The data found about 68 per cent of car shoppers in 2022 who did not own an EV showed an intent to purchase one, but that dropped to 56 per cent this year.
From reading other stories it’s not just Canada.
I will never own a gas car again because gas cars are simply inferior technology. I’ve put 170,000km on my EV over the last 5 years, and they’ve been more convenient and less expensive kms than even the cheapest gas cars I’ve owned. The only maintenance has been rotating the tires and the cabinet air filter.
When I wake up in the morning, the car has more mileage charged in it than I’ll use in the day, which includes my 100km+ round trip commute. When I drive it, the instant torque blows by most other vehicles on the road. I live in a rural area, it snows, it freezes, it doesn’t get plowed right away, the car doesnt care. It always starts. I make half a dozen 1000km round trips a year in it, doesn’t matter the weather, sunny or cold. I take 2 kids, my wife and all our gear in it. Did I mention they do sports, we have equipment and bikes and all that stuff.
The darn thing does everything the skeptics say it won’t do and it’s a shame all the misinformation I see, almost daily, about EVs.
I am with you! I first dipped my toe into the EV pool in 2020 when gas was at a modern era low, so EVs weren’t exactly flying off dealer lots. I only drove my ICE to keep the gas from going bad. Ended up selling the ICE and buying a second EV with a bigger battery and longer range. I’ve taken it on four road trips since March, and people don’t know what to think when I tell them I pay less for a full charge than most people do a single gallon of gas.
I think the best way to shift the apprehension is that home charging is the future, and you really only need to worry about infrastructure when you are going out of town. It’s a lot easier to put chargers on lampposts than it is to put gas stations every few miles, but oil lobbyists are making sure everyone is absolutely terrified of electrification.
I don’t have a parking spot at home, but my office installed four car chargers, and there were already 120V sockets in every second parking stall. Unlimited charging is included in the parking fee, and they don’t care if you plug into the 120V socket. I’ve left my car there when I was on vacation, and not a peep from them.
Make some dashboards that aren’t a touchscreen cluster fuck
Fucken’ this! Why does every new car have to have a media tablet on it, EV or not? Give me a cheap screen as the backup camera and don’t make me put my fingers on it while driving, and give me potentiometer controls for everything else!
Give me an EV car that makes me feel just a little better than being out in the cold for cheap and I’m sold.
There are inexpensive EVs…BYD makes some decent low cost EVs. They’re already in use as taxis in Montreal and IKEA delivery in Vancouver. The consumer versions are apparently coming in Canada… Just not yet. They are avail in Australia already and in Europe too.
If they made a little EV pickup with a 2 seater cab, 6ft bed, basic backup camera and a 200 mile range for 20k, I’d buy one tomorrow.
This, an electric Ranger is 10x more useful than a crew cab Ram with a 4 foot box, super nova headlights and a 12L V8 un-tuned diesel.
People are running out of money generally, EV’s or whatever.
Probably because fuel is coming back down and they are expensive AF to buy upfront.
Initial cost and lack of charging infrastructure are the two biggest drawbacks for me. The lease on my current car ends in a year, and I’m looking for a viable EV. But most EVs that are bigger than a breadbox and have a 250+ mi. range start around $7-10k beyond my budget.
You should go back and look at how much you’ve put into maintaining that leased car, and make sure to factor in cost of gas versus electricity. Could be $7-$10k over 5 years. Also be real, how often are you driving more than 250 miles in a single trip?
Maintenance has been negligible - $250 a year for oil changes & a couple hundred for replacing damaged tires. I might check into my state’s tax credits to see if that would make up the difference in cost.
The range problem is that I can’t charge at home. I could probably go as low as 140 miles if I’m willing to visit a charging station every weekend. But, the one to three times a year when I do drive somewhere for vacation or to visit family, I’d either have to plan very carefully or rent a car.
Even ‘low’ gas prices can’t compete. If I charge on a street charger from 0%, it costs about $16 for 550km of range. It’s free at the office. I bought mine when free unlimited fast charging was offered. I’ve put nearly 60k kms on the vehicle, and I’ve paid less than $200 for ‘fuel’ over the last 4 years.
They can’t compete in the long term.
In the short term I don’t have 20k sitting around to save 6k a year in fuel.
That’s why there needs to be aggressive rebates and incentives. It’s the only way the market gets built. The dumbest part of this whole thing is how easy it would be to get it right.
- Increase gas taxes quarterly, just a fraction of a percent.
- Gas taxes go towards rebate programs, and to incentiveize manufacturers to manufacture locally.
- Carbon taxes to go public transit - increasing the quantity and quality of service while reducing the end user costs to drive demand.
- The more people who use new and improved public transit rather than buying cars to commute, the closer we get to climeate goals.
- The more people who convert to EVs, the closer the country gets to climate goals.
- Repeat this process so that every year, it gets more and more expensive to operate a vehicle that kills the planet, and it gets cheaper and cheaper to get where you need to be with green tech.
