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same data headline: 'Almost 50% of Canadians say they will consider buying an electric vehicle as their next car'
I think they are trying to denote the trend. According to autotrader (the source of the headline claim), it was 68% two years ago and has been dropping by about 10% a year. Pretty sure the Musk factor sucked the wind out of Tesla's sales, and then there are the stories from the article where people get saddled with a massive 20K repair bill after 8 years of ownership. I'm sure that's an outlier, but you just don't get bills that high with a gas car. And as much as the government wants us all using them by 2035, they have done sweet bugger all to build up the massive charging infrastructure required to get people over their range anxiety. That doesn't instill much confidence in prospective buyers.
Unsaid part of headline: "Most Canadians can't afford a new car, and many that can don't own a house and have nowhere to charge".
Electric cars, as they currently are, are a rich person's solution to climate change.
This.
My next car will be whatever used car I think will get me through 4 more years. Maybe the one after that will be electric. But until people can walk onto a lot and drive away in an EV, or, especially, find one on Kijiji, then the number of people whose next car is an EV is going to remain low.
The fact that the number of people considering it right now is anywhere near 50% is a big deal.
TBF, I was watching a YouTube video yesterday where he mentionned that there's actually a decent used EV market now. We bought a used car Λ10 months ago, and EVs were out of the question with autotrader listings in Ontario starting at Λ$40K for any EV in good driving condition. Now you can find some all the way down to Λ$20K.
Now you can find some all the way down to ~$20K
Still that's like 3-4 times most people's budgets for cars, if they even have a budget.
There are very few used cars for <$7,500 that aren't "As-Is" or should be labelled as such. I know the used ICE market has also softened a bit, but not that much.
When we were looking, I was considering a beater since our last car was a '05 Civic I bought with 120K km from a used car dealer for $5K (plus snow tires & rims). Before it was totaled, with an extra 180K km and over a decade of wear, it was worth more than that. EV prices are insane, but ALL car prices are insane.
Oh 100%, I'm just saying people struggle to even afford ICE used cars, let alone EV ones, that prices are just insane. 20k is like 5 months of rent for a family.
Now you can find some all the way down to Λ$20K.
That's gotta be regionally specific, because there are no full electrics, used or otherwise, around here for under $30k.
Theyβre way too expensive for most people. Even taking any savings into account from not needing gas, less maintenance, and rebates.
A lot of them are about double just buying a gas car sticker price wise.
I want an electric car but itβs hard to justify it.
Not to mention a lot of people can't afford (or otherwise can't justify) the expense of a new car in general. We're just starting to see some of the very early Leafs drop below $10,000, so there is hope, but the range/dollar needs to improve a bit to make sense for most people.
A lot of that comes down to how much you drive it. I did a post a few weeks back that showed a brand new Kia Niro EV could be had for about $200 more per month than a brand new Kia Forte, something like $1000 vs $1200 total cost once you factored in gas for 20,000km a year in driving. The difference would be way more if you only drive 5000km per year, and the difference goes away completely if you drive 30,000km a year.
Yup, bought my electric car because I used to drive 20-30k kms a year. And for a while, it was dirt cheap to drive. Then the pandemic. Now in 4 years, I've put less than 15k/year on it.
I really hope car sharing like Communauto picks up because that currently fulfills a large part of the needs of a car, and has the advantage of reserved parkings and can be connected to slower charging stations when it's not in use.
I live car free, fix the fucking transit!
This would do so much more for the environment than every car converting to an EV.
Some people call me a hero...
But yea, 100%, especially if paired with common sense densification. The less distance we need to move people the better a situation we're in.
The underlying plot of this article is rather obnoxious. This Smith guy's 2016 Hyundai hybrid broke and the dealer gave him a $15k quote to fix it, which was then resolved by Hyundai corporate. The headline statement is one small paragraph, and irrelevant to this random story.
To discuss the headline, though, I think it all stems from misinformation more than anything. I have an EV in the charging desert of north east Saskatchewan. It's a fantastic car and I wouldn't hesitate to buy one again. Yes, you do have to plan ahead a bit if you're going longer distances, but the slight inconvenience is well worth the savings in fuel. Winter range can be reduced by around 50% at -30, but again, you plan around that. ICE vehicles don't perform well at those temperatures either.
Even then, the trips the vast majority of people make are well within typical EV ranges and there are often several charging option wherever the vehicle is parked.
Misinformation, and a lack of experience are absolutely massive.
People don't know how simple an EV is until they have one for a while.
Even just rent one for a day. They're so simple and just work.
Because weβll have proper rail infrastructure then right?
Because weβll have proper rail infrastructure then right?
I've had one for five years, and 176000km, and it is one of the best decisions I've ever made, especially for a large purchase. I'll honestly never go back to gas as long as electric cars are available to buy.
My next car will 100% be an EV, even living in Alberta, it will be an EV.
I wanted to go electric, but I live in apartments and rent, and it's hard enough to get property management companies to fix the furnace.
Because they are >$60,000 toys! The Lightning pickup weighs 3 FUCKING TONS it has a 5.5" box and seats 5 people!?! That's just a minivan but worse.
If something like this actually comes on the market and doesn't stay speculative vaporware I will buy one without a second thought. It's small, has a 6 foot bed, weighs under 2 tons and a 400km range (which is WAY more than you need if you charge every night). Not as efficient as a commuter car but still better than any combustion vehicle AND it can carry all the groceries, beer crates and top soil that I need.
A Ford Lightning is one of those trucks that people living in cities and suburbs but who grew up on the edge of suburbs or in the exurbs while being hyperfixated on masculinity and "rural roots" drive. Theres a whole fleet of these things with ICEs. They're what the dad drives in SUV families.
We've been trying to go EV for 20 years. The first obstacle was lack of workspace to convert our little Japanese mini-truck (apartment dwellers).
The next obstacle was cost. We moved to where we had workspace, but then we couldn't afford either the conversion or an equivalently price used Leaf. It's also still a charging desert, with the nearest charger 150 km away and it's not even on the way to anywhere we go often enough to matter.
Then time became an obstacle. Our current vehicles will likely see us to an age where we have to stop driving. Does it make sense to live several years of our retirement as paupers to pay for a decent used EV? We've decided that it doesn't. For our current driving patterns, getting 100km of winter range would cover 50-70 percent of our driving. 50km of winter range would cut that to 20-30 percent. I keep my eye out for something under CA$10k, but haven't seen anything yet.
I want a car, not a subscription.
Admittedly, many internal combustion vehicles have subscriptions, too, but the EV industry is so much worse for this.
I just bought my next car: An electric cargo bike.
Iβm waiting to see all the real world reviews for Aptera