| ▲ | jlarocco 3 hours ago | |
The problem is that few people in "the west" wants EVs. It's basic supply and demand - the sales are tanking, and without subsidies nobody will buy them, and the car companies are realizing that. A few models (Teslas, for example) do okay with the upper class, but the lower and middle class can't afford them, don't have anywhere to charge them, and have to drive too much to depend on them. Even in a trendy, wealthy city like Boulder, CO which is all about saving the environment and going green there isn't nearly enough charging capacity for everybody to use EVs. An EV is better than no car at all, but they're a downgrade from an ICE in most cases. | ||
| ▲ | brikym 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | |
It depends where you live and your driving distances. The US is the worst case for EVs because of longer driving distances and cheaper gas. I plug mine in at my own home so I never have to stop to fill it up a tank which is really nice. A renter might struggle to find anywhere to charge though. ICE is horrible to drive in comparison. They are noisy and lack torque and lots of moving parts need maintenance. For sparsely populated areas or city to city driving plug-in hybrids should bridge the gap and allow people do most driving on electric and get the benefits of EV performance. | ||
| ▲ | cyberax 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | |
The "west" doesn't want expensive EVs. The most popular (or the second most popular) EV in China now costs $5000 for the base model. And for $15k you can get a very reasonable car. Beefing it up to the US/EU safety standards and even accounting for higher labor cost, it would be around $20k. I'm pretty sure consumers would be quite interested in something like this. | ||