Because people can’t afford them.
In the US, EVs are still in the upper high end of car prices.
And cheaper ones are being kneecapped by the government because they want to keep supporting the incumbents
That’s because a brand new one is way too expensive for most people, and a used one is still expensive and could have half the range left in the batteries, you have no idea.
We need an EV mini wagon, like mid-80s Nissan Maxima wagon sized, and battery tech needs to get cheaper.
All the car manufacturers want to build giant boats now, as big as can possibly fit on the road and in parking spaces, because of their addiction to profit margins.
Yes, somehow the American car buyer has been bamboozled into thinking that a bigger car is “luxury” and a smaller car is somehow “lower end,” so automakers price their larger cars higher even though the physical size has very little to do with the actual manufacturing cost.
Or more and more Americans are gigantic and want bigger interior space. I did not fit comfortably in a Mach E.
Americans have almost always equated bigger with better. Look at cars back in early 70s. I drove a 73’ Impala, that thing was huge, even by today’s standards
Also the car will report its expected range based on battery health, it doesn’t just naively assume the battery is perfect
Based more on recent performance than battery sensors.
But the point is that batteries are degrading to 75% of new, not 50% of new.
Restoring some fuel economy (increasing range) to a used ICE car can be as simple as replacing spark plugs and cleaning fuel injectors. Even if you’re not into doing that work yourself, that’s not prohibitively expensive.
Doing the same for an EV entails replacing the entire EV battery, which is prohibitively expensive, and which a shadetree mechanic would be hard-pressed to do themselves.
… and also an engine rebuild with new piston rings and possibly even cams and lifters if the old ones have worn down enough. When a ICE car drinks oil like its gas, there’s things you have to do.
I take your point on individual maintenance, but that can also apply to EVs. But statistics show that in general ICE cars degrade faster than EVs
You can get a used Jaguar ipace with reasonable mileage on the odometer for less than a new camry if you’re willing to go to where it is.
New vehicles are almost never worth their price.
Man I would love that! Can we get an EV sports car too? FRS, Z car, Miata… Anything like that.
Ngl I love my minivan. I can cart my wife, kids, and niblings…or a stack of 4x8 plywood and some 12ft linear boards.
I do wish station wagons were back though. The car would be so much better with a lower center of gravity.
I guess being so tall has the benefit of being easy to get in and out of, especially the third row…but hear me out…what ever happened to rear-facing third rows?
Rear facing third rows, probably something about being unsafe in a rear end collision.
called no one makes enough to buy one and our leaders refuse to make companies pay living wages so we could afford one
plus the electric vehicle infrastructure is not government run and not robust enough to handle a full transition
I wont buy an ev until they stop being mobile spying devices, especially considering the price tag. Same with any new/more efficient car. If that never happens, I just won’t ever have one. That’s the way it has to be because I am not a product, especially if I’m paying thousands of dollars. If it’s free, I’ll think about it.
I live somewhere that I can’t really survive without a car, but I’ve reduced my driving substantially (once a week now at most) I’d like to get an e-bike, but can’t really justify the spend at the moment.
I’ve got bad news for you, it’s not just EVs.
Uh, yeah I know, I mentioned that in the comment you replied to.
Used is also a great option. Sure, you’re probably not going to find a deal on an electric, but from an ecological and cost perspective, using a piece of equipment that already exists is more environmentally friendly by a long shot than buying something new. I’ll be driving my 1.8t mk 4 Jetta into the ground, thank you very much (and then I will fix it, as I am the warranty at this point).
Used doesn’t fix the spying problem, only helps with the price. And that’s not even a guarantee anymore. So you aren’t wrong, but it doesn’t help the issue I specifically have with them (which I have with all newer cars).
My current car is 2012 civic coupe, and if I don’t drive it much, it’s perfectly fine for what I use it for without upgrading, other than that it’s starting to need bigger work more frequently, and not stuff I know how to do. Decent mileage and all, but fully ice. I’d like to upgrade to electric or at least hybrid, but they all have the same spying problem. So I just cut driving as much as I can. I live in a rural town, closest grocery store is half an hour away by highway, so zero driving isn’t an option, unfortunately.
I can guarantee you that my 2003 VW has literally zero wireless connectivity. It doesn’t communicate with anyone but me and my mechanic, and I am my own mechanic.
I have a 2012 civic too, we are twins.
I’m not shying away, they’re just too expensive
Even if we made enough to buy them, the infrastructure is still not great to support the people who need them most. Live in an apartment? Maybe you’re lucky enough to have chargers nearby but for millions of Americans they can’t charge at home. If I have to go somewhere to charge that adds time to my commute either to work or on the way home. If I’m already spending an hour or more on the road each day just in commute time that 15 minute charge every other day or what have you adds up.
More people need to feel comfortable asking for chargers in their apartments’ meetings. As one lady was scared of being chewed out for supporting new technology.
I don’t disagree with that but I have never been to an apartment meeting in my life. I have lived in apartments for the last 15 or so years, and most of them have been owned by huge conglomerates who barely fix amenities when they break. I waited on a tap for my tub for about a week, a replacement garbage disposal for about 6 months. The drain for the pet grooming shed was flooded for about 2 months before they did anything about it at the most recent place. They let the gutters freeze and fall off the building during the winter and didn’t replace them til 8 months later. EV chargers are just not something I think the management would even care about unless it’s making them money. And even then they’d weigh that against the number of people living there who drive EV’s and probably decide against it.
I’ve lived in many apartments and they barely meet their lease obligations let alone give a rat’s ass about my opinion on any matter.
I have a few friends with EVs who live in apartments. Some people can charge at work or while shopping. When nothing lines up, sitting at a supercharger once every few weeks isn’t terrible.
Depends on their lifestyle a whole lot. That’s the point. If you’re single with no kids? Doesn’t seem like spending 20 minutes a week to charge is a lot. If your commute is about 20 minutes each way? That may be fairly reasonable. My husband drives 71 miles each way per day 5 days a week. He can’t charge at work and there are no chargers in the area. Our apartment complex doesn’t have chargers. The closest ones are a 15-20 minute drive away and always packed. This is what I mean when I say it’s doable for some but not for all or even a majority.
Same. I would love an electric vehicle, but I don’t see how that could possibly work out with my commute and no charger options at home or at work.
Honestly, as a person who just bought an EV (used 2017 Model S, battery warranty expires Dec. 2026) it’s more comfortable in a million ways, and at times it is cheaper (level 2 charging, DCFC on superchargers are sometimes more expensive than gas, 0.39c per kwh versus $3.28/gal is pretty close according to tessie), but without hone or work charging, might as well get a plugin hybrid. I lose so much time waiting at superchargers. Nonetheless, i could never see myself returning to full gas.
Comfortable compared to what? That’s subjective. So unless you’ve got some kind of consumer data to back up what most people want and how they feel about it, I’m just gonna say that’s not super helpful. Especially when considering the other problems that I have with new cars altogether.
Naturally it’s subjective, but i compare it to driving my Uncle’s Cadillac, but if you’re so concerned, just watch a quick video on how to use the car and rent a Tesla or something for a day and see how it goes, make up your mind for itself. Im not here to be an evangelist. Im just speaking my mind.if you don’t like it, then that’s on you, choose what you want
I have driven almost every Tesla and literally every single Ford electric and hybrid vehicle they have made. My brother works for a dealership. There’s lots of things I don’t like about electric cars full stop but a fair few of those things aren’t unique to just the electric car market up to and including the amount of tech in all new cars which I am very much against. I have made up my mind for myself.
If you meant for the average consumer to make up their mind for themselves, I’m definitely with you on that. But I don’t understand why the “it works for me crowd” don’t want to admit that it may not work for everyone or even the majority. And that’s what I’m responding to. It’s not just you. There are a lot of people who don’t want to listen to anyone who says there are downsides that make it untenable for them.
That commute should be illegal.
I move every time I have more than a 15 minute commute. Spending that much time driving is seriously mind-boggling.
You get used to it. I was the same before i became a field tech. Now, i could casually drive from Naples to Miami (100+ miles one way) and back without a second thought if i wanted something
You know, I think it’s not as bad as this anymore. While one of the best convenient features of EVs is waking up to them charges every day, not having that and having to use public charging isn’t necessarily different than having to get gas.
I do have EVs but I also have a motorcycle. I hate filling it up because where I live waiting in line for the pump is a 15 minute ordeal usually. The few times I’ve used public charging around here that’s about how long it took for me to get it done.
My work does have chargers, but they are expensive so I don’t use them.
Here’s my point:
You have to charge roughly as often as you need to get gas. If you don’t have access to a charger where you live it’s still worth it because it’s so much cheaper, even if it’s slightly inconvenient. If you don’t have fast chargers near you though I doubt this works.
I just went back and looked at my charging stats, and for two cars I’m averaging between $38-$42 / month since 2022.
Road trip supercharger costs are higher, averaging $14 per stop.
Why did they include someone’s opinion about environmental impacts without a fact check? I hope she uses ethically sourced oil.
Well, considering that the price of the one that meets my minimum specs is 40k, yeah, that checks out.
I’m actually debating about if I save up for 40k on a car, why not go 65k and get a BMW idrive instead y’know
I’m not personally interested in owning a Tesla, and none of the other EVs I know of really appeal to me, at least not at the prices I’ve seen them at. Last year we got my wife a Rav4 hybrid. It’s been a great car, we’re really happy with it.
I have no idea why someone downvoted you. I don’t align exactly with your opinion, but your opinion is valid and you insulted nobody by giving it. Upvote to restore sanity.
Listen, I can keep driving my 15 year old car for the next 5 years. Assuming the frame holds up, I intend to drive it another 15-20 years.
I don’t need a new car every 5 years. That’s 80-120 grand I don’t need to spend. If I had 5 grand, I would consider an EV conversion kit.
Well if there were places you could actually get them charged. Living in an apartment complex as I do, I don’t really have an option here. A hybrid would be nice, but I’m also dirt-ass poor. So shitty busted used car it is.
I don’t want to buy a multi-ten thousand dollar tablet that I climb inside and it spies on me. Take the dumb bullshit out, give me a simple interface with mostly physical buttons.
A simple electric car with buttons would be so good!
Well I don’t want every single company in the world to have access to every bit of info.
And I don’t own a house and there aren’t enough chargers around.
I work two jobs/minimum 90 hours a week already, I don’t have the time or inclination to waste what little free time I do have sitting 30 minutes from home in my car waiting for it to charge for an hour
What Biden push? The one where he slaps 100% tariffs on the cheapest EVs in the world so that American companies can continue charging an exorbitant premium for EVs? Sorry, the tax credit which the car companies have jacked prices up far beyond isn’t enough in this scenario.
