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Comment by zhdc1 | Hacker News Reader

Range anxiety and charging infrastructure are also major hurdles.

Around 50% of people in the EU live in apartments. Most apartments were built decades ago and lack EV chargers - and, in many cases, enough dedicated parking spots for each unit, but that's a different story.

If people in the states think that charging a Model 3 or Model Y is too time consuming, when close to 90% of Americans live in single family houses, why would the majority of European car buyers be willing to switch to EVs, when they don't even have the option to install an EV charger?

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> If people in the states think that charging a Model 3 or Model Y is too time consuming

A lot of them are being told this, and they just believe it without running the numbers for their use case. For some it would be longer until infrastructure improves, but for others it would actually be less time “waiting” on their EV than their ICE car. I’m in the UK and I’ve spent 0 mins waiting on my EV charging in the last 4 months. Plug in at night and unplug in the morning. I’ve also spent 0 minutes visiting gas stations.

America has bigger distances and there are other factors of course.

> Plug in at night and unplug in the morning.

That's the issue.

This simply isn't possible if you live in an older apartment complex or rely on street parking.

ICE wins - at the moment - simply because it takes less than five minutes to refuel.

And for almost everyone who doesn't live in an older apartment complex or or rely on street parking, they're fine.

This is like arguing that nobody anywhere can buy anything but a large 4WD SUV because some day somebody somewhere might want to take a dog to a beach.

> That's the issue.

> This simply isn't possible if you live in an older apartment complex or rely on street parking.

This falls under the “running the numbers for their use-case” section. If you can’t charge at home it probably will be more hassle (but might not be).

> ICE wins - at the moment - simply because it takes less than five minutes to refuel.

So does this, because for my use-case EV wins because I don’t need to spend any minutes refuelling.

I agree, but the issue is that, globally, ICE is still the best option for the majority of use cases.

EVs have a place. I'm a fan of them. However, until recharging an EV becomes as quick and convenient as filling up a fuel tank at a station, ICE will continue to be the preferred option.

That said, government incentives (China, northern EU states) and potential ICE bans (EU) may allow EVs to win out in some markets.

However, at least in the west, this depends on the EU going against the best interests of central European automakers and everyone else in the automotive supply chain. It's - very - hard to see this happening over the next decade or two.

Long term EV will likely win. We're still a ways away from this happening.

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