Claims that electric vehicles don’t have enough demand may be overblown.
A new study from GBK Collective, published Thursday, found that half of the more than 2,000 US car consumers they interviewed were considering either an electric or a hybrid car for their next vehicle purchase.
This far outweighs the current ownership trends found in the study. Only 14% of those surveyed already own a plug-in or hybrid vehicle of some kind. It’s another piece of evidence of a huge opportunity for EV manufacturers to home in on the needs of these green car-curious consumers.
“These are not the same kind of customers who created the initial EV market,” GBK President Jeremy Korst told Business Insider in an interview.
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“These are later adopters, and because of that, they’re not as driven by innovation or even design,” Korst said. “They have more functional needs, and they’re much more pragmatic and thinking about the total cost of ownership both in price and in effort, like, ‘how do I charge so what’s that going to take? How much time is it going to take me?’”
I’d like one not connected to a hateful, megalomaniacal egobeast.
And China’s about to hit the market hard. You know, if you don’t mind them scraping your data.
When the roadster came out I wanted one, but I wanted to see how the brand fared in general for a few years first. Plus I couldn’t really afford to upgrade my 1995 volvo.
When the model S was released I wanted one. It seemed practical, but it still wasn’t affordable for me to replace my old 1995 volvo.
When 3 was released I didn’t really care, because it seemed like a downgraded S.
When X (the car) was released I wanted one because m It seemed to be exactly what I needed.
But then:
Stories with quality control issues with Tesla becme more and more frequent.
EM proved himself to be a complete asshat (I had my suspicions, so I wasn’t that surprised when he went mask off)
Autopilot turned out to be a scam
Relying on rental cars at work made me realize how much I hate touch screens.
So, I’m still driving my 1995 volvo 940. It will be replaced in march by a 2019 volvo xc90. I see the benefit in hybrid, but fuck tesla.
Everytime ev’s come up everyone’s a fur trapper in the himalayas that needs to make pilgrimage over 500 miles every other day.
It’s not that you need 500km every day, it’s that you need 500km often enough to make the average affordable ev with a 150km range impractical. Until there is a reliable charging infrastructure in place, people need a vehicle that can accommodate their longest trip, not their average trip.
150km is the unreasonable part. The AVERAGE affordable EV, especially not Tesla, will easily do 250-300km on a charge. My ID.3 does 340km on a full charge (100% to ~10%) and I’m spending a third on “fuel” per month vs the Fiesta, even though I can’t charge at home.
Btw, I also don’t think twice about driving from Amsterdam to Disneyland Paris 2-3 times a year - that’s 550km each way easily. 2-3 charges, every 2-ish hours, depending on the season and Paris traffic.
People are just afraid to change. Right now, some cars get excellent deals to get sold. Once everyone starts wanting these, kiss those deals g’bye.
Ehh more like a 90km daily commute (+10km wiggle room for errands). However, the 150km advertised range turns into 120km actual range, which in turn gets reduced by 30% in the winter. Suddenly, a new EV (which I can’t afford btw) has a range of less than what I need, meanwhile, old ones which I might afford (and are still waay more expensive than a used ICE) have nowhere near that amount of range.
people need a vehicle that can accommodate their longest trip, not their average trip.
So, a train?
Yes, we definitely need more trains, but the average person isn’t really in a position to build a rail network, so using the infrastructure currently available, cars are a necessity for most travel.
I’m the opposite. I don’t drive much. The furthest I usually drive is about 60 miles and that is a once a month kind of thing, I usually just drive around town. And I could even make that round trip with a low end EV.
I have a hybrid now, but if I could afford an EV, I would definitely get one.
I have seriously considered an EV and will probably get one in the next few years but my biggest problem with them is that all of them have huge fucking tablet screens. I want a EV that has physical buttons and if you are going to use digital screens, I want it in the same layout as the traditional style. IF I have to have a tablet screen, I want it to be minimal.
I don’t want to have to use a menu to turn on the fucking windshield wipers!
Volvo XC40 Recharge has buttons for most things (volume, wipers, defrost, …) though climate is on the touchscreen which is annoying. Navigation on the touchscreen is nice. The software is a bit glitchy, though the car itself is very nice.
But I strongly agree: searching for buttons was a big part of our car search.
I have an EV, it has physical controls on stalks in the same place as a regular car for the indicators, windscreen wipers, lights, etc. You only need to use the tablet for climate controls and nav/music - all of which can be voice activated.
which EV do you have? The wiper example is just the Tesla, and I wouldn’t buy that anyways. I’d consider it if they ousted Musk
Tesla you press the button on the left stalk to make wipers move once, which also brings up the wiper menu on the screen to keep them on. I want more physical buttons too but it’s not terrible this way.
I’ll happily drive an ev if
- it is affordable
- it doesn’t require an online account and app to work correctly
- it isn’t an enormous truck/SUV
- it isn’t fucking hideous
- I don’t have to support Elon Musk
Too bad nobody’s making one of those.
- replacing a faulty battery wont be nearly the price of an entirely new vehicle
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If the charging infrastructure is as universal and as reliable as gas stations, so whenever the landlords want to make sure all the parking stalls have at least Level 1 charging
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What about better public transport, I’m ready to stop putting money into an “asset” that depreciates at $300 per month, while the debt jacks up interest fuck me the depreciation on a car makes the interest look like a reasonable tip to your server
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And yeah, twice, the batteries should be swappable, they can be semi-permanent but assume a 2-year replacement time with a standardized installation, fuck paying $45,000 for a really fast cellphone that stops working when the battery does and replacing the battery means ripping the glue apart and the car is never right again. They have to be AT LEAST as swappable as engines.
Kia niro ev. You can get a 2019 model for ~25k, and it just looks like a normal hatchback.
All I want is a sporty convertable EV that looks attractive and has 350+ HP for under $30K.
Oh and find some excuse to put a manual transmission on it – or at least flappy paddles – without it being a gimmick (edit: like CVTs with their fake manual mode; fuck that noise). Then I’m sold.
There’s no such thing as a manual transmission with an EV though…? The purpose of a transmission is to make best use of the power band of a combustion engine, an issue that EVs don’t suffer as they are able to provide maximum torque at zero RPM. At the end of the day, all you’re ever gonna get is some gimmicky fake manual mode.
Fine I can do without shifting. (TBH I don’t miss it that much anyway in EVs since the instant torque makes up for it.) Just give me my pocket-sized roadster EV, please.
Honestly, I would kill for an EV. I’m ready to setup the charging station already since I have a 240v 50a run in my garage. I even do electrical work and could install it myself.
As the article notes though, it’s way too expensive for me to consider at the moment. I drive maybe 100 miles a week but it’s usually a lot less so I would be a perfect candidate.
However, a $7k or less older ICE vehicle does what I need. I can buy a fuck-ton of gas for $43k… Including the added maintenance. I’m also hesitant to buy an older EV due to battery deterioration and not knowing if I will have to pay a ton to replace the batteries.
I had a 2014 Nissan Leaf. I bought it used in 2016 for $11k. I replaced the tires once. And filled the window cleaner fluid a few times. That’s about it. I charged it off a 110v in my garage. I debated getting the quicker charger installed, but seriously never even once would it have made a difference. My driving was about 300 miles a week. One of the few really solid purchases in my life that I have no regrets about.
I has an almost identical story, except the battery went from having mild degradation to suddenly erroring out the vehicle an putting it in turtle mode. (I believe we had 11/14 bars left.). Ended up spending almost $10k on a new battery. Honestly, it still has been a good deal for us over the course of the last 8 years, but not as great as we hoped. At least we have a new battery that should last a long time.
Honestly, I would kill for an EV
Why because it’s the new shiny? I bet you buy the new iPhone every year.
However, a $7k or less older ICE vehicle does what I need.
Right but you gotta have the new shiny right?
FOMO?
