Tesla didn’t prove shit. Musk was in the right place at the right time. Electric cars were coming regardless. The last thing he deserves credit for is that.
BS, electric vehicles still aren’t coming, if you look at the legacy manufacturers. They were forced by competition and regulation to make big investments and finally have a small number of a few models. Even with that, they’re retrenching, rather than progressing. It’s been a long time coming, and never would have happened without Tesla proving you could make compelling EVs and sell them at a profit.
US is low on EV adoption but rather than make affordable compelling EVs, legacy manufacturers are backtracking on their announcements, lobbying for protectionism, and trying through courts and lobbying to revert the new efficiency standards. They should be very afraid of BYD’s announced factory in Mexico, which will bypass the protectionism they’re hiding behind
Best indicator I can think of for the near future… At least 4 new gas stations have been built withing 2 miles of my apartment. They wouldn’t be doing that if the industry was poised to switch over to electric in the next 30 years.
The USs biggest problem with EV isn’t a lack of products. All the big three have EV or PHEV vehicles in their lineups now and they are all really great cars, especially for their price.
The real problem now is infrastructure. Public charging places, charging for apartment dwellers, hell even most older houses only have 100A (or less) service, and some don’t have the option to upgrade (or the upgrade is cost-prohibitive).
You could look at the lack of electric trucks, but trucks here are a status symbol for a certain demographic, and the last thing on that demographics mind is controlling greenhouse gas emissions. Most of them don’t even believe anthropomorphic climate change is real. Until that is fixed, there’s barely any market for them in the first place.
At this point we need sticks. We’ve dangled the carrot of the federal EV credit. Now we need a big tax for new fuel vehicle registrations. Let the the tax scale inversely with EPA MPG. Put that money towards investing in grid upgrades and subsidies for home and multi-dwelling building improvements to better support EVs.
Tesla didn’t prove shit. Musk was in the right place at the right time. Electric cars were coming regardless. The last thing he deserves credit for is that.
BS, electric vehicles still aren’t coming, if you look at the legacy manufacturers. They were forced by competition and regulation to make big investments and finally have a small number of a few models. Even with that, they’re retrenching, rather than progressing. It’s been a long time coming, and never would have happened without Tesla proving you could make compelling EVs and sell them at a profit.
US is low on EV adoption but rather than make affordable compelling EVs, legacy manufacturers are backtracking on their announcements, lobbying for protectionism, and trying through courts and lobbying to revert the new efficiency standards. They should be very afraid of BYD’s announced factory in Mexico, which will bypass the protectionism they’re hiding behind
Best indicator I can think of for the near future… At least 4 new gas stations have been built withing 2 miles of my apartment. They wouldn’t be doing that if the industry was poised to switch over to electric in the next 30 years.
The USs biggest problem with EV isn’t a lack of products. All the big three have EV or PHEV vehicles in their lineups now and they are all really great cars, especially for their price.
The real problem now is infrastructure. Public charging places, charging for apartment dwellers, hell even most older houses only have 100A (or less) service, and some don’t have the option to upgrade (or the upgrade is cost-prohibitive).
You could look at the lack of electric trucks, but trucks here are a status symbol for a certain demographic, and the last thing on that demographics mind is controlling greenhouse gas emissions. Most of them don’t even believe anthropomorphic climate change is real. Until that is fixed, there’s barely any market for them in the first place.
At this point we need sticks. We’ve dangled the carrot of the federal EV credit. Now we need a big tax for new fuel vehicle registrations. Let the the tax scale inversely with EPA MPG. Put that money towards investing in grid upgrades and subsidies for home and multi-dwelling building improvements to better support EVs.