Those are the same people that will be getting electric cars in the next 10 years. The "rest of the world" buys the used cars the rich people are done with, so they won't be seeing electric cars for 15 years or so.
Electric cars don't age in same way as mechanic/based ones which we had 100 years to perfect. People buy those used cars from other countries because any skilled mechanic in dirt poor country can repair most of it, dismantle engine to last screw. And nobody is importing a Maserati for example.
I don't see this happening in EVs, at least not current generations. On super-proprietary cars like Tesla probably never.
Isn't that the point? That people in poor countries mostly buy old cars from other countries? Which currently of course means they are gas powered. But what about the day when old cars start to be mostly electric? Wouldn't electric cars become equally, if not more attractive to poor countries?
Electric cars are already fairly ordinary in certain parts of the world. Not necessarily the most common, but nobody will give you a second glance now if you have one.
North America is already auto-dependent and EVs are an important piece of the puzzle for that region. Their point is that EVs won’t possibly work resource or cost-wise when that 82% inevitably gets richer and asks, “what about me?”
The world isn't rushing towards electric cars. USA, Europe and China are. The rest of the world isn't switching to electric any time soon, because electric cars are expensive and billions need to be invested in infrastructure to make them viable.
Looking at developing nations this makes perfect sense. IMO As those places get rich the upper middle class wants luxury cars long before the grid can support Teslas at the scale needed.
Edit: I'd be interested to know why my analysis is apparently so incorrect/unwelcome.
Disappointing, that they own outdated combustion engine cars. They should have the money to by the fastest electric car on the market: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rimac_Nevera
I think the bigger picture here is that electrics are just becoming "cars". They aren't buying it because its electric, but because of the specifics of the car itself (styling, performance, etc). Because of that another electric car is not a replacement because they don't care specifically that its electric.
I think there are another two reasons not mentioned in the article. One is the surge in electric car sales, many people are still on the fence and want to wait a year or two before they decide if they want to move to an electric car. That's why they don't sell their own car yet.
The other reason is that in a certain time during the last 20 years there was a sweet sport of car reliability when cars were not too sophisticated but also got rid of all their childhood deficiencies and they can simply go forever. All those corollas and their ilk are just there and not going anywhere so people has no reason to buy new cars instead of those.
Electric cars are for the rich. And of course they say it's the future and everyone should do it, without realizing it's literally impossible. No grid in the US could come close to handling that, much less in developing countries.
Not to mention due to range limitations, many people and companies are ruled out automatically.
I don't think electric is bad, or should go away. But it's not meant for the masses. I think H has a brighter future worldwide.
That seems like a separate issue to me, the general consumerism around wanting a new car/phone/widget every year or two. For the time being though, I don't think that's necessarily a problem with electric cars. Sure, some people will sell their electric car and buy a new one every two years, but that creates a used electric car that someone who can't afford a new Tesla can buy, thus removing another ICE vehicle from the road. Of course in an ideal world we'd all drive our 1995 Honda Civics until they rust out from under us and THEN buy an electric car... but that's not realistic.
reply