Competition is good for the consumer. More options from more players will encourage more charging infrastructure and (ostensibly) more innovation. It’s not just Elon Musk vs China. Every automaker that wants to sell cars in the USA is on notice. If they want to compete in the EV subcategory, they need to focus on price and performance. People want budget-conscious EVs.
except what is happening now is not really any kind of fair competition. the european manufacturers exported they know-how to china, which was strategic failure, it was stolen, and now it is sold back to us with the advantage of cheap chinese production.
they will ruin our production and we will be in a similar situation where we were during covid, when the political leadership were saluting the china cargo airplanes on tarmac, otherwise it would not bring us masks, syringes, or any other stuff whose production we had given up and outsourced to china
unless we turn the ship around quite soon, we will be regretting it soon and for a long time.
Not super into cars but is there even any reason other than environmental friendliness to get an EV? Where I’m from, EVs are all wildly expensive compared to their combustion peers and they all frankly look really ugly to me. The coil whine of the EVs also drive me crazy.
Others have addressed your other questions, but I want to add that the “coil whine” that irritates you is probably the car’s slow-moving warning system. EVs are effectively silent at slow speeds because there is no engine noise or road noise, so they are required to make an annoying sound when maneuvering to get your attention. While it is an important safety feature, I agree some are very obnoxious.
I’m not sure if we’re talking about the same sound as it’s so high pitched that most people older than me are unable to even hear it while people my age or younger can clearly identify it. If that’s supposed to be a warning system, it doesn’t seem very good?
I mean, it’s also entirely possible you’ve heard a failing magnetic drive, a humming battery, or a squeeky mechanical thing like brakes or bearings. Those are all strong indicators of a significant problem with the car, and should be fixed immediately. But if you hear it every time, as soon as the car starts moving in a parking lot, that’s the safety feature.
Even the cheap ones accelerate faster, ride smoother, and are quieter. You don’t have to get oil changes, and the brakes don’t wear down as fast. Plus I can recharge at home, which is loads cheaper than buying gasoline.
And this is all with a relatively ancient Nissan Leaf, the new vehicles are all far better.
Oh, and let’s not forget that even very small air quality improvements have noticeable improvements in lung health! Humans were not meant to be breathing gasoline fumes or combustion exhaust.
My government just added a controversial extra tax on EVs because they tear up the roads and cause additional particles, because they are really heavy and most of them have a better than usual torque.
You can really see how road quality went to shit after EVs became mainstream.
Making batteries is also a really ugly business and far from environmental.
That is not even remotely why they added a tax on EVs. The reason they added the extra tax is because they make a ton of money by taxing gas and as EVs are gaining popularity they’re starting to see their tax revenues plummet. There is a nugget of truth in that some of those tax revenues are used to pay for maintaining the roads and that EVs do still put wear and tear on the roads, but it’s not that they’re destroying roads any more than any other car does.
If you’re seeing a drop in road quality it’s because your government isn’t paying to have the roads maintained like they have in the past, not because there are more EVs driving around.
I mean I’m personally a public transport kinda person. I live somewhere where a car is really just a status symbol since even the cheapest car costs at least roughly 90k USD and most people take public transport.
With my cheap over night tarrif (UK) I pay approximately 2p a mile, I’m planning a road trip to Europe soon and have calculated with a pay for discount EV charge card, I’ll average about 14p/mile. I’m saving between £60-£80 a month compared to my old diesel car, which pays off the charger install ~£900 in a year. Diesel price have dropped in the UK since I got mine.
For servicing it’s coolant every 3 years or so, and that pretty much it. We have a MOT in the UK, for every vehicle over 3 years old, then yearly, that covers more than what is needed on the yearly services for my car. Only thing it doesn’t cover is lubricate the charge port, but I think I’m ok with that
Also the cabin noise is almost silent, no gears, constant predictable acceleration, and I can plug anything I want in to the 240v outlet in the back seat
They make decent “point A to point B” cars, but that’s about it. They take a long time to charge, and when that battery is due for replacement, it might just total the car.
Competition is good for the consumer. More options from more players will encourage more charging infrastructure and (ostensibly) more innovation. It’s not just Elon Musk vs China. Every automaker that wants to sell cars in the USA is on notice. If they want to compete in the EV subcategory, they need to focus on price and performance. People want budget-conscious EVs.
except what is happening now is not really any kind of fair competition. the european manufacturers exported they know-how to china, which was strategic failure, it was stolen, and now it is sold back to us with the advantage of cheap chinese production.
they will ruin our production and we will be in a similar situation where we were during covid, when the political leadership were saluting the china cargo airplanes on tarmac, otherwise it would not bring us masks, syringes, or any other stuff whose production we had given up and outsourced to china
unless we turn the ship around quite soon, we will be regretting it soon and for a long time.
Not super into cars but is there even any reason other than environmental friendliness to get an EV? Where I’m from, EVs are all wildly expensive compared to their combustion peers and they all frankly look really ugly to me. The coil whine of the EVs also drive me crazy.
Others have addressed your other questions, but I want to add that the “coil whine” that irritates you is probably the car’s slow-moving warning system. EVs are effectively silent at slow speeds because there is no engine noise or road noise, so they are required to make an annoying sound when maneuvering to get your attention. While it is an important safety feature, I agree some are very obnoxious.
I’m not sure if we’re talking about the same sound as it’s so high pitched that most people older than me are unable to even hear it while people my age or younger can clearly identify it. If that’s supposed to be a warning system, it doesn’t seem very good?
I mean, it’s also entirely possible you’ve heard a failing magnetic drive, a humming battery, or a squeeky mechanical thing like brakes or bearings. Those are all strong indicators of a significant problem with the car, and should be fixed immediately. But if you hear it every time, as soon as the car starts moving in a parking lot, that’s the safety feature.
Even the cheap ones accelerate faster, ride smoother, and are quieter. You don’t have to get oil changes, and the brakes don’t wear down as fast. Plus I can recharge at home, which is loads cheaper than buying gasoline.
And this is all with a relatively ancient Nissan Leaf, the new vehicles are all far better.
Oh, and let’s not forget that even very small air quality improvements have noticeable improvements in lung health! Humans were not meant to be breathing gasoline fumes or combustion exhaust.
My government just added a controversial extra tax on EVs because they tear up the roads and cause additional particles, because they are really heavy and most of them have a better than usual torque.
You can really see how road quality went to shit after EVs became mainstream.
Making batteries is also a really ugly business and far from environmental.
That is not even remotely why they added a tax on EVs. The reason they added the extra tax is because they make a ton of money by taxing gas and as EVs are gaining popularity they’re starting to see their tax revenues plummet. There is a nugget of truth in that some of those tax revenues are used to pay for maintaining the roads and that EVs do still put wear and tear on the roads, but it’s not that they’re destroying roads any more than any other car does.
If you’re seeing a drop in road quality it’s because your government isn’t paying to have the roads maintained like they have in the past, not because there are more EVs driving around.
*Puts on Rammstein - Amerika
I can’t find anything on such a tax?
I feel like there has been an uptick in pro oil bots in the past week. Oil is a pretty ugly business too? What is wrong with you people.
Piip piip boop boop.
Evil nordic bot coming at you.
Bio gas and diesel are also renewable.
I live in an area where half the vehicles on the road are pickup trucks and giant SUV’S. A KIA EV2 isn’t doing any added harm to the roads here.
We are in the middle of a crisis. You don’t need an other reason.
You can either look ugly in an EV or drive straight towards dystopia in a cool looking ICE vehicle.
I mean I’m personally a public transport kinda person. I live somewhere where a car is really just a status symbol since even the cheapest car costs at least roughly 90k USD and most people take public transport.
With my cheap over night tarrif (UK) I pay approximately 2p a mile, I’m planning a road trip to Europe soon and have calculated with a pay for discount EV charge card, I’ll average about 14p/mile. I’m saving between £60-£80 a month compared to my old diesel car, which pays off the charger install ~£900 in a year. Diesel price have dropped in the UK since I got mine.
For servicing it’s coolant every 3 years or so, and that pretty much it. We have a MOT in the UK, for every vehicle over 3 years old, then yearly, that covers more than what is needed on the yearly services for my car. Only thing it doesn’t cover is lubricate the charge port, but I think I’m ok with that
Also the cabin noise is almost silent, no gears, constant predictable acceleration, and I can plug anything I want in to the 240v outlet in the back seat
They make decent “point A to point B” cars, but that’s about it. They take a long time to charge, and when that battery is due for replacement, it might just total the car.
which is, coincidentally, what most people need from a car ;)
It’s been shown again and again that evs require less maintenance.