Posted on 09/29/2014 7:29:45 AM PDT by LogicDesigner
Electric cars aren't selling nearly as well as many predicted. Why is that?
Research suggests a host of reasons—including a basic lack of familiarity, a high price tag, misconceptions about the cars—and ineffective government incentives.
Consider the lack of familiarity. In a survey by researchers from Indiana University and the University of Kansas, respondents couldn't correctly answer basic factual questions about plug-in electric vehicles more than 60% of the time. Some 75% of wrong answers underestimated the beneficial aspects of the vehicles.
The survey, the most exhaustive on consumer perceptions of electric cars in recent years, was published in the journal Energy Policy last year, and was based on field work conducted in several U.S. cities in 2011.
Key Differences
Many respondents didn't realize that all-electric cars require less maintenance than gasoline-powered cars. Oil changes aren't necessary, for example, and there are fewer breakable parts. The study also found that people often underestimated the fuel savings electric cars offer.
"The lack of accurate information about electric vehicles certainly [has] contributed to their small adoption," says Rachel Krause, an assistant professor in the School of Public Affairs and Administration at the University of Kansas, and a co-author of the study.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
+1.
But I don’t have a small yard! And I also drive 25 miles to work!
My point was the electric tools are fine for some jobs.
Batteries simply haven’t comparable energy storage at comparable cost to hydrocarbon fuels and therefore make sense only in very limited situations.
It is evil of some like the RomanWarCriminal to have the government steal my earnings to pay for their electric toy cars.The Founders would not have approved.
I think we both agree electric cars are a bad idea.
Electric yard tools - to each his own. I haven’t had much luck myself.
Agreed. There were a couple of layers of comment and response there so maybe it wasn't clear that I've been arguing the same thing. So many conservatives' first impressions of electric cars were tainted to the degree that it seems like a Sisyphean task to try to counter it.
I actually think it should be a conservative cause to free us from all the entanglements (and all the enriching of petro-tyrants) that the West's dependence on oil entails.
Methinks many on the right underestimate the tax breaks: you want lower taxes? buy an electric car (if sensible for you) and you reduce your taxes, in GA by $12500. I’m leasing a Leaf and eliminated my state tax for a year or two. It’s not taking money from others, it’s reducing what you owe for a while (or getting some back from the much greater amount you paid). Amazed how many conservatives have berated me for taking the tax credit (I’ve paid a half million or so in taxes, not like I’m net positive here).
I think conservatives need to be more careful about calling someone “evil” for using a tax incentive. Do you deduct your donations from your taxes? Do you deduct your mortgage interest? Do you claim dependents? Even if you don't, are all those who do “evil”?
Yes, electric cars have some kinks to work out and the price needs to come down more. However, the potential for the West to be able to stick it to the petro-tyrants of the world, depriving them of their income, all while transitioning to homegrown electricity, seems to me to be a cause that conservatives should get behind, not fight against.
You point on deductions is spot on, and it’s why the “you’re welcome for you’re electric car” stuff on FR has always gotten a major eye roll from me.
Yes,it IS evil to promote a program that depends on the forcible taking of money from all to benefit a very few. In this I also include most of what the governments do today as contrasted with the limited government as intended.
A free market more often arrives at the best solutions.
without a battery the volt is worthless.
you recharge example is HOURS. Gas is minutes.
Range is limited and intended to force people onto mass government run transit. You can’t commute in an all electric vehicle unless you are essentially a city dweller. Electrics are intended to kill off suburbia.
I explained this in my previous response to your comment. However, anti-EV pundits have been misleading people about the Volt for years so I understand that you might not realize how it works. When the battery is low on a Volt, it switches to a gasoline engine with a 340-mile gas tank. Essentially it turns into a regular car.
Are regular gasoline cars worthless?
“you recharge example is HOURS. Gas is minutes.”
It just takes you 5 seconds to plug it in when you get home and 5 seconds to unplug it when you leave in the morning. Anyone who has done it will tell you that it beats going to the gas station any day. And if you forget to plug it in, no worries! Remember that you can always drive it like a gasoline car when the battery is low.
“Range is limited and intended to force people onto mass government run transit.”
Wow, that is quite a tale! I've never heard that one before. I don't see how the Volt would force people to take mass transit since when you drive further than its 40-mile electric range, it switches to gasoline mode.
“You can’t commute in an all electric vehicle unless you are essentially a city dweller. Electrics are intended to kill off suburbia.”
A study done in 2003 by USDOT showed that 78% of Americans drive less than 40 miles round trip in their daily commute. I live in the suburbs of Houston, a city known to have one of the highest levels of urban sprawl in the country (in other words, Houston is really spread out). Yet I could get to downtown and back on the Volt's 40-mile range.
And if I was downtown and decided to go on a spontaneous trip to the beach in Galveston, I could hop in the Volt and go. With its gas engine and gas tank, I would never have to worry about range.
“Well, I guess you’ve never had a chance to look at a Tesla S up close. The make a Mercedes look like a POS. And they go from 200 to 300 miles between charges. Where this country has really Effed up is not continuing to pursue nuclear power. Admittedly, it’s not a good energy tradeoff to charge an EV with electricity produced by burning fossil fuels. Also, even though it isn’t as “green” as it could be, people who plug in their cars pay no road use taxes so their vehicle energy costs are way lower on that score too. I live in an East Bay “bedrdoom community” where people from SF and the Silicon Valley live. There are lots of Teslas here. Also, the Tesla goes 0-60 in less than 5 seconds, so it’s not a golf cart!”
What is the cost of this wonder car?
Also, please research the amount of fuel this car actually uses in it’s lifetime, the power comes from somewhere, as does the paint, oil......
I don’t know... the BMW i8 looks like a sweet electric ride! Not cheap tho...
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