Street legal, 60 mile range
Posted on 03/07/2021 8:08:35 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
Car dealer Brad Sowers is spending money to prepare for the coming wave of new electric models from General Motors Co. He is installing charging stations, upgrading service bays and retraining staff at his St. Louis-area dealership to handle the technology-packed vehicles.
But when he considers how many plug-in Chevy Bolts he sold last year—nine, out of the nearly 4,000 Chevrolets sold at his Missouri dealerships—it gives him pause.
“The consumer in the middle of America just isn’t there yet,” when it comes to switching to electric vehicles, he said, citing the long distances many of his customers drive daily and a lack of charging infrastructure outside major cities.
As auto executives and investors buzz about the coming age of the electric car, many dealers say they are struggling to square that enthusiasm with the reality today on new-car sales lots, where last year battery-powered vehicles made up fewer than 2% of U.S. auto sales.
Most consumers who come to showrooms aren’t shopping for electric cars, and with gasoline prices relatively low, even hybrid models can be a tough sell, dealers and industry analysts say.
Auto makers are moving aggressively to expand their electric-vehicle offerings with dozens of new models set to arrive in coming years. Some like GM are setting firm targets for when they plan to phase out gas-powered cars entirely.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Not enough power plant capacity to service all those cars, either.
All you’ve got is recharge at night and only do short hauls. That’s hard to do when you’re on the road.
Part of my job entails pulling a trailer which is considered a commercial vehicle. I don’t have time to charge 2-3 times over a long drive day.
You’re just upset cause you got ripped off on your overpriced toy and are busy truing to justify it.
Street legal, 60 mile range
No thanks
“Part of my job entails pulling a trailer which is considered a commercial vehicle. I don’t have time to charge 2-3 times over a long drive day.”
You don’t have to stop 2-3 times a day to charge.
“You’re just upset cause you got ripped off on your overpriced toy and are busy truing to justify it.”
I think you need to get help.
“No thanks”
For what?
The golf cart....
“and loses money every minute they’re not.”
Talk about downtime. Tesla is offering a million mile warranty on their semis. I guess they think these need less maintenance and fewer repairs.
I agree - as I was saying, the logistics don’t work at present and maybe not ever unless we have large scale nuclear power for cheap electricity.
Once again, I said golf cart. That’s not a golf cart.
Golf carts cost around $4000. Your overpriced Polaris toy starts at $13,000.
You’re comparing apples to cinder blocks
So I’ve read some stuff about Tesla and repairs, like you’re required to use their mechanics and buy their parts etc. Kind of like you don’t really own your vehicle.
No thanks.
Plus, besides m=normal maintenance, it’s pretty hard to quantify downtime.
“Once again, I said golf cart. That’s not a golf cart.”
Which have a range of 20-25 miles. Satisfactory for a non-street legal machine.
Quit trying to put a square peg into a round hole.
“So I’ve read some stuff about Tesla and repairs, like you’re required to use their mechanics and buy their parts etc.”
Buy? They have a million mile warranty on their semis!
I don’t buy new cars and have never done a warranty repair. Oh wait, I did on a company car once and found out the dealer ripped me off and it wasn’t covered under warranty anyway.
The problems with the EV’s of today are the same as they were 100 years ago. Yes, we have advanced technology. Without government mandates and taxpayer subsidies, the modern EV industry wouldn’t exist.
“The problems with the EV’s of today are the same as they were 100 years ago.”
Which are?
The limit between recharge.
Right now I think the use case for EVs is as a second or third car for affluent commuters who live in suburban areas and have a regular 40-60 mile daily commute. The range isnt an issue, the charging gets done slowly overnight, and for other uses there is some gas powered vehicle to fall back on.
Also saw something that said Toyota and possibly Honda are pretty far along with Hydrogen fuel cell EVs. The look like EVs but instead of batteries they have fuel cells that run in liquid hydrogen. The physics of these are much more favorable and apparently they are not like Hindenburg Zeppelins on wheels - actually quite safe.
“The limit between recharge.”
Which is?
well right now its not scarce but my point was there’s only so much annual capability of lithium battery production and its what all companies who use them have to draw from.
there is no major recycling efforts in place for mineral recovery from old batteries, and the logistics to get lithium from unconventional sources economically and at a pace to be useful aren’t in existence either
so annual minimg capacities are something that pits all li-ion battery company users against each other, they all draw from the one same source
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