Are you sure that the reason isn't the cost of them? I mean, sure charging is one aspect, but is there actually a study that compares the two? There's plenty of "normal" people buying cheap BYDs.
> It’s why so many people own pickup trucks and large SUVs.
That's a very region/culture-specific thing.
I live in Canada and I really can't see myself driving an EV right now. It doesn't guarantee my not-so-rare but crucial requests:
- Going to some random places for vacationing without worrying about whether there are enough charging stations;
- Going through early spring without adding anxiety about a power outage that sweeps for 2-7 days;
The infra is just not ready. And TBH, I don't think it's going to be ready forever. Infra construction is so corrupted and so expensive in NA that I absolutely have zero faith in it.
Actually, the push to more EVs in China is already a bit problematic due to lack of Infras. Just imagine you are in the middle of Spring festival traffic jam...it's already bad for gasoline cars but it's a nightmare for EVs.
We live in a semi-rural part of Canada, and have a bit of a (pleasant, country) commute. I want the most efficient vehicle. I ran the numbers and an EV just did not make sense. If you're driving mostly highway, the overall cost/km isn't that much better than the best ICEs, and the ICE is much cheaper.
Financial-wise, I actually haven't compared the cost/km because of two things:
- I'm not sure how expensive a switch of battery going to be (do we have data on that?)
- Yeah they are outright more expensive than ICEs, and with the current financing climate, not very attractive
If you live in suburban and commuting to downtown for work, large part of the driving would be high way. Having hybrid makes way more sense in this scenario.
If you live in downtown, you probably don’t need a car or you are parking in a underground parking lot that does not guarantee you a charging plspot
A more interesting statistic would be something like daily commute https://www.thinkinsure.ca/insurance-help-centre/commuting-t... which recently was ~30min each way on average - very much in range.
On the other hand the power issues could actually improve with enough V2L deployed.
Even then, the question "what are the actual preferences when adjusted for price" is valid even in today's US.