Are Electric Cars Dead?

If they’re dead plug it in

I have an EV, I like it, but I am the 1st one to confirm Doug is right.... EVs are inconvenient for apartment dwellers, Range issues for people who do Long trips, winter range penalty and people who sell cars every couple years. Sonny EV is right for me, but not for everyone

Wait, you don’t have the Mercedes E Class station wagon as a plug-in hybrid in the US?? 😮

1980: Me “The future will be much better." 2020: Me now “I wish to be in the ‘80s again.”

We don't need $180K electric Porsches. We need $30-40k commuters. We are not millionaires. (LOL my $150K Cayenne is so practical)

I still don't know how California is going to handle this 'electric car sales only' situation when they can't even handle their own power infastructure.

My wife recently bought a new Grand Cherokee Summit Reserve. I could not convince her to buy a Tesla even with interest rate incentives. She has listened to all the naysayers about charging network and the difficulty charging, resale, battery deterioration and expense to replace. No matter what I said, charging at home, low maintenance, short trips, I could not convince her. The model Y would have suited us perfectly. Unfortunately a lot of misinformation is a huge problem too.

If something can't be expected to run solid at least 10-15 years, it doesn't really belong on the market. What do they think, we're stupid? sees that Jeep is still in business Okay, nevermind. We are stupid. Carry on.

There's a substantial portion of the population that can't afford to spend more than $10k on a car. There's a ton of used car options that are perfectly fine for that budget, but none of those are electric. Older electric vehicles will have expensive battery issues, and those people who could then afford to buy them won't be able to fix them.

Doug is kind of guy that tosses salad like this 8:16

If I'm not mistaken, this is what Edison Motors is doing with their trucks: making them phev. If the battery dies, you can still run the diesel engine to run the generator to get where you're going. I think that's the best solution for many regular folks

I feel like a major issue all new cars face, be it ICE or BEV, is how repairable and reliable these cars are long-term. I talked to a mechanic, and he said it was 2,000 dollars just to buy a new single LED headlight for a Volvo. Not including labor. I'm helping my parents' car shop, and all I can think about is all the crazy costs any potential options will have over time. Even a Toyota has so much going on. Even if 70% lasts 30 years, lots of the tech will fade or malfunction. And if damaged, like the headlights or bulbs need to be replaced, it will be far too expensive. I wonder about BEVs batteries. They don't really seem capable of lasting 25+ years. The American car fleet is older than it's ever been. Automakers are refusing to address the used market. I guess cause it doesn't make them much money. We can't afford new cars and eventually we won't be able to afford used cars. They will be worthless. Automakers seem very desperate to make consumers as anti car as possible. You can see growing trends of people criticizing how car dependent we are and how we can't afford them. It will take a long time but if automakers dont cut the crap people will demand and look for alternatives to transportation rather that cars. Automobiles are too needed to fade. But they can see their sales fall.

Doug the kind of guy who decides to sell his used engine oil in the style of Belle Delphine

In Cali I see them everywhere. It’s the iPhone of cars now

EVs will just always have a natural cap to the number of people that A. Want to buy them B. People who live somewhere they can actually own one (think people who park on the street in cities or with landlords) Not to mention every EV car crash is a hazmat scene

There’s also the distrust of full electric cars in general because besides range anxiety, fix-ability, reliability etc, but especially against the backdrop of a government that demands that the car can be immobilized remotely by the authorities by 2026. I can’t even begin to describe how this can be abused.

I was driving my Corolla and couldn't find the Toyota gas station.

The issue with plug in hybrids is also the price. For example, the price of a prius prime is much higher than the standard prius which is already a hybrid with excellent mpg. If you have to drive 50-150k miles just to break even from the initial higher cost of a plug in, most people wont find that worth it. Plus, most people don't have a place to plug in and installing one could cost thousands. It's also a hassle. We already have so many things that we are constantly charging. As someone that has an electric vehicle and a hybrid vehicle, its always so refreshing to not have to plug back in when I get home after driving the hybrid.

Regular people shouldn’t have to help rich people buy expensive new cars. No subsidies, no tax credits.

The problem really lies in the fact that governments, primarily in European countries, have given EV-owners special priviliges. Germany is a great example at this, people that bought Evs and kept them for atleast 6 months got a 6000 euro tax refund and after that 6 month period was over, people were selling them for what they paid for them when new. Denmark - where I am from - is also a great example. The danish government reduced the - usually very expensive - registration tax for only EVs and some big cities in Denmark even allowed EVs to park for free. If the governments didn't do all of this, then I bet EV sales would never be as high as they are right now.