Hacker News Reader

Comment by Patrol8394 | Hacker News Reader

EV are still too expensive and if one does not have a charger at home, it does not save that much money over ICE, plus it comes with the inconvenience of wasting time waiting for charging. It is that simple.

View on HN

Funny, I start every morning with full range and very rarely dip below 50% SOC by the end of the day.

I have been using the portable charger that came with my EV, sharing the 30A outlet with my dryer. The only times I've "wasted time waiting for charging" is when I'm on a road trip, and that time was spent in a nearby store doing shopping I've needed to do anyway.

My municipal electrical rate is $0.11/kWh and I've saved a small fortune compared to my old gas vehicle.

> I've saved a small fortune compared to my old gas vehicle.

Fuel taxes pay for the roads, so who is funding your fuel tax avoidance?

In GA there is an annual EV tax applied that is meant to replace the fuel tax when you re-register your vehicle.

In Iowa I have to pay an extra EV fee with my yearly vehicle registration/tags. I'm honestly not sure what that fee goes to in Iowa, but I imagine such a thing could be adopted to pay for an EV's share of the fuel tax.

Edit: looks like it does in fact act as the fuel tax for EVs.

[PDF] https://iowadot.gov/mvd/vehicleregistration/Electric-Vehicle...

Fuel taxes come nowhere near paying for the roads. Only a lack of imagination prevents us from replacing any lost tax revenues.

My town puts a $9/mo fee on my water bill to pay for road improvements. Everyone in town pays in regardless of how much or what they drive. The money is also being spent on sidewalks and bike routes, so non-drivers benefit too.

>My municipal electrical rate is $0.11/kWh and I've saved a small fortune compared to my old gas vehicle.

For you it makes sense. Our residential rate just hit $0.20/kWh, excluding rider and admin fees. Plus higher purchase cost plus several thousand dollars more insurance rates compared to an ICE.

When you start getting closer to $0.20/kWh https://www.fueleconomy.gov/ then there is no much different between EV and hybrid. If you then account for the fact that EVs can easily go for a +$10k over the hybrid equivalent...then you should come to the conclusion that EV is not that convenient, if at all.

Also, many have mentioned the possibility of charing at work ... good luck with that.

I am in favor of EVs, but infrastructure is not there yet and as said they are still too expensive. Also, given the pace of innovation, I think EVs depreciates faster than Hybrid equivalent.

Thanks to solar panels my EV charging has no ongoing cost.

Frankly even if solar were even with gasoline I'd still prefer solar because I generate it myself. No supply chain issues, refining problems, or oil disruptions can stop me from driving or increase my cost to drive.

If you keep saying "infrastructure is not there" then it will never get there. You need demand to kickstart infrastructure deployment. Maybe infrastructure isn't good where you live but for a lot of people it exists and continues to improve. Lots of parking lots in the bay area have electric charging points now - there were approximately zero just 10 years ago.

Electricity has the benefit of an existing grid everyone is already connected to, large chunks of time when that grid runs at a tiny fraction of its capacity, and really easy capacity upgrade paths that operators already do all the time (eg when an industrial plant expands or a new commercial facility is built).

You should have read my first comment where I said that it is not convenient _unless_ you can charge it at home. And here you are … “thanks to solar panels” … you are the exception not the rule. Many people don’t live in houses, let alone have the possibility of installing solar panels and pay premium for an EV car.

Let me guess … you have a Tesla…

I will just wait perhaps in the next 5 to 10 years. For now I am happy with my hybrid.

When you say many, do you mean <25%?

I'm fine with EVs being only 75% of new cars sold for now

I can’t comprehend the decision to buy an electric car if you don’t charge at home.

If you live in EU, then in 12 years, it will be your only possible decision.

If limitations like the above are not worked out I'd be shocked if these restrictions don't get pushed back or reconsidered at that time. How many times have CO2 emission reduction targets been pushed back, adjusted, or just ignored?

Some can charge at work–with PG&E prices right now it is currently cheaper to do this.

Something like 20% of drivers don't have access to home charging and another 10% need to haul heavy items a lot. You guys can sit this one out for another decade. We are nowhere close to 70% of new car sales being electric anyway.

In EU it is even worse. 50% of people are living in apartments and thus have no access to charging over night.

I can't provide a citation for my 20% stat, but as I remember it, it was for car owners. If you live in NYC in an apartment and ride the subway, you don't count. I wonder how many of those EU apartment dwellers are car owners.

Only 20% of drivers live in an apartment? That's quite surprising to me.

Guess: The actual data is that 20% of new cars are sold to people in apartments. Because the folks in apartments don't replace their cars as often, and/or are more likely to buy used cars.

No disagreement on the $$$, but I have no issues with trickle charging at home on an external power outlet. My frequent driving is really just daycare drop-off/pick-ups and into the office once or twice a week. The office has L2 charging so I can get a solid few hours to top things off, but I very rarely stop at an L3 charger... and on those rare occasions, I'll know ahead of time, so I can run into the grocery store that hosts the Electrify America station in their parking lot and there's no time lost.

So as long as L1 trickle charging is available at home or work, this can be a non-issue for many driving habits.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com