Electric cars

[nintendofan85]

I may have already posted a thread on this (I can't remember honestly), but do you see electric cars as being useful and practical in the near future? They're already becoming commonplace and could potentially become the main type of vehicles across the world later on in this decade into the 2030s.

In all honesty, as a car guy (and I know a lot of car guys typically don't like them), I wouldn't mind owning one at all! My only reservation about owning one would be that I live in the United States and obviously we're quite spread out, so I'd be afraid of range anxiety driving one on the highways... However, a lot of electric vehicles these days, especially Teslas, seem to be getting better and better range.

 

[LadyDestani]

I really like the idea of electric cars, but I also live in the US so I feel like we'd need higher adoption in general with charging stations and such before I'd go out and buy a fully electric car. At this point, I'd be more likely to buy a hybrid to use less gas. I did look at some hybrids when I bought my last car, but I was looking at used cars and sadly none of the hybrids met my criteria for being well-cared for.

 

[nightglow]

I think hybrids are most realistic and practical until we advance in technology.
Jmo though.

 

[LuchaSloth]

They will need to be "practical" at some point...because, fossil fuels are a limited resource.

I've always found the discussion of electric cars to be somewhat amusing, because...there seems to be an entire subset of people out there who actually think it is an option that they can ignore. You can prolong the inevitable...but, we'd be better off investing in it before it becomes a bigger problem. Nothing changes overnight when it comes to something as big as swapping out the world's transportation infrastructure. But, it's something we will see more frequently in the next decade.

Heck...even if there is still oil in the ground that we can obtain, you still have the rising problem of climate change. We just saw it with Texas. You can have all the oil and gas infrastructure imaginable...but, it can be crippled by extreme weather events...which are becoming more frequent. So...not only do you have the inevitability of exhausting the fuel to begin with...but, you also have the more pressing issue of oil and gas infrastructure being flooded, damaged by storms, etc.

The funny thing about "going green" is that it isn't a choice. It never was a choice. It's one of those things that we can elect to do now, or we will be forced to reckon with it at a later date (with serious consequences). If you want to see what a truly crippled power grid looks like...let's just keep ignoring the necessary transition. It's an inconvenience and a huge expense. But, it needs to be done.

The main problem with "green" cars...is that it destroys a business model that has existed for a long time. And the people who stand to make money off that model will fight tooth and nail to keep making that money, even if it's terrible for everyone else. In a perfect world, we could snap our fingers and divest from oil overnight. But these are the people who hinder the advancement of technology...and they aren't exactly going away by choice.

It might be true that we aren't "at a place" yet where we can rely solely on green energy. But...you cut off the oil industry, and see how fast everyone jumps to the next ship. We should honestly stop kidding ourselves that it's "not possible" to do. It's a tug of war. If you get a few more people on the green side, that scale will tip. We're already seeing major divestments from oil. When you divest from one thing and invest in another, those investments go a long way in building that thing up. Which is exactly how we will get where we need to be.

 

[slzzpz]

I believe it's the future and if I could afford one, I'd buy one.


I'm not familiar with maintenance though, I'm sure it's probably super expensive.

 

[nintendofan85]

I believe it's the future and if I could afford one, I'd buy one.


I'm not familiar with maintenance though, I'm sure it's probably super expensive.

Maintenance costs, like with gas-powered cars, are going to depend on the brand, but they're actually, believe it or not, much cheaper than on ICE (internal combustion engine, meaning a petroleum-powered vehicle) or hybrid vehicles, and that's for one very clear reason: BEVs (battery electric vehicles) have much fewer parts than on ICE vehicles, so there's less that has to be maintained.

It also means that electric vehicles should have better reliability than their gas-powered counterparts, as fewer parts means less things on the car that can potentially go wrong. I'm not saying unreliable electric cars don't exist (some Teslas have had reliability issues), but there are simply a lot of things on gas-powered cars that don't even exist on electric cars.

Post automatically merged: Feb 26, 2021

The main problem with "green" cars...is that it destroys a business model that has existed for a long time. And the people who stand to make money off that model will fight tooth and nail to keep making that money, even if it's terrible for everyone else. In a perfect world, we could snap our fingers and divest from oil overnight. But these are the people who hinder the advancement of technology...and they aren't exactly going away by choice.

Another thing that has made some automakers mad, on the subject of business (where it hasn't just been the oil industry feeling threatened), is the fact that since Tesla has basically been the main company providing electric cars' sales, Tesla's sales model has gone against the grain of dealerships' existence and instead the company provides both sales and the delivery of vehicles to your residence.

In all honesty though, I think it's worth it. Dealerships have always been such a hassle and a lot of people, as emotional as a car purchase may be, simply think that the experience is a pain, and while I have never bought a car on my own, going to dealerships in the past with my parents means I can attest to the negativities of the experience. Past car brands like GM's Saturn and Toyota's Scion tried a model to make car-buying an easier practice, but neither brand exists anymore today...

 

[TemalRustic]

I may have already posted a thread on this (I can't remember honestly), but do you see electric cars as being useful and practical in the near future? They're already becoming commonplace and could potentially become the main type of vehicles across the world later on in this decade into the 2030s.

In all honesty, as a car guy (and I know a lot of car guys typically don't like them), I wouldn't mind owning one at all! My only reservation about owning one would be that I live in the United States and obviously we're quite spread out, so I'd be afraid of range anxiety driving one on the highways... However, a lot of electric vehicles these days, especially Teslas, seem to be getting better and better range.

Electric cars and hybrids are the future of car technology with no doubt about it, so getting an electric or hybrid (I'm a hybrid fan) will be setting your self up and futureproofing. It's not only good for earth but also the economy because eletricity can be generated naturally, it SHOULD be less expensive and some countries will benefit more than others just like the oil industry. It's high time they started converting, but whilst oil is still in supply and demand.. that might take a long time.