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 ONE person who has a hybrid.
(Are only the rich going to be permitted to drive???)
Yes. That is what they are intending.
My thought is that what is driving this amongst the billionaire class is that they are losing their relative prestige because the lives that they lead are becoming too accessible to us, which causes them to lose their status. So, by removing our ability to fly and drive and eat meat and drink coffee, it keeps their lives special.
I think that is what is driving this, at least in part. The billionaire class has an internal need to be special and to be able to do things that we cannot.
Ford and GM have bet heavily on EVs. And expensive EVs at that. Normal people want normal cars that are affordable and reliable. Pickup truck buyers want vehicles that can haul heavy, bulky loads.
Hopefully the EV obsession and greedy UAW leadership will kill off Detroit auto companies and leave the market to private sector consumers and manufacturers who operate in normal fashion.
And I have been driving Fords for the last 20 plus years. I will miss the Escapes and the Fusion hybrid from my past, but the world moves on.
IMHO that's one reason they're doing it. Another reason is it'll later be easier to control the EV masses through one utility company (local power company) than it is to control the ICE car masses through a handful of oil and gasoline providers.
My wife and I are happy doing most of our driving in an EV. As many miles as we drive it's cheaper. IMHO, with prices of gas and power in Alabama last year (ranging from $2.60 to $3.00/gallon, 15¢ to 16¢/kWh), the threshold is you ought to drive at least 12K miles per year to consider the next car being an EV. My wife and I put 26K miles on our last year, with 16K of those miles charged at home.
But this thing the Dims do of pushing it onto people is stupid. There is no warmageddon to save us from. And EV's aren't a good fit for a lot of people (i.e. live in cold climate, or can't charge at home, or is single and need just one car, etc.). Even for those of us an EV is good for, I'm not comfortable being solely dependent on EV's (our other car is an ICE pickup). Last but not least, the gubment ain't got not business anyway telling us what we can and can't do.
“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.