Because

1. our government is run by child murdering pedophiles who ruined the economy so no one can afford to eat or pay rent

2. Electric cars in America are exubarantly overpriced or cheap trash

3. if you bought one anyway we dont have infrastructure in place to charge it in majority of places in the US

Fuck oil. I'm saving up for an electric vehicle anyway. The world may end by the time I've scrounged enough cash, but whatever - corporate evil starves us for money, might as well starve them back

Can't put gas in EV cars, that's why! /s 😂

Your # 3 is a myth in the modern day. It's not 2010 anymore.

For local use, most people can charge an EV super-cheaply at home or work, depending on their situation. This takes care of something like 95% of most people's driving.

For long trips, it takes a small amount of planning, but I could road trip across the entire country in my EV without issue if needed. Tesla opened up their charging network to everyone (even if they force drivers of other car brands to pay more) and there are also several other companies filling in the gaps.

It feels like "But there's nowhere to charge it" is one of the top things preventing people from making the switch, and it just isn't true anymore.

"Could" isn't the same as "easily".

My car is 20 years old, and not nearing need for replacement.

Our other car is 10 years old and like new still.

Replacing either one makes no sense.

I find it to be incredibly easy.

For example, in my day to day, I charge primarily at work, because my company allows me 5 hours a day on a 6 kw charger. My battery's about 60 kwh, so I can put in a half battery's worth of power, or about 120 miles of range, for about $3 per session. That's the cost of about 60% of one gallon of gas now, and I go 120 miles off of it.

And even though it's a slow charger, I don't feel any of that time, because I'm just inside working.

If you charge overnight at home, same story. You plug it in when you get home, and it slow charges, but you don't care because you're not waiting on the car, you're living life in your house and sleeping overnight.

To plan longer trips, there are websites you can use where you say, "I'm starting here, I'm going there, this is which car I drive, and these are the brands of charger I want to use," and it will plot the entire route for you with level 3 charging stops the entire way. That's what I mean by "a little planning"... literally 3 to 5 minutes on a website.

Canada here. The other day I was leaving IKEA near closing time, when I noticed 7 electric cars in a single row, more nearby. And it wasn’t near a charging station.

Because we cant afford them.

It will if you cant put gas in them.

Yeah but fossil fuels are like half of the components of electricity in America, so we won't be able to afford that either.

Gas would have to get pretty expensive before spending money on a new e-car made more sense than continuing to fuel a car that was paid off 15 years ago (assuming a 5 year loan on the 20 year old car).

Now getting rid of one car and replacing it with a bicycle (or e-bike) would be a boss move.

Found your next ride

ill buy one as soon as i can get a cheap, non-us made one.

when are we going to be free enough for that? maybe another 250 years?

Problem is you need to use an app to find a place to charge. Gas stations have big signs and they are just for every highway exit anyway. Electric vehicle charging stations are not advertised from the highways and so you don't know where they are unless you have an app. Using an app while you're driving is not safe, which means that if you're taking a trip on an electric vehicle, you have to set your app up before you start driving to find the next charger. This is much less convenient than what you do with a gas station where you just drive until the fuel gauge starts getting low and then you find a nearest gas station.

Ultimately, yes, an electric car can go just about everywhere a gas car can. And there are some places that a gas car couldn't go either. However, a gas car is still going to be significantly more convenient if you are making a road trip.

Still, nearly everyone in the US lives in a family situation where there's more than one car. Having one gas car for those road trips may still make sense for a lot of people. However, all the other cars certainly could be electric because almost nobody is going to be driving long distances in all their cars every day.

PHEV master race

For the same reason I'm not buying a new ICE car. I can fix the one I have. I have the tools and the ability. And that one isn't spying on me.

The car in the thumbnail is $640,000

It's amazing how one step over an invisible border things become "impossible".

Is it the ferarri luce or the nissan leaf? :p
(Love the joke)

If inflation is taken into account, current high gas prices haven't broken the record yet. What I have noticed is that even during times of high prices, I don't see a lot of changed behavior from people. So it's not high enough for them to reduce fuel use in needless driving or idling in parking lots. Just high enough to complain about.

I do think we need to move to better energy sources and less fossil fuel use, but that isn't going to happen without some outside pressure.

I completely agree. I live in a major metropolitan area but most of my family lives in a shit hole, rural, regressive state with awful infrastructure in general, and even then they're out in the sticks for a rural state. I've driven our electric car to and from there, a 10-11 hour drive, over ten times in the last few years without a single issue. This last trip I stayed in an even more remote area with access only to a 15A 120V outlet. No problems and I paid 1/4 the cost of driving our ICE secondary vehicle.

I've taken several other trips all throughout the Midwestern United States without problems. Only once did I have a somewhat tense drive on a trip from the sweltering armpit of the United States, rural Arizona, up to Vancouver BC, and only because I chose a more direct route that my trip planner warned would stretch the capabilities of my battery. I kept it at 60 mph, coasted down hills instead of regenerating, and arrived at the next charger with 20% charge, 10% higher than estimated and enough to make it to the NEXT charger without charging.

Sure it's anecdotal, but I've literally saved thousands of dollars versus an ICE vehicle. I don't mind spending a little time planning for long distance trips.

this. it comes at a time folks are dipping into savings and even retirement to have food and shelter. They can't stretch for a new car. Far easier to drive less.

Yeah before this I would keep on mentioning how cheap gas was. I mean the four bucks a gallon seen in the aughts would need to be 8 to 12 now to be about the same in my area. Thing is I kinda feel cheap gas and electronics is the only thing that let us keep this house of cards going.

You're focusing on something that's a small percentage of driving for most people. Focusing on the 1% of the time exception case prevents a lot of the positive experience that could be going on 99% of the time.

But even with that, you're also not accurate on the actual experience of an EV road trip, I see a lot of incorrect assumptions in what you're saying. I don't think it's any kind of maliciousness on your part, just lack of knowledge.

First of all, I'm not constantly and dangerously checking my phone for the next charging station info while driving like you have said.

I'm only ever focused on getting to the next charger. Just like you'd get to any other destination.

I leave home with 100% battery and the idea, okay, first I'm going to stop at X charger at the 160 mile point from here, it's just off the main interstate I'm taking to my destination. I share its address into Waze or Google Maps or whatever, just like navigating to anywhere else... this takes like three seconds every time, and I'm not driving when I do it.

When I get there, I come off the highway and GPS navigate to it like any other destination.

I arrive, plug up, and while the car charges over the next 10 to 15 minutes, I use the bathroom, get drinks or a snack or whatever, set the NEXT charger's address into the navigation. Once I have enough charge to get to it, I unplug, drive off. and the next leg starts. So on and so forth, until I arrive to the ultimate destination.

The main difference on the trip between the EV and the gas car is that I pre-plan the fuel stops before I start the trip, instead of just impromptu stopping when I'm low on gas. That's literally it.

And again, that planning takes less than 5 minutes to do, at my convenience, and before the trip actually starts. I'm totally fine with paying that tiny bit of time on occasional road trips to avoid all of the extra time and expense of maintaining an entirely unneeded gas car.

I'm focusing on the 1% because 1% cases are what drives purchases in most cases. Renting a car for 1% of your trips is often expensive enough that it's cheaper overall to just buy the one car that will do everything instead of finding an alternate for the 1%.

Yes, I know you can take an EV on long trips. People do it. However, everyone is planning in ways that people with gas cars don't. Because with a gas car, as you're driving along, you see your fuel gauge running towards low so you stop at the next exit: there's a gas station there. You don't worry about headwind or temperature causing you to use more fuel or some other situation.

Is that really more annoying than all the repair work and climate guilt that comes with an ICE vehicle? Is that 5 minutes more valuable than all the time you spend working to make money to spend on gas and repairs?

I'm personally worried that if I buy one it'll get bricked by a bad update, or the company no longer supporting it, or any number of BS non-mechanical reasons. It's impossible to buy one that isn't tied to it's builder permanently. I want to OWN my vehicle.

Because we spent all our money on grifters and fuel

I live in South USA (please take note that I said South and not Southern) and the parking lots have a lot of EVs and PHEVs. Perspective and context is the problem here, selling 250k EVs a year in Canada is a lot but selling 500k EVs a year in USA is nothing

I think where our mindsets differ is that you, and other people, value the ultimate convenience of just impromptu stopping when the gauge goes low. No one wants to do the little bit of extra brain work to plot the course for navigating an EV. Even though it's actually far less extra work than most people imagine it is, due to the tools that are available to you.

Whereas I'm telling you, it's well beyond worth it for that little bit of extra effort. I spend thousands less every year, with huge reductions in fuel and maintenance costs, than I would be spending had I kept my last gas car I had before making the switch last year.

I have absolutely zero regrets. And I believe most people would be there too if they switched... the experience is just too good.

Most people consider the climate something that other people should worry about while they can do their own thing.

I find EV owners greatly exaggerate the amount of maintenance and effort that a modern ICE vehicle needs compared to an EV.

Also, I do own an EV and I use it for local trips. For now, the minivan is bigger and that's what we are using for the road trips anyway. However, in the last road trip, I did look at the charging situation and I realized that, yes, I could have taken the EV but chargers were not near as convenient as gas stations are right now.

Because few can afford a model made within the last ten years, and old ones still had range problems maybe? New batteries are hella expensive.

Nobody can refute 1 and 2. Though I did pick up a 5 year old Niro EV for $15k a few weeks back. That probably still qualifies as trash. But it’s a good commuter and can handle long trips OK

I’m posting this message from bed in my travel trailer parked at a truck stop for the night as I haul it from Phoenix to Dallas with my electric truck (F150). I have to find chargers that are less than 100 miles apart to make this trip happen. If number 3 were true I’d already be stranded.

I also have a 20 y/o car. The $100/month we spend on gas going up to like $120 is a small price to avoid the spyware and touch screens of a new EV we can't afford anyway.

Even with fossil fuel as electricity source, the chain of fuel to forward trajectory is far more efficient with an EV. Just consider how much waste heat gas cars produce vs EVs. With gas, you’re paying for all that heat that you’re just dumping into the air. Electricity prices are very stable and can be offset with solar or wind at your own home. Can’t refine your own gas with the limited exception of bio diesel.

What do you consider cheap? Used EV Kia’s and Hyundais can be found in the $10k range.

You probably mean BYD though, and yeah, the protection racket of most our domestic manufacturers are never going to let that happen despite not actually making EVs themselves really.

But the design looks like a five year old designed a speedy dumpster.

The used EV I've been eyeing has increased $12,000 in the last 3 months. Yes, people are buying them. Maybe not new EV's, but they are being bought. Supply around me dried up.

Because used market for them sucks where I am, and vehicles need a mortgage these days.

Nah, I've been driving an EV since '23 and I can affirm that it's pretty damn easy.

if you're taking a trip on an electric vehicle, you have to set your app up before you start driving to find the next charger

If you're driving long distance you're probably using an app anyway. All EVs have navigation built in. You just type in the destination and the car will automatically route you to chargers as necessary.

Exactly!

Price is one thing, but this is the deal breaker for me. I want something I can fix when broken. Something with components that can be replaced with typical shop tools. Give me physical buttons over a touch screen. Give me hydrolics, link and pinions, and belts over electronics. There is zero reason for a door handle to be electronically controlled. There is zero reason for the manufacturer to have any control, or knowledge of, where I go or what I do. I want a vehicle, not a fucking tablet on wheels.

I can buy a whole lot of gas at $5/gallon when my car cost <5k. That said, I am looking at a Volt. Seems like the best of both worlds, and the older ones are cheap.

I would caution. I own a Volt and the aftermarket parts availability is practically non-existent where I am. I was only able to drive 30 miles at a time for a long while

Bro, my EV literally tells me where the chargers are, how much they cost and how many are in use. Don't have to open an app.

I'd find it near impossible to own an EV. I rent and the only chargers in my area are in parking garages, so I'd have to pay for parking and pay for charging and walk home or sit in the car and wait.

Isn't electricity price increasing too, even though at a slower pace?

I know how to get to my mom's house so I'm not using an app for that.