The challenge of making people buy EV's

The question really is "At what price for gasoline would you buy a EV instead of an ICE car?" Claims of never buying one are either unimaginative, or disingenuous.

Would you buy an EV if gas cost $10 /gallon?
Would you buy an EV if gas cost $15 /gallon?
Would you buy an EV if gas cost $20 /gallon and rationed to 3.5 gallons per week?
Would you buy an EV if gas cost $30 /gallon and rationed to 3.5 gallons per week?

 

I think things are easier to see by just looking at the big car ads in the newspaper. They are chocked full of low / teaser prices and good deals on new cars.

So, on page A, you have the $15k Nissan Versa. Just below there is the $25,000 ? Leaf, after all the credits you could possibly throw at it. Who wants to pay now and save later?

Even the Prius looks a little out of it in the papers ...

Prius Two, $22,800 tease price, you know, 1 at that price. Camry L, $20,800.
Corolla L, $16,800

How many drivers go around thinking about AGW? Not a large percentage.

At least Prius is a 'gateway' car for EVs and anything else. Get a whiff of some EV driving and many want more.

 

by expensive ... you mean like the U.S. trillion dollar military budget ? or do you mean expensive like in the hundres of billions in trade deficite for our fuel? Or, did you mean expensive as in dollar-loss of value of military human life ... our in expensive in re-training replacements for lost military lives ... or did you mean expensive, as in respitory disease due to pollution? ... maybe expensive is printing an unending supply of fake paper money to cover the 'instant gratification' of living in the now . . . maybe what is expensive is our unwillingness to do w/out what ever is 'easiest' ... in planning the next 50+mile round trip without having to think about it ... and never mind what that expense will be down the road. Just so we're clear.

.

 

A Volt owner told me she considered the Prius also, but opted for the Volt because of her driving patterns. For her situation she said the Volt was a better fit. She also said without the $7K credit she would have chosen the Prius instead.

 

I mean expensive as in the tragedy of the commons motivates most people's behavior and an EV car is currently very expensive on a personal basis--the only basis of much relevance to most.

 

don't buy an EV, fine! Let the rest of us have that choice.

 

Not to be snobbish, but sometimes having two cars, if you can afford it, makes more sense. You have another option in the event of a breakdown or accident. If you try to do everything with one car, sometimes it will be too big, and sometimes too small.

 

I would buy an EV at gasoline at $4.00 per gallon, which it is now in my area. But it still doesn't quite make financial sense til $4.50 by my calculations (electric costs).

 

Hey I would buy a 85kwh tesla S if someone guaranteed a low rate of depreciation. They can do that for me with a low lease rate, but I don't think they will. Other than that they don't have the range. But I'm closer to the initial adopter side where these things are cool, I want to get off oil, and it doesn't need to make financial sense, just needs to be not something financially stupid.

 

Honestly, if you can afford two cars, the issue of whether or not you are buying an EV is pointless. If one person is buying two cars, cheap or not, the run cost of either is hardly on the mind of people in question as having more than one car is going to cost one person more than any car will.

In a family situation, yes, having more than one car is beneficial, but again, it comes down to what can the family afford car wise. You still cannot just put down 'two car solution' unless you know ONE of those cars is not going to exceed what its limitations are and that it can work.

I have stated the two car solutions only being realistic about what some of the things a person has stated. If they needed a vehicle that needs to tow, the Prius, for an example, or some of the EV vehicles, would NOT be ideal for a single solution. Fuel savings cannot be factored into a situation when you know the vehicle is not rated to do certain things, one of them would be the heavy towing.

EV's biggest problem is range. Range can be somewhat supplemented when there is a more mature infrastructure that will afford people to go longer distances and recharge in non-home environments when they know they will be spending time at a distance location when current battery pack options and costs prohibit long ranges at the moment.

I am more of a proponent that EVs are going to be the direction people wish to go to get out of the slump and concerns about Oil, as Electrical power can be easily accessed, just charging points have to be made more readily available to make the options more palatable.

 

You dodged the question.

It is too bad we don't have electricity anywhere. It is going to take a long time to string wires over the entire country to bring electricity anywhere we need it.

 

I don't disagree...but for me, range is not an issue. Towing is not an issue. I have other cars for that. I would buy an EV as a city car, and the smaller the better. On a normal work day, I drive maybe 15 miles total. If I go visit my parents, maybe 20 miles. If I run around Manhattan, maybe 40-50 miles in a day, and what I am more concerned about is finding a parking space. So to me a nice compact EV like the Mitsubishi I is much more appealing than a $75K Fisker or Tesla with a 250 mile range. I wouldn't park a $75k car on the streets of NY anyway, LOL.

 

I think you are missing the point of today's EVs. I'm tellin ya...they should be sought out as city/surburban run around cars, not long range-family cars...up to 75 miles per day, take it home and charge it while you sleep.

I'm sure in the future, EVs will have longer range and more room, and the charging infrastructure will improve...but for now, we should stop imposing ICE attributes on today's EVs.

Buy an EV only as a city car today...don't worry about the future, it will take care of itself. If you can't get along with a city car, then buy a Prius.

 

Help me here; somebody "made" people buy millions of Prii?

Basing a discussion of EVs based on the Tesla, makes about as much
sense as saying this is the typical plug-in hybrid:



"...The performance is still pretty brisk with zero to 100 km/h in like
four seconds. This car is a plug-in hybrid but still the fuel consumption
figures they claim are to be honest hard to believe! They say it will
average 1.9 liter per 100 km with CO2 emissions of below 50 g/km..."

"The first examples of the Imperia GP will cost you something in the
neighborhood of 120,000 Euro, but next year you can get for like 90,000."
Imperia

For the record, who among the ernest debaters in this thread actually
drive an EV? (I know Hill does, a LEAF, IIRC.)

And for those precious few, why do you feel your EV was the right car
to buy in your particular, specific circumstances?
(Don't tell us about national averages, your needs are not average...
and neither was your choice.