I have a 2020 Rav4 hybrid, the best of both worlds.
Great on gas, very reliable and I don't have to plan to spend an hr at a charging station.
People are starting to realize hybrids are the way to go, and in terms of environmental impacts its just as great at any EV.
If I were buying a car tomorrow it'd be a hybrid RAV4.
I really don't mind the range in EVs but I need to pull up to a charging station, charge my battery full in 3 minutes then get on with my day. Lemme know when I can do that.
U.S. federal regulators have opened a fourth investigation into the Fisker Ocean SUV, spurred by multiple claims of "inadvertent Automatic Emergency Braking."
And the GM ignition switch defect killed over 300 people.
EVs will replace internal combustion engine vehicles. EVs are virtually maintenance free vehicles. No oil changes. EV engines have a lifespan of 500k to 1 mil miles. My neighbor bought a Tesla in 2014. He still has it and has over 200k miles on it. Battery has only degraded about 10%. He has never had a repair bill. Even the most reliable ICE vehicles fall apart once they hit 200k miles because gaskets, seals, hoses, etc. do not last forever. Once you start having leaks, you end up with consequential damage and cascading mechanical issues. This is why used vehicles with 200k+ miles cost $5k-$10k max. The odds of these vehicles needing a new engine or transmission in the near future are very high. But at 200k miles, an EV can be ready for another 200k miles.
There are challenges to getting EVs to replace ICE vehicles. Charging infrastructure in the US needs to improve significantly. But there are no technological or physical barriers. You just need to put in more chargers. And the one benefit of suburban sprawl is that people can put in solar panels and charge their EVs at home without adding a burden to the power grid.
And the EVs we have today are a lot like cell phones from the early 2000s. The battery technology we have today will be replaced in the future by solid state batteries that will charge faster, hold more and last longer before degrading. EV manufacturing is also rapidly improving. The Chinese EVs used to be crap, but are now on par with Western EVs and are still improving. As manufacturing improves and expands, EV costs will come down and be competitive with ICE vehicles.
Electric cars are great for a small portion of the population who have a charging unit readily available. However, a large portion of the population does not have a place to charge an electric car at home (apartments, condos, etc).
Electric cars cost 20% more than an equivalent gasoline car. Yes, it uses lower cost electricity, but it is still about 50% the cost of gas per mile so it takes 100Kmi+ to make up the initial price difference.
We don't have enough long term data to know average battery life, but estimates are ~100-150Kmi and a battery pack costs $10k.
The charging infrastructure cannot handle everyone driving electric cars now or in the near future.
Battery life is the big problem.
There are 20yr old gas cars on the road right now humming along just fine (thanks Toyota!).
I paid $13k for my 2019 Hyundai Kona in 2020 (used, 38k miles). I've done nothing other than oil changes and new tires. On average it takes about 3 weeks to go through a tank of gas, and on road trips, the car can get close to 40mpg. It would make no economic sense for me to buy an EV at this point.
I hope we all aspire to do better than drive used Hyundais.
Thanks. I'll be retired before 55 with 7-figure net worth. I'll continue to drive cheap cars.
