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I know the article is related to energy costs but: If for decades people have shown to pay £X for private travel in a car, why would business charge less than

I know the article is related to energy costs but: If for decades people have shown to pay £X for private travel in a car, why would business charge less than X? Governments will temporarily provide incentives etc because it’s greener but the biggest costs of EV are in the hands of private enterprise (purchase/lease, electricity suppliers, maintenance shops) and they’ll extract maximum profit. Anyone who thinks in the long term that EVs will cost a fraction of ICE are a bit naive imo

beachy 4y ago
> If for decades people have shown to pay £X for private travel in a car, why would business charge less than X? Because of the invisible hand of the market, thanks to the magic of competition.
- lm28469 4y ago
  We forced the national electricity provider to open up to "competition" in France and it now is more expensive than ever. "Competition" isn't always a good thing If you don't believe in god you shouldn't believe in the magic hand of the market, because it essentially is the same thing
  - beachy 4y ago
    Just speculating but perhaps true competition wasn't introduced? Are there 3 or 4 genuine competitors, who aren't just retail frontages for the same back end company? (that's the way telcos and power companies here can be structured).
Noumenon72 4y ago
For decades people paid 2 cents for a nail[1]. Why do nails cost 0.5 cents now? Because once you figure out a way to make them cheaper than 2 cents, you can make more profit by charging less -- you take market share away from producers who can't go under two cents. This is a steady process that has been going on for centuries in all kinds of different products. If it doesn't happen with EVs, it will be because government intervened to stop it. [1] - https://conversableeconomist.blogspot.com/2012/04/price-of-nails.html https://conversableeconomist.blogspot.com/2012/04/price-of-n...
- switch007 4y ago
  > If it doesn't happen with EVs, it will be because government intervened to stop it. Actually I think you're right. It'll be greedy governments and naive interventions. Which I'd be somewhat in favour of - because mass transit should be the focus of government transport departments and a mode of transport that they strongly encourage.
- fyvhbhn 4y ago
  Or it won't, because electricity generation is not free and we acted as if energy from fossil fuels is endless and doesn't have any side effects. There's a limit on how cheap things can get.

beachy 4y ago

> If for decades people have shown to pay £X for private travel in a car, why would business charge less than X? Because of the invisible hand of the market, thanks to the magic of competition.

lm28469 4y ago
We forced the national electricity provider to open up to "competition" in France and it now is more expensive than ever. "Competition" isn't always a good thing If you don't believe in god you shouldn't believe in the magic hand of the market, because it essentially is the same thing
- beachy 4y ago
  Just speculating but perhaps true competition wasn't introduced? Are there 3 or 4 genuine competitors, who aren't just retail frontages for the same back end company? (that's the way telcos and power companies here can be structured).

Noumenon72 4y ago

For decades people paid 2 cents for a nail[1]. Why do nails cost 0.5 cents now? Because once you figure out a way to make them cheaper than 2 cents, you can make more profit by charging less -- you take market share away from producers who can't go under two cents. This is a steady process that has been going on for centuries in all kinds of different products. If it doesn't happen with EVs, it will be because government intervened to stop it. [1] - https://conversableeconomist.blogspot.com/2012/04/price-of-nails.html https://conversableeconomist.blogspot.com/2012/04/price-of-n...

switch007 4y ago
> If it doesn't happen with EVs, it will be because government intervened to stop it. Actually I think you're right. It'll be greedy governments and naive interventions. Which I'd be somewhat in favour of - because mass transit should be the focus of government transport departments and a mode of transport that they strongly encourage.
fyvhbhn 4y ago
Or it won't, because electricity generation is not free and we acted as if energy from fossil fuels is endless and doesn't have any side effects. There's a limit on how cheap things can get.