Ideology? Mine costs 3p/mile to run vs 12p/mile on a high mpg diesel. Preheated/defrosted every morning. All my journeys are less than 200 miles so never have to use public charging (or stand at a pump). Save both time and money.
If you only drive say 20-40 miles a day, that's a ~600-1300 difference a year. That's nice, but it seems it would take years to offset a claimed 4x in the price of a car. It seems unlikely you would even own the EV long enough to pay the difference.
ICE = $24,100 for 35mpg
EV = $32,675 with 261 miles per charge
The price difference is $8,575.
The average price of gas right now is $3.15/gallon. To make the math easy, let’s say a person drives 35 miles per day (1 gallon of gas in the ICE car).
It would take 2,722 days to make up for the added cost of the electric car, even if the charging was completely free. That’s 7.5 years.
When looking up how long people tend to keep cars, the numbers varied, but they seemed to fall right in that same ballpark, 6-8 years.
So right as a person is about to break even, they are going to get a new car.
This also assumes both cars are new. The person who started this was talking about getting a used ICE, which saves a lot of money. I think people are much more comfortable buying a used ICE car over a used EV, as there is still a lot of uncertainty around the old batteries… decreased range and replacement costs. So I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of people were debating between a used ICE car or new EV, with the justification that they will make up for the extra cost on gas savings, which they probably won’t.
Take Germany for example, crazy electricity prices, most people can't physically charge at home, &c. Also most can't dump 40k+ in a box on wheels in the first place.
> the average cost of a new car in 2023 was 42.790 euros
Most new cars are bought by companies or older people too, the populace mostly runs on shitboxes from early 2010s
https://www.dbresearch.com/PROD/RPS_EN-PROD/PROD000000000052...
I am very suspicious of EVs as a concept because I perceive them as something not built for me , or for my benefit or pleasure but for the environment, those sorts of things always end up being a loss for the person paying out of pocket.
It's something you can't explain with numbers, when you set foot in an EV you feel in your guts that its something not built for you, for your utility or your pleasure.
They are shoved down people's throats in a very suspicious way too, like it's some new level of quality of life unlocked, while it's the same old car ownership experience except you are surrounded by cheap material and you feel like you are taking one for society. That's not how I excpect to feel after I spend 30-50k, also not being able to use the car 24/7/365 when you pay 30-50k is ridiculous
The notion that engine and transmission failures are quite common is beyond ludicrous. Sure, you get some idiots that don't perform basic maintenance but I have a '97 Miata, 2002 Xterra and 2010 RX350 and will likely be buried with all three still working perfectly fine. They have all been paid off for over a decade and insurance for all three is cheaper than any new car, especially an electric (have you checked insurance rates on them now, if you can even get a policy?). I do love people that buy new cars every 2 to 4 years - generate lots of cheap used cars for me to pick from!
Maybe more important, but it's not real, it's aleatory and involves predicting unknown unknowns such as the future state of technology, roads and even simpler if you end up with a lemon of a car or not.
In the UK there are lots of deals on second hand EVs. You can get a second hand 3y/o TM3 for £24k-ish. Kia Niros etc are a bit cheaper.
This is sort-of true, it's still a very small market. AA.com are currently listing 159,000 used cars in the UK, only 6,000 are EVs.
5 figures seems to shock you but in the UK it isn’t a lot for cars. Here a Ford Focus starts at £28k.
As for maintenance I sold my last diesel for £7k because it was costing me £1,200/year to keep it running.
It always amazes me that people revert to “EV Bingo” so quickly. They aren’t suitable for everyone, but there is so much FUD being spread that some will genuinely miss out on something that’s better for them in their situation.