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.
Electrical (battery based) car's are more a marketing thing that a real tech change. They simply can't for now substitute fossil-fuel car's.
Battery life is still a problem, most of the people have yet do discover due to the young age of ALL electric car's in actual market, inability to offer enough electricity to recharge them at scale is another problem most people still have to discover simply because we actually have very small percentage of EV around. And that's only to cite most important problems.
Of course I expect may downvote, without comment so I expect this comment fade quickly but since today's prize of EVs people that can actually buy them is supposed to been able to compute enough to choose and REAL EV sell confirm that. Despite all the marketing.
The only people I know who have an electric car own or have pre-ordered Teslas. They are all status symbols. I don’t know anyone who needs an electric car. Maybe the problem is just as much lack of demand as it is lack of big auto commitment?
From what I know, this is due to trucks and SUVs - which there are not comparable alternatives in the electric world. (A Model X is way too expensive and there is no electric truck available now or anytime soon in mass quantity)
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.
To offer a slightly anecdotal counterpoint, if you discard ideological reasons and generous subsidies available in a few markets, I have no idea why anyone would buy an electric car right now. The range and the charging times are still an issue, especially if you don't live in California. The performance of most electric cars is abysmal (straight line speed may be all right, but cornering with the extra weight is just inferior) compared to traditional performance cars and while styling is subjective, the only electric car I've seen that wasn't outright ugly was the BMW i8, and that's a hybrid. That's not to mention the fact that they still carry a severe price premium in most markets.
I realize my opinion will be highly controversial in the HN bubble, but I find it to be very common in real life, particularly outside the U.S. Like any future prediction, I'm probably way off, but to me it looks like on the list of vastly overhyped car trends pure electric cars are second only to self-driving cars. I'm sure they'll find specific markets (taxis, urban deliveries, etc.), but I don't see myself switching to an electric car for at least a decade, probably more.
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.
This is a strange framing of the situation. It's not one specific demographic that isn't buying electric cars. Most people of any demographic aren't buying electric cars.
Men disproportionally buy electric cars because they disproportionately buy cars for reasons other than pure practicality.
But this isn't some "problem for women". Men who DGAF about electric cars and just want basic transportation also have the same problem: they are not yet competitive as basic transportation.
I think the reasons legacy vendors are not embracing electric cars are because
(1) their expertise is in gas and diesel powertrains, and all that stuff about emissions, transmissions etc is not needed.
(2) their dealers make a lot of their revenue from service, and evs don't have much service, and with Tesla they don't even have those irritating dealers
(3) the second order effect that lack of battery supply, makes it hard to make many of them and they are going to be more expensive if they don't have a massive supply.
Ha, I remember when electrics were laughed at, and claimed to be boring, slow, impractical. Now they are mopping the flaw and the internal combustion engine classes are yelling "not fair!"
What's really interesting is why are all the super cars not electric? The owner's rarely drive them long distance, drive them only on the weekend, they cost a ton to maintain. Tesla really should corner that market.
I've expressed the same sentiment before. The problem is that even talking about electric cars gets people's knickers in a twist; they need to be able to drive for 1000 miles straight while towing an apartment on wheels behind them and any vehicle which can't do that just isn't good enough. They'd rather be dead than have to drive one of these.
You're missing the point. If indeed your second point is true:
> EVs are the future, and they're only going to continue to replace gas-powered cars.
Then the fact that the "electric car novelty will wear off" is a given. By definition, electric cars can't both be the norm and a novelty at the same time.
Some* people are buying EVs because they're "better". Other people, like me, have zero interest in most modern vehicles, whether EV or not. I have zero interest in a vehicle that gets software updates, or that can choose for itself to slam the breaks on, or that has the ability to upload my data for collection, or that can be remotely disabled, or that isn't built to be maintained easily in my garage, or that has giant touchscreen nonsense. I realize I might be in the minority, but that's OK.
I feel that most modern vehicles are designed and built purely to make as much money as possible, rather than to actually a good, reliable, maintainable vehicle. And it works, because the average consume either doesn't care or is easily to manipulate.
If you want to convert more people to EVs, start building some that I'm remotely interested in. That and invest into solid state batteries, I'm mostly waiting for that too. Solid state batteries would solve most of the issues with EV tech.
I agree wholeheartedly with your “we want your car electric” line of thinking. I hate when electric cars try to look like what someone thought an electric car should look like. No one wants that.
The problem for me is price. I think the segment of the population that buys most of the new cars is pretty small and they dictate the cars that later show up on the market for the rest of us. Electric cars are not really hot with that demographic so they never really penetrate the rest of the segment. Electric trucks are cool though so I expect once volume of mfg picks up we will see good adoption
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