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

I’m waiting on better batteries. The announced Toyota solid state batteries are interesting. Current batteries are too heavy, too expensive, and too volatile.

Batteries will eventually solve the main problems associated with BEV’s: time to charge and vehicle weight.

we will eventually have to go BEV. Peak oil is coming. New drilling techniques have held it off, but eventually the cost to extract and refine oil will be too high.

Canada/Northeast weather and salt destroys cars, prices are stupid.
Neighbor just spent $60k on a Vinfast, $55k solar panel and $15k on heat pump.
No gov't credits available anymore...you break even on the 70k after 19years, now add in the car which has a lease on the battery too? And they work from home? Curb appeal of house is sh*t now. Went from a nice modern new bungalow to a 1950s satellite sitting on the lawn he can't keep up with.

or i can keep driving my honda civic (bought for $13k with 50k)for another 3 years until it hits 200k miles and then go buy another used one with 50k miles. CRV or similar for the family maybe updgrade to a truck that only gets used for family outings/trips

To me EV's make sense for commuters in urban/suburban areas, anything else don't waste your money. The charging time does not make sense to me, 5 min gas stop or unknown amount of time for EV charging. Charging at home/work is a no brainer if you are a Point A to B person.

I was neutral on ev's . I actually was thinking of buying one as I do door dash deliveries and gas has gotten more expensive the last few years.

I delivered to a guy who owned a Tesla and I asked him if it was cheaper than buying gas. He said actually the price of electricity has gotten so high ( Massachussetts ) that gas was actually cheaper. He did say that his maintenance costs are cheaper though. So, there you have it. I now doubt EV's are really worth it.

I am waiting for an entry level compact convertible with a low price tag. I only plan to use it in the city as a year round motorcycle with four wheels. The charge times, ranges and lack of infrastructure limit it to a second or third vehicle.

I recently was looking to buy a car. I really wanted to buy a Tesla. After looking into it, it was cost and convenience that caused me not to buy one. I bought a used Volvo S90 instead. I'm very happy with the car, cost and convenience to buy, service and own.

Good point. Job creation is another benefit of EVs!

SMH......Ever heard of emissions

I’m not reading back through all of the responses but for me it is the range. The best use , IMHO, would be if you lived in the suburbs and commuted to a city for work. We don’t do that but we do travel a lot.

The best car I had with a really long range was probably a VW Sportwagen TDI. That car could get 600 miles between fill ups. It was a great car but unfortunately Volkswagen cheated the emissions tests and we ended up selling it back to VW and actually made a bit of money on it.

A bit off topic here but I am seriously considering a Ford Maverick hybrid pickup. They’re in demand and are selling above MSRP so that is a bummer. The bed is short but it will most of my needs for when I need a pickup and I want to buy a platform for the bed to place one of those collapsible tents to use when we camp.

Emissions are real, and bad, but the history of reducing them is interesting to say the least. My car had to meet some foreign emissions regulations that were tighter than almost anywhere else at the time. The result is two wildly overbuilt EGR valves and a carbon buildup issue on the intake and heads. So, they reduced emissions, but they created a less reliable engine that requires more service and actually gets less MPG as a result. I'm working to undo some of these things.

So, emissions are bad, but the pursuit of lowering them has caused issues elsewhere.

At the moment, I have a Subaru that is almost paid off and a Prius that is paid off. I am going to enjoy a few years of no car payments before buying an EV.

But moving to an EV is generally a no brainer. EV engines require no maintenance and can last for 500k-1 mil miles. My neighbor has a 2014 Tesla Model S with over 100k miles on it. Engine runs like it did the day he got it, battery is still good and he has never had a repair bill in 10 years. Longevity and low maintenance cost is really what puts EVs over the top. People will be keeping EVs for 15-20 years and possibly longer as advanced batteries come online. And eventually, EVs will be much cheaper compared to ICE vehicles. EVs cost a lot more to build right now because there is a lot of upfront cost in building out manufacturing capacity. You cannot just retool an ICE factory to make EV engines. You pretty much have to start from scratch with a bare floor in your factory. But once the production capacity is there for EV engines and batteries and economies of scale match ICE engine production, EVs will be way cheaper to produce because they require way less labor and have a fraction of the number of moving parts. This is part of the reason UAW is going to go on strike. They know that the EV future is going to be far less labor intensive. So, they are trying to secure good wages and benefits for the few workers that will be left to build EVs. The Chinese are already making very affordable EVs and flooding the EU market with them.

Rational decision making.

The Maverick is selling really well because it gives people what they want for a solid price....a small pickup truck that is "low" on frills, good on gas and something you can use as a daily driver. The people buying this aren't interested in all the tech and features the bigger trucks come with. I'm fine with manual seat adjustment, no heated seats/steering wheel, etc.

Why it took Ford so long to replace the Ranger with this is beyond me...outside of the profit margins that is. GM has had the Colorado/Canyon for close to 2 decades now. They sell a ton of them thru fleet sales...but you never see them actually advertised to regular customers. Why is that? Silverado is more profit.

EVs make sense because even if 100% of the electricity comes from an oil-fueled power plant, that power plant is much more efficient with its fuel than a car engine. Even after accounting for electric transmission and charging losses, an EV in that scenario would use about half the oil of an equivalent ICE powered car.

In reality our energy grid is cleaner than that and rapidly getting even cleaner. Nationwide it's currently about 20% coal (and dropping rapidly), 39% natural gas (significantly cleaner than oil), 19% nuclear, and about 20% and climbing renewables.

I just like gas powered vehicles a lot. I only spend 10-15k on a car at most. I drive into remote areas in the middle of winter with no charging stations. I have no idea for EVs. Real working class adventurous people don't buy EVs either.

Nothing lasts over 10 years in the north east.

Road salt equalizes all longevity. Unless the owner has a winter beater or religiously undercoats with fluid film or similar oil sprays.

Tons of cars last 10+ years in the northeast without fluid filming. Sure, maybe your winter plow and salt truck won't last 10 years. But otherwise that's an insane statement.

I live in a condo without the ability to charge an EV at home. I drive around 300 miles per week currently with my job. I can stop and refill on gas in less than 10 minutes. When you do a lot of sitting in traffic, the last thing you want to worry about is sitting around for 40 minutes at a public EV charger (assuming there is a free charger as they are quite popular).

Additionally, California has a minor energy crisis with warnings about rolling blackouts every summer. Currently the state has decided to invest in developing electricity generation facilities in Nevada so we can import that electricity. No clue why the legislators think that is a better solution than investing in their own state.

If distances were smaller, I would ride my bike everywhere, but cycling infrastructure also isn't that great here in San Diego.

Range sucks. Range while trying to tow really sucks. Range in winter sucks immensely. Heavy as hell. Charging times are absurd. Rather not have my house burn down from the car fire in the garage. Charging issues are only going to get worse if more people adopt. Energy prices will continue to skyrocket. Lithium mining is terrible. Resale is atrocious. Recycling is impossible. They have a LONG way to go before being the first choice.