Posted on 01/25/2024 11:18:00 AM PST by Red Badger
” had a battery fire in their storage garage and lost 5 of them”
There are thousands of electric bicycles in my part of SW Florida (Port Charlotte/Punta Gorda). I watch the local emergency and police web sites for exactly that because of reports of battery fires. I have not seen any reports of battery fires in this area yet. Here at least, the bikes have been safe and reliable. That may be because we haven’t been invaded by the cheaply made Chinese models yet.
Until recently, the E-bikes were mostly ridden by seniors and were American or European made. Lately, the shorter, cheaper models are showing up with kids and “Florida man” riding. It seems every seedy looking alcoholic drug addict is riding a ratty E-bike. We will see how that works out.
Another article I read stated that EVs only get about 10,000 miles on a set of tires because they are so heavy.
That is correct....................
Ev’s lost the marketplace more than a century ago, for a multitude of reasons, and the overwhelming majority of those reasons are just as valid today as they were then.
There are use cases where an EV can fit, commuter vehicle is a fine fit for an EV... however the issue is, people do not want a “specialty vehicle” especially as their first and only vehicle. There may be some folks who will, but the overwhelming majority are not going to settle for a vehicle that cannot fill all their needs as their only vehicle.
The weatlhier folks certainly can buy an EV as their second or third vehicle they use for daily commuting, but the typical consumer is not going to go, I need a car that can do X,Y and Z, and sometimes A, B and C as well. let me buy a car that can only do X, or only X&Y.. or even XY&Z.
If EV’s sold for significantly less than ICE vehicles, you may have folks willing to compromise and go, well I’ll just rent a vehicle when I need to do AB&C... since I don’t do those things very often.
However, when the prices are equivalent, or even more for the option that provides less overall utility, you aren’t going to win.
Personally if someone gave me an EV, I could see using it as a secondary/commuter vehicle, however, I can never ever see myself purchasing one. The compromise is far too great, and the costs too high.
There are some needs where an EV fits, and if that works for you buy all means buy one if you like, however, I don’t agree with tax money subsidizing the purchase of them and I sure don’t see any way they will ever be more than a niche/urban vehicle. Maybe 20-25% of the market at most... and probably about 1/3 of that will be because of political mandates, IE Post Office being forced to buy EV’s even though their own anaylsis has shown they will end up being more costly to operate and maintain over their lifetime.
Without regulator force, EV’s long term will not even be 20% of the overall market long term, if that.
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