Hacker News Reader

Comment by WarmWash | Hacker News Reader

Why would I engage when we have a gazillion statistics on driving habits and population density, and EVs work great to cover them?

We have a vocal minority that keeps stoking EV fears because their unique lifestyle can only be met with a 500 mile range that charges in 5 minutes from a charger located at every gas station, and costs $30k brand new.

The number of people driving ICE cars that would be better off in an EV is massive, and we know this, and these people still keep getting wrapped around the axle of outlier stories.

[1]https://www.bts.gov/statistical-products/surveys/national-ho...

[2]https://www.bts.gov/statistical-products/surveys/national-ho...

View on HN

I think a big part of this in the US is that the country is just very big, and between cites are very large rural areas. Yes, for a lot of people their daily commute and errands are well covered by an EV. But there is the occasional 400-500 mile trip, it's just not that uncommon for many people to do that at least a few times a year. And if they don't want to own a second car for long trips, they rule out an EV because charging infrastructure still isn't adequate in many areas.

You might counter that by saying "rent an ICE car for those trips" and that's certainly possible but, renting a car outside of a major airport is such a miserable experience that many people don't want to deal with it. It only takes once or twice turning up to find that "we don't have the car you reserved" and being offered some unsuitable alternate (or simply no car at all) for people to sour on that idea.

What's wild to me is that people are so committed to not stopping when road tripping that the thought of two 15 minutes stops in a 6.5 hour drive is not worth giving up weekly trips to gas stations for that year.

It's not the stopping. It's finding a fast charging point that doesn't require a substantial detour off the route. That has improved, so it's less and less a valid reason. But there are still places where you might go a few hours between convenient commercial chargers. Now, does that impact the vast majority of drivers? Probably not, and the situation is improving. But people hear things like that and they decide to stay in their comfort zone.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com