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.
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.
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.
I’ve experienced a similar decline in interest. Mostly because of one key thing, I got an e-bike.
The cost of gas was way too expensive, and I considered selling my gas powered car and buying an EV but the used and new market is well above anything I can afford, they only seem to produce SUVs or crossovers instead of anything the size of a Honda civic. I figured I’d just keep the gas car I have until it beefs it and use it for multi person trips, or far away trips.
Like it really is hard to beat when I can spend 1500-3000 on a bike that costs pocket change to charge, and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg to maintain. Honestly with the lack of public transit in a lot of Canada, a bike and whatever car you already have is a great way to save on gas money.
I got an e-bike this past year and its been fantastic. Folds up and I keep it in a corner when I’m not using it. It’s been great for getting around town
instead of anything the size of a Honda civic
Chevy Bolt. But they’re over $50k CAD before rebates. Fuck that.
God if the Chevy Bolt was like idk even 35k I could maybe justify it but ideally I think we need the Hyundai Elantra of EVs to exist…something in and around the 20k mark for them to be a purchase normal people can make without sticker shock
It wouldn’t surprise me if the biggest factor was just interest rates.
EVs still do tend to cost more than ICE vehicles, and the used market is still pretty new for EVs.
Autotrader is mostly a used car marketplace. So it doesn’t really surprise me that after a year where used cars cost more than news ones, and new cars were flipped for immediat profit.
Now that is starting to settle down and people who still can afford a new car just gets it right from a dealership.
Availability is some of the issue as well. I was able to snag an Ioniq 5 in May because another guy’s credit was rejected and I had called at the right time to add myself to the list for the new trim level.
I’ve been on the list at every dealer in SK for over a year and I’ve been called only twice, with both vehicles being the matte black. I don’t know why they even send matte painted cars here, they’re dirty the moment they’re exposed to air.
Meanwhile, there are many Ioniq 5s collecting dust in dealer lots in the US.
