That's great as a start. It's not nearly enough, and cars aren't even the actual solution, but Americans have carbrains engrained in society.
this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2026
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cali needed fast railway like a decade ago, to connect biotech, tech hubs so these jobs can be easily reached from the major cities.
EV sales will likely continue to decline because we've made charging obscenely expensive. It's typically >50 cents/KWh at retail, and if you charge at home, it's not much cheaper if you don't have rooftop solar. We've let PG&E and SCE kinda ruin this.
Is California not just made up of single family housing and very sunny everywhere? Seems like the ideal place to charge cars with solar at home.
Tarrifs are just the short term obstacle. The greater, long term obstacles are America's over-reliance on cars and lack of EV infrastructure, along with the current generation battery technology no being quite there yet.
EV charging Infra is actually pretty good statewide these days, and battery range isn't bad. (I drive an EV regularly). The real challenge for EV sales is that fueling an EV has gotten more expensive than fueling a comparable gas car.
Agree on car reliance though. We've neglected building decent transit systems for generations.
The infrastructure is pretty good in California, sure, but I was thinking more about the US as a whole.
Also, the problem with lithium-ion battery tech isn't just the range - it's the charging speeds, and the weight/cost of the battery packs themselves.
Ah, yeah, I missed that you referred to America. We do have it pretty good here in CA, and my use case is favorable for an EV. I'm able to charge at home, and rarely need to charge en route to get somewhere. Those few occasions when I do, the 10 mins to charge up isn't a big deal. If I couldn't charge at home, or regularly took very long trips, the EV wouldn't make sense.
As for the weight... I just looked and my EV (a model 3) is 50 pounds heavier than my other car (a Lexus hybird sedan). That's a pretty negligible difference. It's about 500 pounds heavier than the Honda accord I used to have. That's a more material difference, but not as big a deal as people online make it out to be.
if musk hasnt done his hyperloop scam, and elain chao dint block the funding we wouldve had it partway there.
They are part of the problem, but inability or unwillingness to build quality public transit has been a problem in CA longer than they've been alive.