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Comment by DangitBobby | Hacker News Reader

Range anxiety is going to drive battery weights up for a while still, probably. The only way people will adopt EVs than can only go 50 miles on a charge is if they become much cheaper than ICEs, IMO. Like, on the order of $5k. Even then, the fear of being crushed by an SUV would be a barrier to adoption.

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These $5k cars already exist. The Hongguang Mini has about a 100 mile range and sells for about $5k in China. Let me buy one. The US has a high level of safety requirements on cars not just to protect people but also to protect domestic auto manufactures from cheap auto imports.

If your hypothesis was true then there wouldn't be similar safety requirements in most advanced countries, even those without local auto industries.

> the fear of being crushed by an SUV would be a barrier to adoption

or trucks and buses, as a cyclist the difference is even worse, but speed regulation really helps for that fear

Anecdotally, range anxiety drove me to pay an electrician to run a 50 amp circuit to my garage for faster charging, which has gotten us out of many "oh crap we have to leave in an hour and only have 10% charge" tight spots. It was crazy expensive since the electrician had to run a conduit around the entire house, but still an order of magnitude cheaper than buying a higher-range car.

You can buy a 19.2kW level 2 charger now that will add just over a mile a minute of range (though I don't believe any consumer EVs are on the market just yet which support that rate). For a few more bucks (more than a few, really, but still attainable) it's possible to install a 25kW DC charger at home that would probably work with most EVs today.

I've no need for it myself, we just charge at regular old 32A from a 14-50 wall socket, but it's interesting to watch the market evolve. Maybe 19.2kW will become the new normal.

the 5k EV that can go 50 miles exists and is called an E-bike :)

I can't get groceries or ride to work in the rain on an ebike. And I've biked to work for years, I'm not antibike. But it doesn't solve the same issues.

If you exclude work and food, what's the remaining usage of a bike? leisure?

I've been 100% bike for all my adult life 20 years long, half of it commuting, half remote work, groceries up to 20kg (I carry crates on my handlebar), rain is annoying, but it's like people on motorbike, with proper clothes it's fine, but it's indeed less easy than a personal car. but not so much about natural elements, more because the cities are built for cars

You can put groceries in an Organic Transit ELF or a BetterBikes PEBL. These are enclosed, recumbent, tadpole trikes with room for the driver along with two small children, one adult, or groceries.

You can get a cargo bike with a rack on the back or a tub in the front. My ebike can hold over 150lbs on the back and I took it grocery shopping back before I lived in walking distance of grocery stores

Totally. But I doubt those will see wide adoption either.

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