“I don’t know a single person in my circle who could afford one of these EVs and the ongoing expenses of it”
I know maybe a dozen people who drive Teslas, two since 2014. Not unusual for Southern California where EVs are now as common as Mercedes once were.
The Tesla Model 3 sells here for $35,000 new.
The only ongoing expenses that they seem to have are tires and windshield wiper fluid.
The “brakes” are the motors running in reverse. There is no oil to change. No radiator fluid. There’s nothing to tune up. No smog checks.
Unless they run into something, which is hard to do with all of the sensors and cameras, there’s nothing to fix.
They “refuel” in their garages overnight. I don’t know of anyone owning a Tesla who doesn’t have a garage to park it in so that seems to be a limiting factor.
These aren’t going to be practical in rural areas, and probably not for people who can’t garage them, but in a lot of California they make financial sense. I’ve only heard of one person here who returned one, and that was within a week of buying it. The rest seem to think it’s the best car they’ve ever owned.
What about the batteries?
Between the subsidized price/tax credits, subsidized electricity to charge them, and subsidized roads to drive them on (with access to HOV lanes too), they are cheap to own. They are a good deal for those who own them, assuming they fit their use case. Probably a lot better fit here in SoCal than most of the country. They’re not such a deal for those who don’t own them, but pay to subsidize them.
Not unusual for Southern California where EVs are now as common as Mercedes once were.
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~25% of all new car sales in California were EVs through the 3Q of last year. Here is a web page that keeps tracks of EV sales county by county.