice to not have to go to the gas station once a week.
I've had an EV for a couple of years and had to rent a gas car on a trip recently. I was prepared for the expensive fuel, I wasn't prepared for how shit it was to drive.
See, an EV's electric motor and (usually) single reduction gear means you get basically the same acceleration between 5 km/h and 120 km/h. You can put your foot down slightly and forget you're accelerating because it feels just like sitting in a stationary car on a hill. How far you push the accelerator is how much acceleration you get. Unless you're getting wheel spin or you're at the car's power limit, that's all there is to it.
A gasser has an engine with different performance depending on RPM and a gearbox that provides different performance based on which gear it's in and changes according to it's own logic. You're just used to this when you drive one all the time, but for me it was awful the way I'd put my foot down and get nothing, then engine noise, then some power, then a lurch and more power and another lurch and less power. The accelerator pedal is a suggestion, mostly disconnected from what the car actually chooses to do.
The problem is that modern cars are shitty. It doesn’t matter if it’s a petrol, diesel or electric car. If I can’t repair it myself, it’s a poor quality car. The fact that you might need specialized paywalled software to remove error codes after fixing the car is just awful.
Most people I’ve spoken with that claim that they don’t like electric cars eventually agree that they don’t like modern cars. Mainly due to how closed everything is.
Yeah, vendo lock in is what has stopped me from purchasing a BYD seal
Make it affordable and I'll buy one tomorrow.
Let's talk VW specific. I would absolutely love an ID.Buzz. But you made the fucking thing SIXTY THOUSAND DOLLARS.
What does this headline even mean?
Are electric horses better than gas powered horses or what?
Yeah, it's phrased in a weird way.
He is saying that when cars were becoming popular, lots of people insisted that horses were better. Over time, basically everyone realized that cars are better.
Now electric cars are becoming popular, although lots of people insists that ICE cars are better.
He is saying that over time, people against electric cars will change their mind, just like the horse-people did.
Henry Ford once said somethimg like: if i had asked people what theh wanted, they would've said faster horses.
Electric engines are better than horses
Electric horses are better than engines
Even the Empire knows that!
Make it illegal to include touch screens, tracking, no buttons and no handles. Then I'll consider getting a loan for one 🤷♂️
I'm only interested when the vehicles are simple and affordable and the charging stations are fast and ubiquitous.
Which will be 20 years.
People seem to forget gas cars took 50+ years to become widely adopted. They were not really accessible to the middle and lower classes until after WW2.
For some reason people here just want to scream and moan and browbeat anyone who doesn't want to buy an EV today, when they are unaffordable, inconvenient, and make zero sense unless all you do is commute to work and run local errands. Lots of vehicles are used for different purposes.
I wouldn't call any car affordable these days so that's a moot point. The rest of your description of EVs is not accurate at all. I drive an EV long distances across rural Montana regularly. If it works for me I can guarantee it would work wherever you are.
You can already drive cross country in almost any EV. There are more charging stations in my area than there are gas station.
Mechanically, EVs are very simple. Cost and "complexity" (app, touchscreens, etc) are rampant in ICE cars today as well, so buying one of those won't really make a difference there either.
That's what I think. EVs aren't functionally equivalent to ICE cars yet - most of them can't go as far between fillups, and they take longer to fill up. Those are steadily improving. But the cost benefits are there. Back in 2013 when I bought my Leaf I went from spending $1800/year on gas to $300/year on electricity, and in 12 years my only maintenance costs were windshield wiper blades and a set of tires - which I would have needed with a gas car. But no oil changes, tuneups, no filters, belts or hoses, no spark plugs. No radiator problems, starter problems, pump replacements. I mean it's almost like not having a car at all, except you have a car.
I think the problems tend to be overplayed. For most people the BEV is as good as the ICE vehicle. They have a range in excess of 300km with most above 400km, further for city driving. Charging is at night so it is only those longer trips where charging is more inconvenient. I’ve modified my hasty lifestyle a bit to actually enjoy a coffee while charging on those few trips to the big smoke.
They say this whilst trying their best to make EVs the printers of the car industry. Update? The car stops and bricks itself for the duration of it. Want basic features? You have to pay a monthly subscription for the car you already payed for. Need it repaired? Have to bring it to a dealership with criminal prices because every part is serialized and they have you by the balls. Need a new battery after it kicks the bucket in 4-5 years? Expect to pay $10-20k for a new one. Oh and of course the center terminal/tablet is now crucial for the cars function, so anytime that malfunction it bricks itself again. Oh and it will always track and spy on you with GPS and onboard cameras and microphones.
People aren't going to realize EV's are better until the can actually afford one.
Also, maybe one day America will get their heads out of their ass and realize that public transportation is better EV's.
I have no doubts about electric cars being nice or "the future", but the price of these things is still a problem.
A (reasonably) new one with the range I need (~400km+) costs way more than I care to spend. That is partly because batteries still cost too much, but also very much because they still have a tendancy to gatekeep larger range figures for use in luxury cars.
And getting older second hand is still too much a questionmark in terms of how much of a chance there be you'll end up having to fork over big for a new battery or motor and/or write it off prematurely.
Another problem is that I also have no way to charge it at home and would be fully at the mercy of public charging infrastructure. And generally speaking as a taller man, I feel some of them can also be quite lacking in terms of interior space.
The only problem I've had with the EVs we've been leasing for 5 years now, is unsolicited criticism from EV haters. They seem to ignore the fact that I've been driving various diesel and petrol vehicles for decades. If my own lived experience of EVs was less rewarding than my previous ICE ownership I'd switch back. It's not like a football team that I'm wedded to. They're just generally better cars in terms of driving, torque, maintenance, cost to run and basically every metric that matters to me as a driver. Quite why that annoys people who in many cases have never even been behind the wheel of one is beyond me.
And they won't need to cheat their emissions tests with evs
Also article quotes an executive but no labor leaders
It also has the added benefit of watching you all the time!
Other than that EVs are pretty dope.
Three times I read "cats are like horses", and was wracking my brain trying to figure out the analogy...
Thats absolutley true, but I live in an apartment complex that wont even fix the elevators, there's no way in hell I'd ever be able to charge at home and for that reason... I can never have an EV.
