I mean if this is really true, then no need for any kind of restriction on cheap chinese EVs because no one in the US will buy them anyway.
The cheapest EVs you can get new in the US market are a little under 30k. Even given the tax rebates you can get a new gas car for 5k cheaper. This may very well still be more expensive over the life of the vehicle (although that involves a ton of unknown for the consumer) but either way it’s a completely different equation than being able to buy an EV for under 20k.
China has plenty of nice, long-range EVs. I agree that the tiny ones are probably not a threat–and in any case, the really tiny ones wouldn’t even be legal to sell here. But US automakers perceive a threat from their higher-end models as well and are likely to lobby against them.
I don’t think anyone, China or otherwise, is yet building 300 mile, $20k EVs. Hopefully soon–batteries continue to come down in price. But it’s not quite there yet.
I agree but if Chinese companies can sell lower range EVs at sub 20k I think a lot of consumers are going to jump at that and it’s not really comparable to the current offerings from companies that are selling in the US now, that are near 30k and middling it with around 200 or fewer miles of range.
Well, two. One if you include the destination charge. And you’ll probably never find them on a dealer lot anywhere since they’re the ultra base models.
If $20k is the bottom of the barrel, obviously the vast majority of people are paying much more. The median new car price is >$45k. But probably 95% of people are paying >$25k at least.
Couldn’t you just have a single 120v outlet at each parking spot, connected to its own breaker? That would add about 15 miles of range to a typical EV, Overnight. No coordination needed.
Also, apartment parking need not supply 100% of every tenant’s driving electricity. They typically supply 0% of tenant’s gasoline.
The building would need to be wired for and supplied with enough power to handle all those outlets in use all at once at 15A each all night every night. That’s the obstacle. Who pays for the electricity is immaterial to the process.
That much spare capacity is simply not installed in ordinary buildings. And so would need to be retrofitted. That’s a large capital cost.
OK, who pays for the installation? Installing those at 20 parking spots is going to require either overhead wires or tearing up/re-doing the parking lot - who pays for that? The maintenance? Repairs for any damages? How is the power metered? If the parking is assigned and the tenant has an account for that outlet how do you keep other people from making you pay for their charge? Or do you have to swipe a debit/credit card? If so, what’s the security on that? How do you prevent the installation of skimmers? Because these things would be out in the open at my location, vulnerable to vandalism and scams.
The difference is that there is a gas station a half a block away from where I park at night where I can top off my fuel in under 10 minutes, my car doesn’t have to be connected to a pump for 8 hours to refuel. Also, if my car is somehow completely out of gas I can get my 5 gallon gas can out of the trunk of my car, walk to the service station, fill up the can, walk back to the car, and fuel it. I can’t pour an electrical charge into a can and transport it on foot.
Electrical service requires infrastructure that someone has to pay for, one way or another. It is completely cost-prohibitive for someone at my income level to pay for the installation. The landlord has no motivation to pay for it, either.
^ This.
Frankly, although my building has some robust circuit breakers (yes, I’ve looked at the electrical for my unit) and modern code outlets, including GFCI’s, it is not wired for 21st Century gadget/gizmo quantities Which is why I can’t run my microwave oven and my electric kettle at the same time without tripping a breaker. There is not enough capacity from the grid to this building to do what is proposed without completely re-wiring everything. Again - the tenants don’t have the money. Even if they did, many have no intention of being here long term and thus have zero incentive to make capital improvements. That leaves the landlord/owner - for whom this is an irrelevant issue and for whom there is no incentive to sink that much money into this property. If for some reason they did in order to recoup the cost they’d have to substantially raise the rent… which would price most of us out of this building. So… great, you’ve rewired the building for EV’s but now 50 people can’t afford to live there and are now homeless. Which means they really have no place to charge an EV.
I don’t really have an answer for this. I don’t think anyone does. If you do please share it with the rest of the world.
We would obviously need the entire grid to be massively scaled up, but private actors aren’t going to build the infrastructure if the demand for it isn’t there and people aren’t going to buy EVs where there isn’t enough infrastructure for them. At the current rate there is a gradual adoption and maybe we just wake up in 20 years and there are EVs and chargers everywhere. Alternatively there could be more overt government action to take on essentially all the costs of these upgrades.
Here’s a question: if the US is worried about Chinese-installed malware on Chinese-made EVs, why are we not also worried about this with Chinese-made smart phones?
To a fair extent, some are concerned about smartphones as well, but there’s not much market penetration on those and there are functional alternatives from more mainstream manufacturers at similar prices.
Others have already made this point, but if they were even semi-serious they would make it prohibitive for people to drive private vehicles at all; definitely not get more/cheaper cars and enable people to plug them in.