I respectfully disagree. I agree with your premise that EV's are good only in certain use cases (and not pickup chores, since this article is about Rivians). But we don't have HOV lanes where I live and my wife and I get good practical use from our EV. That's mainly because we drive a lot of miles (26K per year), enough for the gas savings to warrant the up front costs of purchase and charger install. That's not getting into if people have enough money to spend on some of the niceties like zippy acceleration and the convenience of charging at home (as opposed to ICE cars requiring me to stop at a gas station once or twice per week even for local driving before I switched to doing most of our driving in the EV).
Last but not least is my fear of the government forcing more control over our energy sources to make various kinds of energy more expensive and perhaps even at some point hard to come by. The fact of that matter is that I can't drill and refine my own oil to provide gas for my ICE pickup. But I can use solar to provide power for the EV (and the house). Shortly after getting the EV 15 months ago I added on to our solar system (a year ago end of August 2022). Since then it's provided 81% of our power in our all-electric home, including charging the EV (by my estimate about 23K of the annual miles are charged at home).
Don't get me wrong. EV's can't do everything. I probably wouldn't have one if I wasn't married and needed 2 cars anyway (one EV car and one ICE pickup). Nor would I have one if I lived up north where cold weather was a problem. Nor would I have one if I couldn't charge at home (i.e. lived in an apartment). Nor would I have one if I didn't drive enough miles to have enough gas and oil change savings to warrant the extra costs of having an EV. But since we meet all those situations for owning an EV, there's a real peace of mind in knowing that the energy for our local driving is self-provided and can't be stopped by stupid Dim energy policies limiting energy to us plebes.
So yes, there are reasons to get an EV without HOV lanes.
“I couldn’t charge at home (i.e. lived in an apartment).”
This is a reminder that many millions of people in older cities live in single family homes or duplexes where they have to park on the street.
It is not just apartment dwellers that are unable to charge at home.
This has been a major “oops” that EV companies are discovering—most of their “woke” target audience does not have access to home charging.
“I couldn’t charge at home (i.e. lived in an apartment).”
This is a reminder that many millions of people in older cities live in single family homes or duplexes where they have to park on the street.
It is not just apartment dwellers that are unable to charge at home.
This has been a major “oops” that EV companies are discovering—most of their “woke” target audience does not have access to home charging.
Good for you. Seriously. YOU have decided to do this. You are a perfect example of someone who can take advantage of a new technology because your circumstances are right. THIS IS HOW IT SHOULD BE.
Unfortunately for the Socialists, there aren’t enough of you to create enough free market demand for EV’s, so they have to force it on everyone.
I could probably be in your same situation. If I wanted to set up solar generation at my house, I could, but I haven’t. And I’m just stubborn enough to tell the Socialists to kiss my ring finger instead of buying an EV.
Seriously though, good for you. Everyone should be able to choose.
a.k.a. ... On the golf course.