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Yes, EVs are a great 99% solution. The problem is people aren't willing to own a second car to take care of the other 1%, so they need their car to be a 100% so

Yes, EVs are a great 99% solution. The problem is people aren't willing to own a second car to take care of the other 1%, so they need their car to be a 100% solution. Most of my friends take weekend road trips to camp or visit friends in other cities, and EVs just aren't capable of those use cases yet.

Finnucane 6y ago
No car ever made is a 100% solution, and many people do own multiple cars already.
- DennisP 6y ago
  Most people with two cars actually drive both cars every weekday. If one of them is gasoline, then you're replacing half of their gasoline consumption instead of all of it. What those people will not do is buy two electric cars plus a gasoline car for their 1% needs. Many people also would rather not hassle with rentals on a regular basis. But in fairness, it'd be great progress just to get to the point where most two-car families choose electric for one of them, and by the time that happens, batteries will probably be a lot better anyway.
  - Finnucane 6y ago
    By your reasoning they only need the rental 1 percent of the time. A lot of people use Uber more than that. My own car is only a 20 percent solution. The rest is walking, biking, and public transit.
    - DennisP 6y ago
      Uber is very convenient. Going down to the Enterprise office and filling out paperwork to take a drive out of state, not so much. Obviously I'm not actually claiming any particular percentage, since that varies by person.
  - kbelder 6y ago
    Yeah, I think EV adoption will stall out for a long time at around 50%. Families will have one EV and one gas vehicle. That covers all their needs; two EVs won't. And the gas-burner will get used just as much, since both parents need a vehicle. The idea that people will rent vehicles for those longer trips is a bit untethered from reality.
bananabreakfast 6y ago
This is 100% false and hasn't been true for a long time. A Tesla can easily take a road trip the same as any ICE vehicle. I've personally driven one across the country. Supercharging along the way now takes the same amount of time as any normal stop for gas. EVs are already better than a 100% solution because electricity is far cheaper than gas and you can fill up at home.
- new_realist 6y ago
  I’ve owned three Teslas and I can tell you that road tripping isn’t at all as convenient in a Tesla as an ICE.
  - rootusrootus 6y ago
    I agree, though I'd concede that we enjoy taking the Tesla on road trips because our kids are young. Stopping at the McDonalds next to the supercharger for a restroom break, sometimes lunch, or a romp in the play area for half an hour works really well for us. If our definition of roadtripping was drive-pee-drive-pee-drive-pee-drive with no real rest stops, it would definitely be faster to take our pickup (the only gas vehicle we have left).
- BobbyJo 6y ago
  I can tell you quite definitively that a tesla with the maximum range possible will still not be able to get you to and from a great deal of small cities and camp grounds in the US, especially if you live outside California.
- drewg123 6y ago
  Maybe a Tesla can make a trip in the same time as an ICE, but only if you normally stop frequently. I'm a "drive straight thru" kind of person, and road trips in my Telsa frustrate me. A few times a year, I make a ~950mi drive in my 2017 MX 100D (~295mi rated, ~220 maybe at 75 mph). In an ICE car its 13.5 hours of driving, and about 4.5 hours of charging. I frequently find myself wishing I owned an ICE car when I'm on the trip. Especially when the weather is cold, and I'm debating the range impact of turning the heat on vs 12 more hours of not being able to feel my toes. Or when the supercharger is busy and it ends up taking 2x as long to get from 5% to 45% because I'm sharing... or the anxiety of trying to make it one more charger to be able to save time by charging 2% -> 55% rather than 12% -> 65% (to avoid charging past the taper..) I'm hoping the new models coming with 500 or 600 miles of range improve this. I'd probably only need to charge 3 times.
ogre_codes 6y ago
If you can afford a Tesla, renting a car for 1 week a year isn't a big burden.
- BobbyJo 6y ago
  Yet another reason EVs aren't the dominant market yet.
  - ogre_codes 6y ago
    Likely the single biggest reason.
    - mypalmike 6y ago
      I'd suspect the fact that not everyone has a convenient place to plug in overnight would be a pretty major factor. A good percentage of city dwellers in particular park their cars on the street, away from their home.
hakfoo 6y ago
I'm surprised nobody does a product that's an EV lease plus some prepaid credit every month for a rental service, so for the one day a month you need a conventional petrol car, it's already budgeted for. Hell, you could generalize it to small petrol cars too. I suspect most of us "overbuy" larger and more capable vehicles for the one day a month we need something bigger than a Mirage.

Finnucane 6y ago

No car ever made is a 100% solution, and many people do own multiple cars already.

DennisP 6y ago
Most people with two cars actually drive both cars every weekday. If one of them is gasoline, then you're replacing half of their gasoline consumption instead of all of it. What those people will not do is buy two electric cars plus a gasoline car for their 1% needs. Many people also would rather not hassle with rentals on a regular basis. But in fairness, it'd be great progress just to get to the point where most two-car families choose electric for one of them, and by the time that happens, batteries will probably be a lot better anyway.
- Finnucane 6y ago
  By your reasoning they only need the rental 1 percent of the time. A lot of people use Uber more than that. My own car is only a 20 percent solution. The rest is walking, biking, and public transit.
  - DennisP 6y ago
    Uber is very convenient. Going down to the Enterprise office and filling out paperwork to take a drive out of state, not so much. Obviously I'm not actually claiming any particular percentage, since that varies by person.
- kbelder 6y ago
  Yeah, I think EV adoption will stall out for a long time at around 50%. Families will have one EV and one gas vehicle. That covers all their needs; two EVs won't. And the gas-burner will get used just as much, since both parents need a vehicle. The idea that people will rent vehicles for those longer trips is a bit untethered from reality.

bananabreakfast 6y ago

This is 100% false and hasn't been true for a long time. A Tesla can easily take a road trip the same as any ICE vehicle. I've personally driven one across the country. Supercharging along the way now takes the same amount of time as any normal stop for gas. EVs are already better than a 100% solution because electricity is far cheaper than gas and you can fill up at home.

new_realist 6y ago
I’ve owned three Teslas and I can tell you that road tripping isn’t at all as convenient in a Tesla as an ICE.
- rootusrootus 6y ago
  I agree, though I'd concede that we enjoy taking the Tesla on road trips because our kids are young. Stopping at the McDonalds next to the supercharger for a restroom break, sometimes lunch, or a romp in the play area for half an hour works really well for us. If our definition of roadtripping was drive-pee-drive-pee-drive-pee-drive with no real rest stops, it would definitely be faster to take our pickup (the only gas vehicle we have left).
BobbyJo 6y ago
I can tell you quite definitively that a tesla with the maximum range possible will still not be able to get you to and from a great deal of small cities and camp grounds in the US, especially if you live outside California.
drewg123 6y ago
Maybe a Tesla can make a trip in the same time as an ICE, but only if you normally stop frequently. I'm a "drive straight thru" kind of person, and road trips in my Telsa frustrate me. A few times a year, I make a ~950mi drive in my 2017 MX 100D (~295mi rated, ~220 maybe at 75 mph). In an ICE car its 13.5 hours of driving, and about 4.5 hours of charging. I frequently find myself wishing I owned an ICE car when I'm on the trip. Especially when the weather is cold, and I'm debating the range impact of turning the heat on vs 12 more hours of not being able to feel my toes. Or when the supercharger is busy and it ends up taking 2x as long to get from 5% to 45% because I'm sharing... or the anxiety of trying to make it one more charger to be able to save time by charging 2% -> 55% rather than 12% -> 65% (to avoid charging past the taper..) I'm hoping the new models coming with 500 or 600 miles of range improve this. I'd probably only need to charge 3 times.

ogre_codes 6y ago

If you can afford a Tesla, renting a car for 1 week a year isn't a big burden.

BobbyJo 6y ago
Yet another reason EVs aren't the dominant market yet.
- ogre_codes 6y ago
  Likely the single biggest reason.
  - mypalmike 6y ago
    I'd suspect the fact that not everyone has a convenient place to plug in overnight would be a pretty major factor. A good percentage of city dwellers in particular park their cars on the street, away from their home.

hakfoo 6y ago

I'm surprised nobody does a product that's an EV lease plus some prepaid credit every month for a rental service, so for the one day a month you need a conventional petrol car, it's already budgeted for. Hell, you could generalize it to small petrol cars too. I suspect most of us "overbuy" larger and more capable vehicles for the one day a month we need something bigger than a Mirage.