4 ms·

Oh really? The current gasoline price in Germany is around 1.588 Euro per liter which is 6.01 Euro per gallon (stupid imperial unit) or glorious 8,57 Dollar. S

by ralfd 15y ago

Oh really? The current gasoline price in Germany is around 1.588 Euro per liter which is 6.01 Euro per gallon (stupid imperial unit) or glorious 8,57 Dollar. Still no electric cars.

Legion 15y ago
Different culture. Different daily life transportation realities.
- roel_v 15y ago
  This is claimed very often. I did some very basic research here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2766844 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2766844 (in a related discussion). In short, I don't see a substantial reason to believe that Americans drive all that more than Europeans do, and certainly not enough to say that the US switch to electric would happen significantly below the current gas price in Europe. (there may be other factors - Americans' general tendency to go to technological solutions earlier than others, other interests that will drive development/adoption of non-petrol powered cars, ...)
  - Jabbles 15y ago
    This supports your view: http://www.bsfrey.ch/articles/456_07.pdf http://www.bsfrey.ch/articles/456_07.pdf Suggests that the the average US commute time is comparable to Germany's (48 vs 42 minutes). Germany's time has an SD of 19 minutes.
  - petercooper 15y ago
    Along similar lines: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2765874 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2765874
  - Legion 15y ago
    You're only thinking of cars, and only comparing car use. You're neglecting things like the fact that plenty of people who might be car commuters in the US would statistically be public transit users in Germany. So, fuel cost pressures that would turn a German to public transit couldn't do the same for an American who lacks similar access to public transit. Hence the potential for the American's increased desire for fixing the problem at the automobile level. Whether it's true or not, I can't say. I am only commenting that comparing car commute times between the two countries doesn't really begin to address the question.
ableal 15y ago
The press has been drumming it up for the Opel Ampera (european badge of the Chevy Volt), but I don't think they're being delivered yet. My local Opel site has a configurator (mostly paint job ;-) with prices (over 40k euro). Bumped into an interesting tidbit: an official blog post claiming 80% energy recuperation in the regenerative braking system http://opel-ampera.com/wp_en/2011/07/21/maximal-recuperation/ http://opel-ampera.com/wp_en/2011/07/21/maximal-recuperation... The other posts in the blog indicate that it's in the "presentation to the press" stage this month.
kayoone 15y ago
yeah, wanted to write exactly that. US citizen cry about gasoline prices while most europeans already pay around $8 per gallon. Different driving habits ? Different studies show thats not true (posted in the comments here as well) Still i dont see electric cars becoming mainstream in the near future
- felipemnoa 15y ago
  I guess that is the main difference. US citizens are not willing to pay for more than 4 dollars and will start looking for ways to decrease that. You guys are already accustomed to $8 somehow. It really is a lot of money, don't know how you can afford it.
  - kayoone 15y ago
    Its not that we are willing to pay that either, but we just dont have much choice as most electric cars arent capable of decent ranges yet and/or cost huge amounts of money for not alot of car.
rajpaul 15y ago
In the part of Canada I live in it's $1.33/liter, which is $5.00/gallon. I don't see a rush to buy electric cars here. But smaller cars are more popular in Canada compared to the USA. For example, smart fortwo was introduced in Canada four years before it came to the USA. It's rare a product comes to Canada before the USA. Americans don't have to go from gas to electric. They can go from gas guzzler to gas sipper.

by ralfd 15y ago

Oh really? The current gasoline price in Germany is around 1.588 Euro per liter which is 6.01 Euro per gallon (stupid imperial unit) or glorious 8,57 Dollar. Still no electric cars.

Legion 15y ago

Different culture. Different daily life transportation realities.

roel_v 15y ago
This is claimed very often. I did some very basic research here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2766844 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2766844 (in a related discussion). In short, I don't see a substantial reason to believe that Americans drive all that more than Europeans do, and certainly not enough to say that the US switch to electric would happen significantly below the current gas price in Europe. (there may be other factors - Americans' general tendency to go to technological solutions earlier than others, other interests that will drive development/adoption of non-petrol powered cars, ...)
- Jabbles 15y ago
  This supports your view: http://www.bsfrey.ch/articles/456_07.pdf http://www.bsfrey.ch/articles/456_07.pdf Suggests that the the average US commute time is comparable to Germany's (48 vs 42 minutes). Germany's time has an SD of 19 minutes.
- petercooper 15y ago
  Along similar lines: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2765874 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2765874
- Legion 15y ago
  You're only thinking of cars, and only comparing car use. You're neglecting things like the fact that plenty of people who might be car commuters in the US would statistically be public transit users in Germany. So, fuel cost pressures that would turn a German to public transit couldn't do the same for an American who lacks similar access to public transit. Hence the potential for the American's increased desire for fixing the problem at the automobile level. Whether it's true or not, I can't say. I am only commenting that comparing car commute times between the two countries doesn't really begin to address the question.

ableal 15y ago

The press has been drumming it up for the Opel Ampera (european badge of the Chevy Volt), but I don't think they're being delivered yet. My local Opel site has a configurator (mostly paint job ;-) with prices (over 40k euro). Bumped into an interesting tidbit: an official blog post claiming 80% energy recuperation in the regenerative braking system http://opel-ampera.com/wp_en/2011/07/21/maximal-recuperation/ http://opel-ampera.com/wp_en/2011/07/21/maximal-recuperation... The other posts in the blog indicate that it's in the "presentation to the press" stage this month.

kayoone 15y ago

yeah, wanted to write exactly that. US citizen cry about gasoline prices while most europeans already pay around $8 per gallon. Different driving habits ? Different studies show thats not true (posted in the comments here as well) Still i dont see electric cars becoming mainstream in the near future

felipemnoa 15y ago
I guess that is the main difference. US citizens are not willing to pay for more than 4 dollars and will start looking for ways to decrease that. You guys are already accustomed to $8 somehow. It really is a lot of money, don't know how you can afford it.
- kayoone 15y ago
  Its not that we are willing to pay that either, but we just dont have much choice as most electric cars arent capable of decent ranges yet and/or cost huge amounts of money for not alot of car.

rajpaul 15y ago

In the part of Canada I live in it's $1.33/liter, which is $5.00/gallon. I don't see a rush to buy electric cars here. But smaller cars are more popular in Canada compared to the USA. For example, smart fortwo was introduced in Canada four years before it came to the USA. It's rare a product comes to Canada before the USA. Americans don't have to go from gas to electric. They can go from gas guzzler to gas sipper.