This.
60mph whether due to congestion or preference plus long stops makes a 300 mile drive an excruciating experience. 80+ and hurried sub-10 minute pit stops to refill the car and drain the people makes 1000 mile drives much easier.
If you’re gonna drive, drive, dammit.
YMMV of course, and it gets harder as one ages. Based on my last road trip, I can sorta see the knee in my personal curve coming up.
I’m just the opposite. Taking the time to be out of the car, to unbend my body and move around, to breathe air that’s not just been inside our lungs a bunch, makes it much more pleasant.
I’ve also enjoyed road trips a lot more since getting a fun car to drive in.
If you’ve got an electric dryer on 220, you can install a smart switch/outlet that lets you share the circuit. Dry your clothes, can’t charge, but since you can charge at night (and probably only dry clothes once or twice a week) sharing the circuit is generally not a problem.
SunWife and I have three surviving parents between the two of us. We’ve had a minivan of one stripe or another for the last twenty years, and though the kids are now college age and we’re not driving them around everywhere any more, we’re holding on to that minivan since it’s our easiest car to get everyone into and out of.
I like to say that the minivan is really the best kind of car when you have a lot of parents.
In support of pezworld, I think the use of ‘privilege’ has poisoned the well here. The debate was good up to that point, but that remark made me bristle too. The world isn’t fair, not everyone can have everything they want, and nobody is forcing everyone to get an EV.
Transportation costs are very regressive, even considering how much the extremely wealthy spend on private jets. Just like fuel-efficient cars were not popular in the U.S. until gasoline prices made foreign imports look attractive, I don’t expect electric cars to become popular until gas prices again make foreign imports look attractive.
I see we’re in the personal anecdote phase. We currently have three cars. Two electric cars for the daily commutes, and one hybrid for family trips. Energy costs are less than $0.02 per mile for the electrics, and about $0.20 per mile for the hybrid. Our total commute miles are about 350 miles per week, which is about $7.00 per week. It’d be about $70.00 that if we drove hybrids.
Edited to add: we’re in Los Angeles. We charge at our home, and it’s easy to charge anywhere we go. Even going as far Mammoth Lakes or Las Vegas.
Meh. I have no problem acknowledging that I have and have had a metric shit ton of privilege.
In this specific case I only have an ounce or so.
When it comes to the ability to easily have an EV in fairly ideal circumstances (access to charging either at home overnight or, less commonly, at work; a second vehicle capable of road trips, or don’t do road trips, or road trips are on routes very well served by current charging infrastructure, etc.) includes a majority of American automobile buyers. The number of potential buyers for whom an EV would be superior experience compared to an ICE vehicle is many times the current number sold. Even more when PHEVs are included.
No question that there is a minority that is underprivileged in this regard, and for whom a BEV is not currently a great choice. They are not the limiting factor for the market right now.
They are in some regions of the US, though, so it might look as if that’s a significant issue, depending on where you live.
And it might be a limiting factor for a critical mass of sales in those areas. Of course even in those regions sometimes the perceived barriers are more a matter of perception than reality.
It just isn’t the limiting factor for sales growth in the American market right now is all.
I’ll also btw grant that EVs also partly are subject to the Vimes boots economic theory. Total cost of ownership is often less for an EV of comparable size and appointment than the ICE competitor, but at this point the cost is slightly front loaded at time of purchase, and their are fewer small affordable choices. Again favoring those of us with more economic privilege.
And possibly even more front-loaded if one factors in having to rewire your garage (or your house!) for a Level 2 charger – which is, AIUI, not technically a must-have to own an EV, but certainly a very very nice-to-have.
Better stated than I was trying to compose.
And therein is also embedded the factor of uncertainty about just how long would the long term be to realize that “total cost” advantage; and tied to that in turn questions of depreciation/resale value.
The point is that we’ve collectively got options, and that for many people that convenience is a major consideration. And if the companies are engaged in either enviro-shaming or being snarky about how actually-not-inconvenient it is, they’re going to end up not being competitive versus the other options.
In the absence of government legislation or subsidies, EVs are going to have to show a really compelling cost difference vs. gas and/or be just as convenient, along with being the environmentally conscious choice. Otherwise a lot of people are going to decide for hybrids or ICE cars because they’re more convenient and similar in cost. Free market at work and all that.
The cost you’re looking for (level 2 charger) varies greatly from $1,200 to $4,000. Or zero if you have an EV hybrid. Which broadens the consumer base.
IMO the push for electrical vehicles should have focused on the hybrid as a way to support auto manufacturers and allow for batteries and electrical infrastructure to catch up. It’s a better match in the US vs countries that have denser populations and greater transportation alternatives.
That’s what’s Japan is doing, even with a greater population density and good train system.
Eh, ever since the Romans built networks of roads (and probably before) effective governments have subsidized transportation, and it’s paid off in trade and other economic activity. Government subsidization of the infrastructure and early vehicles was a good idea. Too bad it got strangled.
This is the enormous point. One of the major principles of Trump’s domestic policy is to destroy anything that Biden or Obama did. Biden shepherded a massive infrastructure bill through Congress in a remarkable display of savvy politics and statesmanship; if it remains in place, it becomes a powerful legacy. So Trump is doing everything he can to ruin this infrastructure improvement.
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/07/nx-s1-5289922/trump-transportation-department-ev-charging-halt
Edit: that said, it looks like the strangling is present tense, not past tense, and the charging advocates are fighting back. Reports of its demise are greatly exaggerated!
In looking for that article, I ran across another article that talks about hurdles for EV ownership, including the bonkers right-wing notion that they’re worse for the environment than ICE cars, and the less bonkers worries about charging infrastructure. Both of these hurdles are deliberately being raised by right-wing activists and politicians.
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/07/nx-s1-5289922/trump-transportation-department-ev-charging-halt
You posted the same link twice, FYI.
D’oh! Here’s the link I meant to post the second time:
https://www.npr.org/2024/09/23/nx-s1-5074064/ev-gas-cars-environment-skepticism
Everyone knows that electric vehicles are supposed to be better for the planet than gas cars. That’s the driving reason behind a global effort to transition toward batteries.
But what about the harms caused by mining for battery minerals? And coal-fired power plants for the electricity to charge the cars? And battery waste? Is it really true that EVs are better?
The answer is yes. But Americans are growing less convinced.
Update!
So to Nissan’s credit they are going to offer a buyback!
Now back to looking at new options!
The Volvo EX30 would be great except that its infotainment interface is minimalist - all screen. But small, fast, good range …
The updated Toyota BZ will be worth a look.
The only Niro EVs local are ‘25s but decent deals and no major change to the ‘26.
But on paper at least the Ioniq5 SEL leads. And decent discounts right now.