Kevin Drum has a post up showing that EV sales have plateaued recently in the US. It’s not clear to me whether that’s all EVs or just Teslas, but since Teslas remain the dominant EVs in the US, that’s a distinction without a difference.I’d be happy to see more EVs on the road. But what would make me buy one? Well, one issue is price. I’d consider an econobox EV under K, but auto makers seem mostly to be slotting EVs as luxury purchases. Then there’s charging stations. My Tesla-owning friends shrug that off: there’s software to map the stations, you just have to plan. Well, I can’t recall a time since the gas shortages of the 1980s when I’ve had to plan my route around gas stations, and from what I’ve read, many charging stations are either broken or
Topics:
Joel Eissenberg considers the following as important: climate change, EV sales in the US, US EConomics
This could be interesting, too:
NewDealdemocrat writes Retail Real Sales
Angry Bear writes Planned Tariffs, An Economy Argument with Political Implications
Joel Eissenberg writes Will DOGE be an exercise in futility?
Bill Haskell writes Funding Public Goods Problematic??? Blame the Tax-Dodging Billionaire
I’d be happy to see more EVs on the road. But what would make me buy one? Well, one issue is price. I’d consider an econobox EV under $30K, but auto makers seem mostly to be slotting EVs as luxury purchases. Then there’s charging stations. My Tesla-owning friends shrug that off: there’s software to map the stations, you just have to plan. Well, I can’t recall a time since the gas shortages of the 1980s when I’ve had to plan my route around gas stations, and from what I’ve read, many charging stations are either broken or take hours to charge*.
So until EVs get cheaper and the infrastructure becomes more reliable, our next car will probably be an ICE or hybrid.
*Yes, I know some EV owners charge at home, but that’s not gonna help you on a multi-day driving vacation.