Quote:
Originally Posted by VChenz
There's a lot of fear mongering with EVs.
1. Most people only travel under 30 miles daily ONE way.
2. Even before the pandemic, many companies are transitioning to remote work environments for a variety of good reasons. Remote workers generally don't even need a car. Hell, people who live in really big cities don't even own a car.
3. The average American worker with under 10 years of tenure gets about 11 vacation days a year. I will assume that if your taking vacation you would take a week off at a time or possibly 4 mini vacations. I'll further assume those are the only times you would travel a long distance/need to tow a largeish trailer... Renting a Dodge Ram 1500 for a week from Hertz cost $250 inc extra insurance. So maybe $1000 plus fuel for the year and you always a new reliable purpose built vehicle for this task vs a unibody SUV which is more than likely is not designed for the load.
Of my 10 close friends (4 families, 6 couples) only two need a vehicle for their employment or drive more than what 300 miles. They work in IT, pharma sales, construction, nursing, food services, accounting and teaching. All 60 employees where I work, work remotely.
Just as we transitioned from horses to cars, the EV move will be a transition. Infrastructure will follow and is already rapidly being built out. People will change how they live and travel. Electric planes will be next and that will drive down air travel costs down even further with no jet fuel costs/simplier propulsion. So we may find that people will just fly more when they need to travel further and either rent a car or use a car sharing service.
If your only consideration is cost... Go buy a 2010-2012 Camry for $5- 7k cash and daily it. It'll cost $150 a month on fuel. Maintaince is $50/month on that car and it'll cover everything... tires, brakes, oil changes, etc. Rent a truck when you wanna tow your camper. No EV is going to match or beat that cost....ever.
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1. I work 100 miles round trip
2. I'm in the food/pharma industry. We are a key medical component supplier. I drove through several counties during level 3 snow emergency to get to work
3. I have less than 10 years seniority but I have 26 days of vacation plus holidays
I have a very large full frame SUV that can easily pull a trailer and can comfortably be used as big station wagon. It's extremely economical for the size and capability but it's soon to be an anachronism. It's great as long as fuel price remains under $3 but once gasoline hits $5 it will be an end to an era. Much like the time when Hummer H2 stopped selling.
I'm just afraid if I wait too long, all the inexpensive low mileage used EV will be gone. I have nothing against an EV or anything electric powered. Most of my yard tools are already battery-electric. But since I have a bank of batteries that can be charged on a quick charger. There's no disruption of service. The same can't be said for an EV. A stage 2 home charger still takes 6 hours.
But once gasoline becomes $5/gallon it's only going to take 24 months to break even in my scenario.
I still think gasoline will hover around $3 average at least in the U.S. but for how long.