Be Honest: What's "Stopping" You from Buying an EV

We have a Tesla Y, and solar panels. We have not paid an electric bill since May. We have a $250 electricity credit. We changed to a heat pump from a gas furnace, and out gas bill is $25-30 / month all year.

Only fools are afraid of the Sun. Those types prefer to stick their heads in the ground where their precious fossil fuels live.

Our utility bill with AC running all summer is $70 month, in winter it goes to $300 for two months. Solar was $14k. No storage battery. So, NOT at $32k ... you're way off. The EV also saves us $100 month replacing two gas tank refills. The solar is two years old, and will fully pay for itself in 4-5 years.

Who the heck needs FOUR cars?

Your solar works at night?

Right next to the gasoline cars that no one wants anymore. How long do you think it takes to strip all of the non-metals out to recycle a gasoline car? Metal, plastic, glass, rubber, fluids, steel, aluminum, and TOXIC wastes in the exhaust converters.

Are you stupid? We are grid connected.

That’s a pretty specific need Rojo. :)

I have two cars. A Chrysler Pacifica plug-in hybrid (minivan). 7-passenger, gets about 35 miles on the battery and when we go on road trips it’s a regular hybrid that runs on gas. But it’s a minivan, which I get is a dealbreaker for a lot of people. The kids love it because they get their own seats when we’re on the road for 6 hours. No more ‘he touched me!!’
Other one is a Ford Mustang Mach-E. EV SUV with AWD. 230+ mile range and the AWD helps with our winters in the Midwest.

Politics plays a role in having EVs. Oil is priced on world financial markets, so any gas we use ultimately helps Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Iran and Russia. No thanks. I’ll try to minimize my contribution to their wealth.

Vehicle used was Mercedes EQE. I wanted a huge exposure to the vehicle- and that’s what I got- an extra 20 hours to the trip as compared to what it would have been in a regular vehicle. I was driving 70-85 mph the vast majority of the time. The rental company advised to charging when the battery got to 30%. Their reasoning was lack of charging stations and potential unreliability of those actually available. Below 30%, the vehicle also apparently takes significantly more time to reach full charge. Pulling into a charging station at 10pm in the middle of nowhere off the highway, having to wait 2 hours for the guy in front of me to charge, then taking 45 minutes for my own charge after that was a complete nightmare.

EV should be treated like off road vehicles and not allowed on city streets. It’s a monster inconvenience to others when they break down in traffic

I don't yet have an EV but this is a lame argument. The percent of power generated that goes to EVs is insignificant and will be even if EVs become far more widespread. Additionally, ICE cars are verifiably terrible for the environment. At least some EV power comes from renewables and non crude oil based power.

The primary issue with EVs is that charging opportunities need to keep up. In and near cities, housing is become more and more high density. How do non SFH dwellers keep their cars charged? I have a SFH so not a issue for me, I could install a charger if I got an EV. But what do condo/apartment dwellers do?

My personal beef with EVs is I am not giving EM one cent of my money under any circumstances.

For a while, supply chain issues were stopping me. But that got sorted out, and I have one now (an ID.4). Nice, versatile, roomy SUV with tow hitch. Gets ~300 miles in real-world usage. Has a heat pump, so performance in cold is fine (I'm in Canada). I charge at home, and in my region about 99% of the grid mix is carbon-free (hydro and nuclear). Zero regrets.

OP, why did you put quotation marks around the word "stopping?"

It’s always been about the battery, and it always will be until there’s the technology for a self recharging one.

We bought a plug in hybrid (Prius Prime) the last time we were in the market (2020) because charging infrastructure for EVs in our area (Central NY) wasn't there and because of limited availability and selection of EVs at the time.

Next car will probably be an EV, but I'd like to give it a few years for the next wave of vehicles. Expect more selection, more competitive market, and lower prices by then.

I put the quotation marks around the word stopping for a few simple reasons:

1. If you are not in the market for a car in general
2. Nothing is really stopping you per se, except for maybe not being able to afford one

Should I have said "What would you not buy an EV?" You have to admit that would have gotten a lot more hate replies, long-winded replies and troll jobs.

I'm not anti EV, but the EV propaganda runs very strong.

Maintenance: Correct, no oil, no carbon buildup, brake pads can go longer, etc. At a glance, it seems like a dream, but the vast majority of people are talking about new EVs as there aren't tooo many old EVs on the road now. These things called friction and corrosion get to us all. Suspension components, calipers, rotors, etc., will all fail eventually, and EVs are no exception. If you're buying a used EV these are just as much of a worry as any other car. Throw in a looming battery replacement that most certainly will be needed before a well-maintained ICE car needs an engine or transmission replacement, and maintenance on a used EV is probably close to a wash when compared to combustion engines for used vehicles.

Actually Green?: The battery mining is awful, not that gasoline isn't awful either. EV vehicles are, in general, less serviceable. I keep a 25 year old car on the road as a bit of a hobby. I rebuild parts as often as I can instead of buying a new one. It gets bad mileage, but it's my baby. What would be more green? Buy a brand new car and consider all the emissions that go into producing it, or driving this thing into the ground. Furthermore, the weird "iPhone-ification" of cars is happening. How many people will drive their Tesla until the frame rots out, it's maybe not "planned obsolescence" but people don't plan to keep them as long as they used to. I was reading about how Amazon scrapped many Rivian EV vans because of battery issues or something. Just tons of new-ish cars, destined for the scrapyard. I want to say, I'm not one of those fools that says, "bUt WhErE dOeS tHe EnErGy CoMe FrOm To ChArGe It CoMe FrOm?!" like we see here.

I'm a Luddite/Personal Reasons: I hate new cars in general. Some are great. Good lord Teslas are bad. I design for a living, and the usability of some of these is just bad. A good example is our other car, a 2008. No touchscreens, just simple controls and two simple, pixel-ey screens. Never needed to look to change the radio, AC, etc. Very usable. So much so, that the screens recently stopped working, I think there's a short or loose wire or something. But all the buttons work. And it's intuitive enough that it's still 100% usable even without the screens. I also live in a kind of rural area, sometimes I have to drive a lot in a day or I'm in the backcountry, and there's no sort of charging network out here that's any bit convenient. Also, I like fast and weird cars. Some electric cars are fast in a straight line, very few are fast and fun around a corner. I will never care about a Tesla Plaid 0–60 times.

EVs are the future, and idk maybe some type of hydrogen fuel cell or something as well. But the, "Buy an EV and save tons of money" and Tesla fanboys are just silly.

I'm waiting for a Solid State Battery with 240VAC home charging. Charging stations are unsafe for women. Crime, rape, broken down equipment are common.