Canadians and Mexicans can drive their Chinese EVs into the US. I live near the border and I frequently see Chinese EVs with foreign plates. There are restrictions on how long those vehicles can remain in the US, though.

Here is a Wired article on how to import Chinese vehicles into the US, FYI.

This. When GM brought back the Bolt after a massive outcry, only the compact crossover was resurrected, not the smaller sub-compact hatchback. So if you want a tiny electric city car for commuting, you're out of luck.

Meanwhile, every major Chinese automaker has compact and sub-compact BEVs (and often PHEVs) that are affordable. So I can only imagine how quickly US brands are going to cede the Canadian, Caribbean, and Latin American markets to the Chinese and Koreans.

You can drive across Texas on I-10 from Orange to El Paso (852 mi / 1371 km) in 17 hours 20 minutes using a Chevy Bolt EUV or in 14 hours 10 minutes using a Lucid Air, with all other BEVs with DC fast charging support falling somewhere between.

I've driven from coast to coast across the USA a couple of times in a PHEV and it never took longer than 3 days (~15 hours max per day). Using a sufficiently fast charging BEV and charging overnight at hotels, it might add half a day.

Most wiring for mains electricity is rated up to 600V. So it isn't much more expensive to run a 240V 15A circuit as it is to run a 120V 15A circuit, since permitting, blueprints, trenching, conduit, wiring, and enclosures make up most of the cost of an install. Going from 1.44 kW to 2.88 kW makes a big difference in charging.

Also, it can actually be cheaper to just run one 60A circuit to the parking lot with several EVSEs that can load-share as opposed to four discrete 15A circuits. As a bonus, if only one EV is charging, it can draw up to 11.5 kW. This is how I have charging setup in my carport between my two EVs.

In the US, year over year sales of hybrid EVs (HEVs) are up 44%, sales of plug-in hybrid EVs (PHEVs) are up 16.5%, and battery EVs (BEVs) are up 15.4%. While the expectation from industry analysts is that BEV sales will rise at a much slower pace in 2026 and '27, HEV and PHEV sales are expected to keep accelerating. So it isn't as if electrification is in complete retreat in the US.

Also, some advances with BEVs are trickling down to new HEVs and PHEVs, especially with Korean, Japanese, and European brands. And while the Ford F150 Lightning in BEV form is out, it is being replaced with a series PHEV (aka: BEVx/EREV/REEV) that is supposed to compete with upcoming the Dodge Ram REV.

So... is that all going to be enough to keep US automakers in the game? And that's on top of announcements about joint battery production ventures pivoting to the battery storage market given the rise in both grid-scale and small-scale battery storage needs. Or the shift to more advanced gigacasting and lights-out manufacturing. Maybe it won't be the slaughter we all suspect it might be.

The time to ramp output can vary wildly depending on the design. One utility in California is mothballing some its natural gas turbines that take hours to come up to full output because they're not nimble enough to handle the wild swings in daily demand because of solar. Their design maximizes efficiency while sacrificing agility. Likewise, a coal plant in New England is closing this year because it has a somewhat sluggish response time, which on top of all its other issues, meant that it was only operating for a few weeks per year.

Yes they are. How many wars has the USA fought, how many governments has the USA toppled, and how many dictatorships has the USA supported to help protect oil supplies? What were the costs of those in actual dollars, casualties, injuries, and blowback (ie, the 9/11 attacks)? How many abandoned oil wells and oil spills has the US government been forced to clean up? How many people have health issues such as asthma or cancer because of vehicle exhaust and what has been the financial toll? The list goes on.

Combustion vehicles have a ton of external costs. Electric vehicles have them too, but they're not as severe and they're decreasing much faster rate than for the former. That is a benefit to you and to society.

That inventory does not always hang out in a warehouse. It is often sold internationally, quite often below cost, just to get it off the books. Government subsidies offset some of that loss.

It is good for the consumer in the short term because it drives down the price of goods. But in the long term, if sustained, it can undercut local competition, driving them out of business. That can result in job losses, higher prices down the road due to the lack of competition, and becoming dependent on a source that could dry up due to political maneuvering.

Japanese automakers have also found large SUVs to be quite profitable for markets like the USA. I can't really see Toyota Grand Highlanders and Sequoias rolling down the streets of Tokyo. And they've also been slow to adopt electrification. Back in the earliest days of the Prius, one of Toyota's executives said that every model would be offered as a hybrid in about a decade. That might happen after three decades.

Back when I was in school, a number of students thought that they could use CliffsNotes in lieu of studying the actual material as a shortcut when handing in papers. Problem was that CliffsNotes overly summarized material, so your papers tended to be shallow or generic, which clued most teachers into your activities. I recall a few teachers keeping students after class and then pelting them with questions about the material that weren't covered by the CliffsNotes. If they stumbled, they were given a failing grade for the paper.

I see AI in much the same way. It is okay at providing generalized summaries for well covered topics, but I find that it quickly goes off into the weeds for anything more niche, complicated, or requiring nuance. More often, I find myself mining the responses for their sources. But I can often find the same sources much faster using a web search. So, what is the benefit here again?

I had a smart TV that included an integrated camera and a Skype app for video conferencing. The app worked for about two years until we received a notice that it was too old a version to use anymore. A newer version of Skype wasn't available for my smart TV series. Nor were any alternative video conferencing apps.

This is why I dismiss any smart features in a TV. The industry is notorious for orphaning their products. Why should I come to depend on a feature that will likely disappear in a year or three?

Similar view when it comes to smart infotainment systems in automobiles, too.

I can see very little difference between 1080p and 2160p content on my 55" OLED when sitting about 8' away. But I can see a huge difference with high dynamic range and wide gamut color content. I've watched a few horror films that use light spilling into dark rooms with HDR to great effect. Likewise, I've seen some sci-fi films where bioluminescence in wide gamut color looks amazing.

If anything, a PHEV that is never charged is actually worse than a HEV because it carries around a few hundred extra kg worth of batteries and charging equipment. That's going to lower fuel efficiency a bit.

I do know that PHEVs purchased for commercial motorpools tend to see low plug-in rates because the drivers don't care. It isn't as if the drivers are saving money and enforcement can be a cumbersome.

And some people bought PHEVs back when they still qualified for carpool access, even if they had no ability to charge. I have a neighbor with a Fusion PHEV that did exactly this.

There are also a few exotic PHEV sports cars with little electric range that mostly use the electric powertrain for low-end torque improvements. If your car only gets 15 km in EV mode, I can see why you might not always plug it in.

I tend to limit my PHEV's charging to overnight at home and the occasional free charger at work or while shopping. I could charge more often, but daytime electric rates and public charger rates discourage it.

Something else is range. My PHEV gets about 75 km on a full charge, which covers about 95% of my family's typical in-town driving. I looked at PHEVs that only had around 50 km of range on a full charge and couldn't justify the cost vs. payback period since our all-electric coverage would drop so much. You'd also need to be more habitual regarding charging. No thanks. I'd rather just get a HEV.

Engaging the engine at highway speeds is quite common with HEVs because they use weaker motors and because of how their planetary gearset operates. Older generations of the Prius HEV had the latter limitation.

But as an owner of a RAV4 PHEV, I can attest that the vehicle can operate in EV-only mode at speeds up to 80 MPH. When I have EV range remaining, the engine will generally only engage if I switch from EV-only to either auto-EV/HEV or HEV-only modes. I believe I've only seen it kick on the engine when in EV-only mode once when I was driving, err, umm... fast.

Which is why at some point, personal assault drones will be as necessary as firearms to keep the government in check. Just look at how they have changed the power dynamic in the Russo-Ukrainian War.