A loss in revenue for dealerships.
EVs typically require less maintenance than their internal-combustion counterparts, and they could become even more reliable down the road as the technology improves.
This is because EVs tend to have fewer moving parts, and of course there are no more oil changes.
Cadillac just learned that some dealerships aren't looking forward to that, and it turns out that was 17% of the dealerships it had. They opted for a buyout instead.
The other option was to spend around $200,000 on average, to upgrade their facilities with charging, tooling and training for EVs.
And of course, what to do when there's no power grid, like Texas last year, or California in every heat wave?
The power companies are not to be relied upon, and the more the culture in the USA switches to electric, the less the power companies will be able to be trustworthy, especially after a hurricane in New Orleans, etc etc.
I haven't heard any news about any upgrades to the century old power lines, power poles, etc, and the use of electricity only grows with all the additional tech inventions, like apple watches, tablets, cell phones, electric cars, flat screens, powered home theater subwoofers, etc etc. Looks like there will be a lot of growing pains
can you blame some boomer dealership owners. they don't trust electricity.
ReplyDeleteIt costs more in fuel to generate the electricity to charge an EV than to buy petroleum. Moreover, it takes a lot longer than five minutes to recharge an EV to its fullest (more like 35 minutes to two hours) whereas in five minutes your petroleum-powered vehicle is ready to continue on its way. What are we doing to compensate for the lack of road tax paid per gallon when these EV's are in use? Please advise. I am not against EV's but at the present time, I prefer to not wait and wait to charge my vehicle.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the greatest problem with EV is lack of proper infrastructure. But not only for them it's problematic, electricity demand is much, much higher then couple of decades ago and it's rising every year. Existing lines are already overloaded worldwide. Infrastructure is not keeping up with progress or is simply ignored by politicians in budget plans. More and more grid blackouts will happen with such approach and people will move away from EV systems not because they like smoking cars more but they have no other choice.
ReplyDeleteThey said the same about horseless carriages 120 years ago. Nothing will replace a horse, it’s just a plaything. Before that, if God had wanted people to fly he would have given them wings instead of making them wait til they’re dead. Progress has a way of moving past doubts.
ReplyDeleteMost people in the US drive fewer than 30 miles a day. My little 4000w solar panel array could charge that in a day at a cost of $1400 here in Central America. $10000 in panels and an inverter could do a 300 mile Tesla in a day. 5 years ago that would cost $30,000. My first Arco solar panel in 1980 was 40 watts for $400, equivalent to $1200 today.
The difference is the change will come from rural areas first with property size and zoning more amenable to large arrays. But it will change.
The main argument seems to be thinking it’s an all or nothing IC or EV. It’s not. Petrol will continue to be sold until EVs make it unprofitable. Simple as that.
https://www.pluglesspower.com/learn/driving-electricity-cheaper-gas-50-states/
ReplyDeleteNo, it is not more expensive, that ship sailed a while ago. Electricity as a fuel is less expensive than petroleum.
Yes, at this point you can still fill your tank with fuel faster than you can charge a battery. But I can get over 100 miles in less than 15 min on the lowest level supercharger. The V3 chargers are even faster and still improving. But I hardly ever use those as I simply plug in each night in my garage. Wake up to a fully charged vehicle every day with over 300 miles range.
Currently Tesla has 2,700 Supercharger stations with over 25,000 individual charging stations. That is less than the 66,000 or so gas stations in the US currently. But just recently Tesla finished construction of a separate Supercharger factory. The factory has been built to solely produce 10,000 Superchargers Annually. Get ready to see a few more charging stations in the not so distant future.
You know what I don't see though? Chevy, Ford, or other car manufacturers with their own charging network. That's fine, Tesla will open their stations to the others and just rake in the easy money.
By the way, at home it costs me about $4 to charge the battery from empty to full. At a Supercharger it is about double that, $9-10. That's for 300 miles of range. How much does it cost to fill the tank on your petroleum powered vehicle?
Forgot the road tax issue. Not sure about that one as it involves having politicians who actually do their jobs and govern. Setting reasonable policies based on factual evidence. It is well known that the heavier the vehicle the more were and tear it causes on the road. I have no issue paying taxes based on actual use. The old way was by fuel tax, the writing is on the wall for that method.
ReplyDeleteThe new cars, like Teslas, are going to be more than able to track and report all of that data themselves and even by location. Theoretically drivers could get billed by the miles they ACTUALLY travel in any particular state and pay accordingly to that specific state. That of course will take actual work on the politicians part and I am not hopeful. In the meantime states are already applying flat free increases to annual registrations to accommodate this. Even if the vehicle conducts the majority of its travel out of state, or does not travel much at all, not a smart or valuable system.
Bottom line... change is coming at a rapid rate, hold on tight, it's going to be a wild rife!