Anything you need to plug into a power source is doomed to fail. EVs are simply not designed properly which is why hybrids are the best of both world. A Camry hybrid has some genius technology as the EV part is used at low speed and ICE at higher speed. That is the perfect balance and you see why it's a success for them. Toyota make the best hybrid vehicles. Honda makes hybrids too so they're not throwing all their EV technology into the e-waste bin.

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mrweasel 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Hybrids makes no sense, but to the smallest of customer segments.

They need to carry two engines, batteries and a gas tank, that makes them pretty bad at being both an EV and a ICE vehicle. They are to heavy, have to little battery capacity to be a good EV. The batteries and electric engines make them to heavy to get good fuel mileage as a gas powered car.

I've meet exactly one person for who they made sense. He could get to an from work on battery alone, but not much more and he needed the combustion engine to haul a trailer every now and then. If he could have waited a few years, he could just have gotten an EV that did the same.

There might be locations where hybrids makes more sense, but now that the range of EVs have gotten much better I think that list is slowly shrinking.

The thing that's weird to me is the focus on getting rid of diesel, because EVs and diesel cars are not at all competing. EVs can replace gas powered cars, in most cases (depending on your location), but they can't replace diesel. Need to drive 500km a day? Diesel is probably your best bet and EVs are completely out.

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jumpalongjim 13 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Whether or not your analysis is correct (I'd say not), the root problem is Chinese manufacturing dominance and unfair competitive advantage when it comes to EVs. It saddens me to say it, but the legacy car companies are unable to pivot and are likely doomed.

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darknavi 14 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> Anything you need to plug into a power source is doomed to fail.

Totally disagree. One of the reasons I drive an EV is so I _can_ plug it in and never go to a gas station again. What a useless exercise and waste of my time, especially for a penny-pincher like me who would wait in like for 20 minutes at Costco for gas.

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sys_64738 13 hours ago | parent [-]

Plugging it in is why it is so awful. It takes ages to charge it and you don't get very much range for a full charge. Battery technology is so incredibly poor right now and EV manufacturers are just plain dumb until they make the body of the car harness the sun's rays.

	▲	darknavi 7 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		For me it likely won't matter 98% of the time. I charge at home and already cap out my existing circuit and it's plenty fast for me (around 10% of range per hour). For those not with an overnihht charging parking spot I can see the appeal though.
	▲	cyberax 6 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> until they make the body of the car harness the sun's rays. The surface area of a car usable for solar panels is about 3 square meters. At the absolute best, when the stars align just right, you're going to get about 1 kW of power out of these panels. In other words, barely enough to offset the auxiliary systems in the car (cooling pumps, lights, computers, etc.)