IMO, the place where people can park and charge is a prime consideration–at least in my area. SFHs predominate around here, and the number of Teslas seems to be growing geometrically. I used to amuse myself counting Teslas when I drove, but they are now so ubiquitous around here that it seems ridiculous to count them.
However, people who live in apartments or town houses that lack a garage do have a problem when it comes to convenient charging. When I go to a friend’s town house complex, there are almost no EVs, but the number of new-ish BMWs, Mercedes, Jags, and Caddys tells me those folks could easily afford an EV, and that lack of ease for charging probably accounts for much of the sparsity of EVs there.
Agreed, will it do anything ? They have installed millions of windmills and solar panels already and what has it really done ? Nothing that I see . They have done little to zero planning for capacity and upgrades to the system . The only way they could do this is build dozens of nuclear power plants and we know how long it takes to build those. Also a lot of the current nuke plants will be coming EOL , then what ?
I’ll try to be gentle. For all of the testimonials on how great an electric future will be, it seems strange that less than 5% of the car buying public is making the switch. Then largely on the west and east coasts. In the past we have let consumers decide what is in their best interest. And not unimportant a number of electric customers going back to ice against. So the answer given is just spend more money on infrastructure, educate those knuckle dragging consumers that are just not with the program, and if all else fails, pass a law or two. Some of us have a word for that that seems missing from the vocabulary of these folks. Why not a law to require everyone to drink bud light?
I thinl it is price and charge time . They figure out how to do it in 10 minutes or less without greatly shortening battery life they would have a lot less resistance . Also want to see how reliability will be rust belt where they salt until the snow is gone. Most EV owners around here dont drive them in the winter . I can tell you the one Tesla service center around always has dozens of them waiting to be serviced .
Many EVs cost less. The Chevy Bolt, Bolt EUV, Nissan Leaf and Mini Cooper SE all start under $30,000 MSRP. The Kia Niro, Hyundai Kona Electric, and Mazda MX-30 all start under $40,000. The Tesla Model 3, Audi Q4 e-tron and Polestar 2 are all under $50,000 starting price.
People in apartments or townhouses or even single family homes don’t have to install chargers, they can use a pay charger. I live in a SFH and use Electrify America or Tesla chargers. I could put a home charger in my garage but it would cost around $2000. I can charge for several years before the home charger electricity savings exceed the installation costs. The Tesla chargers are $0.25/kW and the EA chargers are $0.33/kW; my Model 3 has a 50 kW battery.
Then you’re not looking. Solar power is thee fastest growing energy sector in the US (and many parts of the world). 20 years I knew of ONE solar farm between where I live and Boston. I now know of at least 20, plus at least 3 different wind turbines. NY is also adding a lot of solar farms. And that’s just the commercial Solar. There are countless number of homes already going solar. Is it enough? Not sure yet. But to say there is nothing being done is just WRONG.
Around here they hire kids to clean the panels off after it snows. Life expectancy is around 20 years, then have a disposal problem and start over. Under the heading of making friends and influencing people there has been a rumor that they are considering using eminent domain statutes to convert farm land into solar farms. Not a smart idea.
Their philosophy on the matter is that the materials needed to manufacture one EV battery can be used to manufacture 20 hybrid batteries. Replacing 20 ageing vehicles with hybrids will reduce carbon output far greater than one electric vehicle. That would be a rational transition, but don’t try to reason with a politician.
Toyota may have enough hybrid sales to meet CAFE fuel economy requirements without electric vehicles however they will need to be ready for the day when California no longer allows gasoline or diesel passenger vehicle sales.
In addition to the solar “farms” installed on the roofs of warehouses and on the land surrounding many corporate buildings (NJ’s Johnson & Johnson is just one example), the dominant electric utility in my area installed a solar panel on ~90% of their power poles more than 7 years ago. Individually, those pole-mounted panels might seem insignificant, but when you consider them in their totality, they are significantly boosting the utility’s power supply.