Posted on 03/07/2021 8:08:35 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
Car dealer Brad Sowers is spending money to prepare for the coming wave of new electric models from General Motors Co. He is installing charging stations, upgrading service bays and retraining staff at his St. Louis-area dealership to handle the technology-packed vehicles.
But when he considers how many plug-in Chevy Bolts he sold last year—nine, out of the nearly 4,000 Chevrolets sold at his Missouri dealerships—it gives him pause.
“The consumer in the middle of America just isn’t there yet,” when it comes to switching to electric vehicles, he said, citing the long distances many of his customers drive daily and a lack of charging infrastructure outside major cities.
As auto executives and investors buzz about the coming age of the electric car, many dealers say they are struggling to square that enthusiasm with the reality today on new-car sales lots, where last year battery-powered vehicles made up fewer than 2% of U.S. auto sales.
Most consumers who come to showrooms aren’t shopping for electric cars, and with gasoline prices relatively low, even hybrid models can be a tough sell, dealers and industry analysts say.
Auto makers are moving aggressively to expand their electric-vehicle offerings with dozens of new models set to arrive in coming years. Some like GM are setting firm targets for when they plan to phase out gas-powered cars entirely.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
“. Not enough range for much of the country, “
Most don’t drive 500 miles in a day.
” takes too long to re-charge vs. 5 minutes to fill a gas tank,’
Who can go 500 miles without a rest break? Recharging in 20 minutes gives you time to go take a leak.
“not enough places to re-charge because you can’t get in and out like a gas station so you end up with long lines”
Every house is a charging station. Already, gas stations are installing charging stations.
The Model-T was in production 4 years before the first service station was built!
“Including taking a leak”
That’s just not taken into consideration when evaluating Automobiles anymore; I appreciate you bringing up that important necessity while on the road.
So why are companies producing them?
Well, I read an article a while ago that said companies are paying huge payments to Tesla because of some “Green Credits” scheme of governments.
I guess it’s cheaper to build EV cars that won’t sell!
I have an EV as well as an ICE truck and ICE sports car. The EV is great for daily use. I use the truck for hauling stuff (like the concrete and lumber I bought a couple days ago), and the sports car for long trips to other states. The EV costs almost nothing to operate ($30 for the last dealer checkup), versus hundreds of dollars for the ICE vehicle checkups.
I think car makers are going to be making ICE vehicles for many decades to come, and governments are foolish for pushing to eliminate ICE vehicles, which are necessary and will probably outnumber EV's three to one in the future.
Out west there is wide open country where you can drive hundreds of miles. How are these electric cars going to handle that?
“Why the hell would u limit your travel that way?
8 hrs to fully charge, 100 mile add @ 35min with a rapid charger. IF you can find a charger.”
When was the last time you drove more than 500 miles in a day?
You are guilty of fuzzy thinking. You need to think BIG picture from a systems perspective.
What do you think happens to the grid when 150 million EVs are plugged in at night? How much wind and solar energy is being generated at night to charge those EVs? Where is the electrical distribution infrastructure to support that load? Where are the energy STORAGE systems to store the wind and solar in the daytime to trickle into the batteries at night? You need to at least QUADRUPLE the capital investment in the windmills and solar panels to get such a system to work. The most likely backup strategy will be natural gas fired combustion turbines that will be sitting there idle during daylight hours and only used at night. The SYSTEM will have a terrible Capacity Factor (fraction of the nameplate output rating that is actually used). You will have an enormous amount of wasted capital trying to get the entire system to work.
Even then, you don't have the rotating mass of big generators to stabilize the frequency of the electrical system. It's a fragile beast that depends on massive electric generators for stabilization and you simply DO NOT have that with wind and solar.
And why convert to EVs in the first place? The whole notion that it will avoid greenhouse emissions of CO2 is laughable and, even worse, there is NO PROOF whatsoever that we should be reducing CO2 emissions. The rest of the world certainly isn't.
So we are going to completely upend our entire electrical generation, transmission, and distribution system as well as our entire vehicular transportation system FOR WHAT? To tell Gaia we love her?
The whole thing is preposterous beyond belief and perfectly exemplifies why you DO NOT do Central Planning of an economy or major parts of it.
They’re expensive. And some of us who don’t live in houses with garages are too busy to run to someplace a couple of miles away at least, to charge them up.
Our car is almost 8 years old and doesn’t even have 30K on it now; but two or three times per year my husband drives a long way to see his family. He doesn’t want to bother with stopping and charging; and we don’t need an ‘electric car’.
I’m unhappy that you can’t still buy a decent car with roll-up windows and actual keys. All of those electronics get very pricey when they have to be fixed - over the past year, we’ve spent about $500 just to fix an automatic window that wouldn’t go up and down reliably. I can’t imagine the repair costs possibly encountered on a fully electric car.
You don’t drive light bulbs for your commute. Bad analogy.
“Out west there is wide open country where you can drive hundreds of miles. How are these electric cars going to handle that?”
I can live with a 500. mile range, 200 mph top speed and a 0-60 under 2 seconds ...
EVs are ideal for commuting, unless of course one drives over two hours one way to work, in which case, probably need access to charging at that end. Within two years a day's driving (about 500-600 miles over an eight hour period) likely will be off a single charge on all Tesla vehicles being made and sold (most are sold via the website rather than via dealers), so vacationers can get charged up while they have dinner, shower, sleep, etc (assuming hotel stays). If that doesn't work for your plans, and you've gone EV, rent an ICE vehicle as suggested by Kevin at Engineering Explained.
Idiots abound...
Idiots abound...
EV is about control. Turn off the power turn off mobility.
I think you will be surprised just how great EV’s are to drive. They don’t make sense for everyone but will be better accepted in a few years.
If these states/cities and counties are have power issues now, what in hell will it be like when 40,000,000 vehicles are sucking off the grid every night?
“All of those electronics get very pricey when they have to be fixed - over the past year, we’ve spent about $500 just to fix an automatic window that wouldn’t go up and down reliably.”
Every car I. have owned in the las 40 years has had power windows. The only repairs I have had was replacing a fuel pump after 120k miles and having a screw work loose jamming the wipers and burning out the motor. That works out to less than 2 cents per day.
“If these states/cities and counties are have power issues now, what in hell will it be like when 40,000,000 vehicles are sucking off the grid every night?”
I guess you won’t be able to pump your gas.
200 mph top speed and a 0-60 under 2 seconds? LOL! And where do you do that? On the way to Walmart?
I would not be surprised to find out how great they are to drive - except when you’re stuck somewhere either waiting to recharge or trying to find a place to recharge. As regards using them as a commuter, great - but it’s a very expensive commuter and as seen during the Texas snowstorms can be extremely expensive to recharge. Again, I’m saying the logistics aren’t in place and the technology is not mature enough for large parts of the country.
Will it get better? Sure, but the government mandating them is not the answer because then there’s no real incentive to improve them to the point where they have the same utility as ICE vehicles.
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