Comment Re:mostly not the vehicle (Score 1) 77
It's that IC cars are scheduled to be banned within the next few years. Lots of people know that EVs don't work for their own situation, like, the person lives in an apartment and has no easy way to charge.
That's why most forward-looking states have passed laws requiring new apartments to have adequate charging spaces.
Insurance rates have gone waaaay up in no small part due to liabiity claims from EVs. EVs are pretty much disposable.
Not really. EVs are actually slightly less likely to be totaled in a wreck than ICE cars, and because they're more likely to have advanced driving assistance features, they're also less likely to get in a wreck in the first place, assuming all else is equal, ignoring minor parking lot mishaps, which are largely vehicle-agnostic.
Repairs can be more expensive, however, and that, coupled with the insurance companies' perception that EV drivers can afford more, is why insurance rates are going up.
EVs are also very heavy which causes more damage to the other car in the collision.
Not significantly. The difference between getting hit by a 4,000 pound Model 3 and a 3,500 pound Camry is negligible. Velocity has a far greater impact, to such a degree that getting hit by a Model 3 at 35 MPH would cause roughly the same damage as the Camry at 38 MPH. The weight difference is entirely lost in the noise.
The tax incentives are freaking obnoxious. Aside from the fact that these are large sums of money and governments could use them for repairing roads etc. (and by the way, these heavy EVs do more damage to roads which they are not paying for with gas taxes),
Also not true. EVs don't weigh enough to have a meaningful impact on roads. A Model 3 with a single driver weighs as much as a Camry with three or four extra passengers. Anything below about 6,000 pounds isn't worth worrying about.
the incentives are set up in really cockamamie ways. Like you can't get a Toyota EV with the incentive because it's not made in the USA. Or if you have income over a certain amount. Blah blah.
Agreed. The incentives are set up in such a way that they're not so useful in practice, because the people who can afford EVs can't get the credits, and the people who can get the credits can't afford the cars, with or without the credits. The income limits should be abolished. Either you're trying to promote EVs or you aren't, and if you really want to promote EV sales to lower-income people, the way you do that is by creating a thriving used car market as all the wealthy people replace their cars, aided by those tax credits.
EVs are well established and can be sold for less than gas cars, we don't need incentives at all anymore.
They actually can't. The costs to build them are higher, and the margins are lower. Tesla makes about $8.5k per car at current prices, which means the manufacturing cost starts at about $34,000, which is more than the retail cost of a Camry.