Early EV’s faced the same market 100 years ago and that was before there were gas stations on every corner.
I have repeatedly said they will dominate ICE cars in the near future. And I’ve prefaced it with the addition of fast charge batteries.
Utility and cost are major driving forces in any purchase and that will hold true with cars.
And what does that have to do with the discussion in this thread??
And for most drivers, “utility” doesn’t mean ultra-fast charging. For most drivers, a car that you plug in overnight, and has 200+ range, is more useful than a car that you take to a gas station (or charging station) every 300 miles.
Well, you’re the one who’s wrong. The original model S battery in the Tesla cost an estimated $56000 per car. You cannot credibly even pretend you know what you’re talking about when the only semi-affordable EVs with batteries that don’t cost a king’s ransom have been released just this year. Relative demand ratios are meaningless when in 2016 and in every year previously, practical EVs did not exist, and the few that were on the market were so expensive that only luxury buyers could consider them.
The limiting factors are the same for both time periods and account for consumer choice in both time periods.
Most drivers want a car that’s available on demand to drive where ever that want to go.
Tesla is hardly the only EV on the road. The claim has been made many times that people only drive a short distance each day therefore cars like the Volt were sufficient for the average driver and if not, the ice engine in the volt filled the gap. Big surprise, it didn’t.
What is completely ignored is that a car that is charging can’t be driven. there are currently no EV’s on the road today with on-demand driving. Fast charge batteries removes that limitation.
Citation needed. Lots of the volt buyers are happy with the purchase. The problem with the Volt is that GM doesn’t really make great sedans, Toyota does. It’s also an extremely complex vehicle, far more complex than a pure battery driven car.
Basically, it doesn’t have a niche. Cheaper sedans sold by Toyota accomplish the same thing as the Volt. They may cost more to keep running, but a 35 mpg car isn’t too hard on the wallet. SUVs and trucks do things the Volt can’t do and look cooler. Luxury cars are more impressive. The Prius is more reliable and cheaper.
All 5 of them? After being dubbed car of the year they are a rare sight on the street.
That’s an odd thing to say right after you said lots of the volt buyers are happy with the purchase.
And it’s no more complex than a Prius.
On the contrary; EVs are the only cars on the road with “on demand” driving–they’re the only cars you can get into in the morning and know you have hundreds of miles of range without having to think about it. There’s no need to leave for work 10 minutes early because the tank is empty or have to take some other route to your destination because there’s otherwise no station on the way.
To answer the OP: it’s one of those solutions that sounds reasonable until you look at the behavior of EV owners. In short, they don’t care. They may think they care before purchasing, but they quickly realize that as long as they have somewhat fast charging (say, under an hour), the motivation to reduce that further is almost zero. In part because the battery swap only matters on relatively uncommon road trips, and in part because taking a forced break isn’t really a huge cost. Especially since the swap costs real dollars (on the order of a normal gas fillup; say $50-60). For all but extremely wealthy people, being delayed 40 minutes to save $50 is a fantastic deal.
Actually no. You have to think about charging it the night before. In fact you HAVE to think about charging it the night before. Ice cars are ready to go regardless of how much fuel is in them because there are gas stations everywhere. And while your EV is charging to get to work it’s not available to drive.
You don’t think about it because you always do it. It takes five seconds to plug in and (for homeowners at least) takes place in the comfort of your garage. There’s zero downside to keeping the battery topped off. I don’t care if my car isn’t available because I’m sleeping.
No, people don’t *always *do anything just before they go to bed. forget that chore and the car goes nowhere. Unlike an ICE car.
“chore”?
Indeed I have forgotten to plug in I think maybe twice over the past five years of owning my plug in hybrid. Given it can also run on gas it was merely annoying that my daily commuting twenty miles was that day on gas. Horrors if I had BEV with a 200 plus range. I would have started out with maybe only 160 plus more miles of range than I needed for my daily commute instead of 180 plus more.
Granted most commuters commute more like forty miles a day, but even call it eighty as the usual commute. For that one day that person forgets to plug in, and maybe forgets the chore of brushing their teeth, the car the next goes … to work and back just fine.
The convenience and time savings of not going to the gas station (or for me with a PHEV only fairly rarely going to gas station) is huge. The inconvenience of plugging in whenever I pull in my driveway as a matter of course is zip.
Also, the car could just text message you if you don’t plug it in and you’re parked next to a charger. It’s not a whole lot of smarts to add that feature.
DSeid said it as well as anyone. Your concerns just aren’t a problem in real life. Forgetting to plug in is as rare as forgetting your keys, and the consequences are less. Forgetting to plug my phone in is a way bigger deal.
No. Every time I come home, I plug it in. That’s it. There’s nothing to think about. It’s just habit.
Production number has nothing to do with customer satisfaction. And Volts and Teslas do have very high customer satisfaction:
Stanford researchers explored the possibility of induction-charging roadways. There is not really any reason that electric cars could not be outfitted for parked induction (wireless) charging. You could get a coil embedded in your garage floor, along with a floor switch triggered by a tire. You would never have to remember to plug in. As long as the charger can do at least 20 miles per hour, you will never have to worry about not having enough juice (you do not plug in when you go to bed anyway, you plug in right when you park).
What we really ought to be looking at right now is the grid. If we really expect as much as 50% more electric traffic in a decade, we should be making sure, right now, that the utilities can cover that.
uh huh.
ding ding ding. We have a winner.
We’ve been beaten over the head with global warming announcements from world leaders for years. It’s all lip service when it comes to the obvious need for increased power capacity. When fast charge batteries hit the market there will be a major swing in consumer demand for electricity. By default that will drive up the cost of electricity and delay the transition to EV’s.