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You're making some odd assumptions about how people drive. The average daily mileage on a car is about 30 miles. This means the vast majority of cars, the vast

You're making some odd assumptions about how people drive. The average daily mileage on a car is about 30 miles. This means the vast majority of cars, the vast majority of the time, not only don't need a supercharger, they never need custom charging infrastructure at all, they can just trickle-charge off of a 120V outlet. Really, you're looking at a specific use case (long-distance road trips) and generalizing. For trips under 200 miles a Tesla doesn't even need a supercharger either. > nobody enjoys waiting that long for their car to charge Honestly, I enjoy not being in my car more than I enjoy being in my car. Does anyone really enjoy being in a car for 12 hours straight without three to five 30 minute breaks? I've certainly done it but I honestly think it might not be a bad thing to have a car that prevents me from doing that.

AmericanChopper 7y ago
You’re making some incorrect (though I guess understandable) assumptions about why people buy cars. If people brought cars for the use case you’ve described, then you’d expect the top selling cars in the US to be small ‘city’ cars, or at least high mileage sedans. But it’s not, 4 out of the top 5 selling cars in the US last year were SUVs [0]. People don’t buy cars that suit their most common use case. They buy cars capable of fitting any use case they might conceivably need it for over an average period of 6.5 years [1]. Its a pretty safe bet that most SUV owners don’t use their sports utility features, but they buy them anyway. The risk alone of being caught at a charging station for an hour or more, or the impracticality of longer trips is a major anti-feature. You’re also missing one of the core value propositions of owning a car. For as long as cars have been sold, the freedom to get in your car and drive any place you want to at any time has been a core part of the value prop. For BEVs, it’s the exact opposite. You drive the car on terms set by the battery and your ability to charge it. That’s why range is still considered a significant constraint, even on BEVs that get 250-300 miles (10x your number of average daily drive). People simply don’t buy cars to meet 99% of their needs, they buy cars to meet 100% of the needs they know that have, and often a number of other needs that they don’t currently have, but think they might have at some point in the future. And all of that is before you get into the issue that a lot of car owners don’t have off street parking, or live in places like apartments where they may not be able to install chargers. [0]: https://www.statista.com/statistics/276419/best-selling-cars-in-the-united-states/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/276419/best-selling-cars... [1]: https://www.autonews.com/article/20161122/RETAIL05/161129973/average-age-of-vehicles-on-road-hits-11-6-years https://www.autonews.com/article/20161122/RETAIL05/161129973...

AmericanChopper 7y ago

You’re making some incorrect (though I guess understandable) assumptions about why people buy cars. If people brought cars for the use case you’ve described, then you’d expect the top selling cars in the US to be small ‘city’ cars, or at least high mileage sedans. But it’s not, 4 out of the top 5 selling cars in the US last year were SUVs [0]. People don’t buy cars that suit their most common use case. They buy cars capable of fitting any use case they might conceivably need it for over an average period of 6.5 years [1]. Its a pretty safe bet that most SUV owners don’t use their sports utility features, but they buy them anyway. The risk alone of being caught at a charging station for an hour or more, or the impracticality of longer trips is a major anti-feature. You’re also missing one of the core value propositions of owning a car. For as long as cars have been sold, the freedom to get in your car and drive any place you want to at any time has been a core part of the value prop. For BEVs, it’s the exact opposite. You drive the car on terms set by the battery and your ability to charge it. That’s why range is still considered a significant constraint, even on BEVs that get 250-300 miles (10x your number of average daily drive). People simply don’t buy cars to meet 99% of their needs, they buy cars to meet 100% of the needs they know that have, and often a number of other needs that they don’t currently have, but think they might have at some point in the future. And all of that is before you get into the issue that a lot of car owners don’t have off street parking, or live in places like apartments where they may not be able to install chargers. [0]: https://www.statista.com/statistics/276419/best-selling-cars-in-the-united-states/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/276419/best-selling-cars... [1]: https://www.autonews.com/article/20161122/RETAIL05/161129973/average-age-of-vehicles-on-road-hits-11-6-years https://www.autonews.com/article/20161122/RETAIL05/161129973...