Technology

Sorry, best we can do is massive, expensive pseudo-luxury SUVs

You say that targetting only the top 5% restricts the adoption rate. Consider me shocked...

alternatively we could get rid of car dependency

I just want more car options and less truck/SUV options

This is exactly what I want, I don't need 300 miles of range, I don't need luxury entertainment systems. I need a simple vehicle with decently comfortable seats and a shitty Walmart $80 bluetooth head unit. In Europe and various parts of China / Japan you can get a small electric vehicle for like 8,000 US dollars and that's what I want here God damn it

Ya there's literally no way for poor people to buy EVs even if they wanted to. Another huge issue is poor people live in apartments and can't charge EVs at home either.

We, the consumers, have also been saying that. Like, for a while.

The problem is they're also adding all this other shit that adds up costs. Just make a car, but it doesn't use gasoline. That's it.

Og VW Beetle, but aluminum and EV please.

I can't be the only one who has noticed the uptick in the negative EV press lately. Is this the same death throws akin to the buggy whip lobby of yore?

Edit* price needs to be attainable for the many for sure.. but the amount of negative press is "sus" (as the kids say)

They are giving americans what they want. The real problem is continuing to feed the deep rooted car addiction brought on by lobbying and corporate greed. There has not been a better time to instead invest heavily on public transportation, build extension inter-state, inter-city train systems, subway or rail systems for cities. Overtime phasing out freeways and replacing them walkable districts. I understand this won't happen over night and cities like Houston and LA are sprawling cities of 100s of miles but it needs to start somewhere and it starts with heavy investment from the federal government. Time to finally invest the tax money back to the taxpayers not defense, wars (direct, proxy or funded) and foreign affairs in the name of "national security". How about domestic security from corporate greed, price gouging, poor education, horrible Healthcare are system, costly drug prices to say the least. I understand for all these there's need to be a massive social change booth in the country and in the world's largest retirement home, US Congress.

Everytime I consider buying an EV I do some research and they always seem to have all of the bells and whistles. Then I get to price and it’s like $60,000+ and I can’t help but wonder how much cheaper it could be without all of the added features.

Edit: I’m not going to reply to everyone and I really should have mentioned since it’s not immediately obvious but I’m Australian. No Chevy volt and and all vehicles are imported increasing prices on top of the usual AUD imbalance.

Honestly, cheaper and smaller cars across the board would be nice. Everything is a fucking tank now.

The last paragraph of this article is right on. Don’t just tell people to buy EVs and then call it a day. Improve the infrastructure. Make buying an EV feel like less of an unsupported risk.

Lithium ion battery technology is not a good fit with the type of vehicles we currently produce. The energy density is nowhere near fossil fuels and this implies a big battery, which also adds mass. By 2027, Land Rover and other makers of SUV will be nudging 3000kg for some of their models.

IMHO the only viable solution for li-ion is ultralight vehicles. Bicycles and Velomobiles are light enough to get decent range at speed. A bicycle used with integrated high speed rail would solve most of our commuting problems. The fact is, whether you are making tailpipe emissions or not, F=ma. Moving a 3t mass around for one person is always going to use an extravagant amount of energy and that energy has to come from somewhere.

Work from home, eat less meat, make fewer journeys, use a bike more often, make fewer children. Those are some things most of us can do.

I understand that automakers don't want to make plug-in hybrids because of the complexity, but mine has served me well and most of the time I can stay within the electric range (where sometimes I go a whole year without having to fill up on gas). With my use case, it's actually better for the environment than a full EV since the battery doesn't have to be so huge.

Regardless, if these automakers don't get their act together, they're going to be destroyed by cheap Chinese EVs, just like how US automakers got destroyed by Japanese vehicles during the oil embargo and periods of high gas prices. Maybe they'll just lobby the government to lock out the Chinese competition one way or another.

Donald Trumps tariffs have been a disaster

There are great EVs out there but trump blocked them. We have all lost out

Or, ya know, invest in battery tech so it's more convenient to charge cars and push for gas stations and parking lots to all have chargers.

Nissan leaf.... IS FIFTY GRAND?! +custom charger +shit range.... yeah I'll keep my 10yr old dino burning corolla mate.

That's actually what they did before the Tesla, and the result was the cars were so useless nobody wanted to buy them.
Most carmakers make small subcompact EVs, and they are way more useful now, but even Dacia Spring which is probably the cheapest European made EV, isn't competitive against similar sized or prized ICE cars. And frankly it's a very unattractive car in many ways IMO.
ICE cars have a century of iterations and optimizations on cost effective production and efficiency, it will take a while longer to get the EVs to the same level.
Batteries are getting both cheaper and better and safer, so there is no doubt EVs will ultimately surpass ICE in probably every segment.

Or people need to give up the idea of taking three tons of metal to work with them every day.