This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Yup. We knew this. But they won't let us buy the affordable cars because that sort of free market would put US companies out of business.
In this country, we have the FREEDOM to buy any overpriced domestic or foreign (assuming they're on the list of good foreign countries) tank-sized SUV you want.
Who ever thought the US would be a place where the federal government would prevent you from buying the coolest cars and coolest drones? Lame.
Yeah, you're living in state capitalism in the USA these days.
I've read this happened because sometime in the 80s comrade Reagan decided to own the Japanese instead of letting competition do its work (for cars, but with electronics similar things followed). He's somehow often associated with liberal capitalism and so on, but the guy believed that "monopolies are efficient", but at the same time by some magic if a monopoly stops being efficient, then all the capital and technology base for competition to replace it will just materialize in one place in one moment all by themselves. So I'm not even sure if "comrade" is irony. The ironic part is that the US president whose term coincided with Soviet system conclusively losing the Cold War is also the one who supported state capitalism and ideologic pressure in society.
A lot of people don't realize that the big car thing is due to government regulation. X footprint vehicle must attain Y MPG lest fines or what have you, so manufacturers are legitimately being incentivized to make larger ballooned out vehicles because that puts them in a different bracket for mpg requirements that's easier to attain. This is why the new 3 series is bigger than the old 5 series, etc
After 1 year ownership.
Zero maintenance costs this year, plus averaging around 3 to 5 cents per mile.
My motorcycle costs more to drive and maintain.
It's nice knowing that no matter how expensive gas gets, I'm unaffected by it. Power comes from solar.
My 1st EV paid its own note with the amount of gas I wasn't buying to run it.
Not even a service?
2 recalls, no cost to me. Brakes were serviced during that time free of charge. All they did was clean and check them. Also rotated tires for free.
My biggest expense I would assume will be my tires. It does weigh like 5400 lbs
Yes, tires are the only consumable that is worse. Especially since it's hard to turn off the lizard brain and /not/ use the extra torque. Brakes basically rust off them with disuse and then there's wiper fluid. They really should have old-school drum brakes.
The engine has one moving part and doesn’t need re-lubrication every year. Makes shit a lot simpler.
Wasn't this already well-known? An internal combustion engine is less effective already from the start compared to "modern" fossil energy power production. Even if the energy came 100% from coal, there wouldn't be too much difference anyways.
The only thing electric cars are worse for, environmentally, is increased tyre wear due to weight. And then the battery production/disposal of course...
Even if the energy came from 100% black coal, EVs still have less emissions than ICE
About 30% less.
Goes to show how inefficient an engine is that runs on explosions. A gear shifter is a necessity just to keep it running at optimum rotation, otherwise it would be even less efficient.
Gas engines don't run on explosions. They run on burn and rapid gas expansion. Explosions are avoided because it ruins motors.
But they are horribly inefficient and 75% of the gas people buy is wasted as heat.
And then the battery production/disposal of course…
I'd guess the entire environmental damage of petroleum exploration, extraction, refinement, distribution, and combustion is greater than the entire environmental damage from battery material exploration, extraction, refinement, manufacturing, and eventual battery disposal when talking about a single ICE car vs a single BEV.
All of the ICE vs BEV pollution metrics I have seen to-date include the environmental cost of the battery, but only include ICE tail pipe emissions and exclude the environmental cost of everything needed to bring petroleum to market.
My salvage title 2006 Honda Accord cost me $3200 in cash over 3 years ago.
Since then, I've spent maybe another $2000 total on ALL service and maintenance. Including a full set of tires, an alignment, oil changes, brake pads and rotors. A pair of wheel bearings, a new radiator, and a pair of tie rod ends.
All of which I did myself.
Oh, and my monthly insurance premium for this car?
$32 a month. No car note. "But electric cars don't buy gas either" No. They use electricity. And my average monthly power bill is already over $400 a month. You think I want that to be even higher? No way.
Yea, I get that EVs are better.
But I don't do car notes. I can't AFFORD to do car notes.
So until I can buy a 17 year old EV for $3200 cash and only need another couple thousand to keep it running for an additional 3 years, I will stick to the used ICE market.
They use electricity. And my average monthly power bill is already over $400 a month. You think I want that to be even higher?
Some of your concerns may be valid, but I pay relatively high prices for electricity, 35¢/kWH, and even at that price, the hit to my electric bill is half what I used to spend on gasoline. Current gas price make that even better
Yeah, your electric bill would be higher but the increase in electricity you'd pay will be less than what you currently pay for gas, saving money overall. Only issue is the up front cost to buy one in the first place. And all the spying shit recent cars come with.
And all the spying shit recent cars come with.
Yeah this and all the infotainment bullshit they're putting in new cars is a huge incentive to just stick with my 15 year old ICE. If nothing changes I'm planning to drive this thing till it rusts to pieces. I don't need or want all that extra crap. Just give me A/C, power locks and windows and a stereo and that's it.
I live on the southern US coast. Unless I drive it straight into the Gulf, it isn't likely to rust away. It's a Honda, not a Dodge. 🤣
Most people can't repair a car themselves, especially true if it's something more complicated than brake pads and rotors. If you adjust your numbers to reflect what it would have cost if you had to pay someone for repairs I'm guessing it might seem a little crazy to invest that much in such an old car. If one were in a wreck and the car was totalled, insurance pay out wouldn't get close to the amount invested.
Me... I'm still driving a 20 yr old car. Low mileage since I've worked from home most the time I've owned it, but it's definitely showing its age. I can afford a new one but why would I want to right now? It still runs well and I have no desire to drop $50k on something to replace it. Happy now to keep my money saved.
No. They use electricity. And my average monthly power bill is already over $400 a month. You think I want that to be even higher? No way.
Fueling costs per mile (using the term "fuel" rather loosely for EVs) are significantly lower for electric vehicles than combustion, even taking into account plugging the thing in at home with an extension cord. It's going to be a rather long break even period when comparing to a salvage title clunker, but for someone shopping for a new car to begin with it makes sense.
It's not costing anyone "less" to be paying at the pump. It's just an easily forgotten regular expense that everyone is used to. Meanwhile, people have been conditioned to have a cow over seeing any increased number on their electricity bill even if it's only a couple of bucks. Right now with local gasoline prices it costs something like $60 to fill up my Subaru from empty and nearly $150 for my truck (it has a 35 gallon tank!) and the former I could easily do twice a month if I weren't riding so many motorcycles this time of year instead. In the Scoob, that's around 784 miles of driving for $120 in fuel. That's only be $47.04 if I had a reasonably recent EV and charged it at home.
I went through the same rigmarole replacing my house's oil heat with mini splits. Yes, my electricity bill went up... On average something like $40 a month. Meanwhile I stopped paying $300 to $400 a month to my former oil company for five or six months out of the year. $2000 - $480 = a $1520 or so net yearly savings I proceeded to blow on camera lenses and more motorcycle parts.
The cost savings, even at $5\gallon don't make up for the payments, much less taxes and insurance. But the old truck needed $10000 in repairs to stay on the road and so I'm stuck anyway no matter what.
Trucks are still tricky, but new EVs cars are about the same cost as new ICE cars. Used EVs are basically entirely reasonable and in some cases cheaper than used ICE.
Nothing new is going to beat a paid off car for affordability, but that's a pretty apple to oranges comparison no matter how you slice it.
You have higher taxes for electric cars? It's the other way around here.
We have higher taxes for newer cars. If your car is more than 10 years old, your taxes go way down. When I replace my truck because parts were rusting off, taxes went up because the vehicle is newer.
depends on the state/locality in the US. Since we pay for road maintenance with tax on gas (which EVs don't pay obviously), some places add an EV tax to make up for it. Problem is it's usually a flat tax that is higher than most people would pay via gas taxes.
Yeah... Too bad that all EVs are spyware on the wheels. When car makers will be forced to stop or significantly reduce the amount of data they are collecting, I may consider buying one. Probably not going to happen in my lifetime.
Lol if you're in North America look for an older ev with 3g. The network is shut down so there's no way it can communicate as long as you don't give it your Wi-Fi password.
I am. And I didn't realize that's a thing! But there is not many models... WV e-golf maybe a decent option
Unless you plan on driving antique cars or living a short time, you are going to need to figure out how to rip out a cellular modem at some point to achieve that. There's no difference between EVs and modern ICE cars on the surveillance tech.
You can probably pull out the sim card that calls home. Plenty of guides out there too
Bold of them to assume the people concerned about money are the ones buying new cars.
"Most US drivers"? Show me one US driver who needs to breath fossil emissions to survive.
Oh wow, who would have thought? It's almost like demon oil companies were trying to hide this or something.
