I think it’s an overreaction to the product adoption curve. People think we’re on the verge of mainstream adoption and car makers don’t want be without a suitable product to sell. I personally still see it as still in an early adoption phase, and the ‘killer app’ that will bring EV cars to mainstream has yet to come.
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You have to start somewhere.
Yes… mainstream EVs are a long way off… but I think we are past “early adoption”.
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Don’t worry, I stopped buying meat at Walmart a long time ago.
Personally, I don’t think so as EVs still account for only ~3% of vehicles on the road. I liken the current period in EV adoption to when BlackBerry emerged as the go-to phone for business users and started to crack into the mainstream. People are getting interested, but it’s possible that something will come out and change the whole landscape. I think a lot of car makers are finally reaching the end of their initial development cycles for EVs, so the killer product to start getting rapid adoption will be coming soon.
Yes. I can see that.
It’s regional though. In Socal, adoption is much higher so that’s why it seems farther along to me. I hate seeing every other car is a Tesla but I like the proliferation of EVs.
This is just in the last 2 years too so I think the next 2 years will be interesting. I hope it doesn’t plateau but infrastructure could be the limiter. Cheap, low range, fast charging EVs could turn more people ala Leaf/Niro/Konas but they should consider leasing over buying. Maybe a Model 2 will be the conversion point.
There are some posts saying there might be good leases on the Mach-E now and this article in Electrek talks about them:
https://electrek.co/2023/08/25/fords-2023-mustang-mach-e-gets-3k-discount-new-lease-offers/
Haven’t really crunched the numbers but it doesn’t seem that good.
Has anyone found a good lease on a Mach-E (since we have no Ford brokers here)?
I mean dealers up here are already taking 4k off to move them plus the incentives and tax credit. Plus in MA you can get another $3500 off with the state rebate if it’s under 55k… now you’re in the 400s… not bad. But net of state credit for us you’re lower out of pocket on quite a few other comparable EVs.
If they can get a little more aggressive… there might be something there. Not yet though.
Little update, FPL EV now are installing the new charger that’s charge up to 48A !!
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Anyone know what brand of charger they install?
When driving from LA to Vegas on the 15 FWY there’s a couple of FREE DC FAST charging stations at the rest stops… I’ve tried plugging in my Tesla Y with the CCS adapter and have never had any success of charging…either side of the freeway rest stops. I unplug and plug back in a few times but was never engaged, has anyone else used these chargers successfully ??? I plan on going to Vegas this Monday and will try one last time…
Last I looked they were using Juice chargers.
I’ve gotten them to work but the BTC Power units they use are notoriously finicky
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They use the JuiceBox and just now started to install also the Wall box
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Yep-every time I made a quick stop and they were available I tried, but never worked. Not that I really needed to charge but would’ve been nice an extra 50 miles added 
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Let’s just say I was making it a point to not give the state of California any more money than I had to after I had a nasty pothole take out two $400 tires up by Tahoe. 
I got them to work because I know what makes them tick, we have those POS all over Oklahoma courtesy of Francis Energy. Volta uses the same equipment but in a nicer shell.
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I guess it depends where you live. Globally plug-ins and pure EVs accounted for over 19% of new car sales last quarter. In California that rises to over 25%, or over 90% in Norway. Cars stay in service longer than cellphones so it will take time for the fleet to turn over, but worldwide I’d say we’re a couple years into the iPhone era. Android is not yet a thing though- give it a few years.
The “killer app” pushing mass adoption will be cost of ownership/ running costs (once depreciation/ insurance/ battery life comes into line). Gas + service/ oil changes for my wife’s old SUV were ~$2700 per year. Electricity costs <$400 a year for her new one with similar space and performance.
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But look at the number of Americans that will routinely buy a bag chips for $3 at 7-11 when you can buy an entire box of 20 at Costco for $15. For them, it’s “cheaper” to. pay $100/wk for gas than to buy a $50k EV.
I think the former Toyota CEO had it right - the majority of the people aren’t ready for BEVs. They’re ready for hybrids. I think the governments and industry pushed the BEVs too hard, and supply is now outpacing demand by a lot, whereas there is more demand for hybrids than there is supply.
The rapid depreciation of recent model EVs could actually accelerate some positive gains for lower to middle income Americans who rely on a car (if they had access to charging). How many things can break in a beater car when compared to an EV? And there are quite a few 5-6 year old EVs in the 10-15k range. While those don’t have the best range, when you compare them to what else you can buy for 10-15k it’s at least worth the argument, depending on your circumstances.
But aren’t gas efficient ICE cars close to cost savings vs hybrids?
Since demand is so high for hybrids, they are also marked up and have no EV/PHEV incentives.
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Well, yeah, but people want better gas mileage without having to drive a Honda Fit. So they go from a gas Honda Accord to a Hybrid Honda Accord. It’s still just as nice. They pay a little more, but they save on gas, and they don’t have to deal with range anxiety.
California is banning gas cars in 2035, but they’ll still allow PHEVs. I hope the car manufacturers are planning for this by replacing all there gas models with PHEVs.