I live in such a society. I replaced my ICE vehicle with electric 2 years ago. I'm not going back. They CAN be a replacement but not for everybody. This equivalent pumping rate thing is interesting but it doesn't really capture the whole thing. I don't have gasoline deliveries to my house. What about oil changes per year?
The calculus changes for ubiquitous slow charging, and I think that's really where EVs make the most sense. The issue is that the fast charging problem needs to be solved for EVs to have functional parity for certain use cases that do affect purchasing habits (i.e. a car is expensive enough for me that I buy for all of my needs, not my average need).
Ultimately, everyone needs to make the call for themselves. I'm glad you're happy with your EV, but I can't see myself purchasing one within the next fifteen years or so. Even then, I'd still have an ICEV backup. But that's based on my particular needs, and not necessarily applicable to others.
I’ve been looking at a house in a city I visit often, thinking of buying it and renting it out via AirBnB or VRBO or similar. The Chinese EVs that are coming to the US market are cheap, less than a golf cart, and suitable for city driving. I would buy one to use there. Slow charging would be fine; I wouldn’t drive its 100 km range in a weekend, and 35 mph/56 km/h is enough speed for almost all my driving there.
But at home, I have to get on the limited-access highway to get to work (there really isn’t a good alternative). If it can’t travel at 100 km/h, it’s not a suitable commuter car, but that puts it in a very different price range.
And I’m still going to use the ICE car to get there and back. Needs 320 km each way of range with air conditioning running to be viable. That’s a trip I make at least every six weeks. The ICE car has a range of almost 1000 km on a full tank.
EVs have a lot of potential but there are still a lot of details to work out.
I'm curious, how often do you change the battery? A few years? What's the price? Genuinely curious as this is also part of my consideration when switching to EV.
Never. My sister-in-law had the same Model S for like 11 years. There was no need.
The whole thing about expensive battery replacements every 3 years is mostly propaganda from entrenched interests. There are legitimate isolated horror stories, but battery replacements don't generally need to be a thing. Do your own research, but that's my experience. I know a fair number of EV owners.
