Quote:
Originally Posted by Martinjlm
Your point is solid. The (3) biggest hurdles to EV adoption are - Price
- Range
- Infrastructure
Anything else is talking way above the customer’s head. Range is the easiest one to deal with. There are two approaches. Actually sort of a blending of both approaches. You can make batteries more efficient, which has happened and continues to improve or you can add battery capacity which is also being done. When you look at where battery technology has come in just 15 short years from when EVs had sub 100 mile ranges had 85 mph top speeds and would barely clip a turtle in the quarter mile. Today we have groupings of vehicles with 250, 300+, 400+ and even a couple 500 mile range vehicles. We have sub-3.0 second 0-60 and sub 10-second quarter miles and close to 200 mph top speeds. And there is a lot of room for even more improvement.
Infrastructure is getting a boost from federal funding pushed out to the states for implementation. The 50 highway miles between DC fast charger installations is a federal guideline that states are funded to implement. Some states are moving faster on this than others. The shift by almost every EV manufacturer to use the Tesla NACS system starting in 2025 automatically opens up thousands of reliable charging stations coast to coast for most EV drivers.
Price…the final frontier. This is where they separate the men from the boys so to speak. Tesla has such a huge head start it has to be looked at as Tesla’s price position and everyone else’s price position. Early on Tesla bled money. Lost tens of thousands of dollars on every vehicle sold. That’s way behind in their rearview now and they are pretty much printing money. Everyone else, including the big legacy OEMs like Ford and GM are still in the bleed money phase of the product cycle. Today Tesla has actually achieved parity with ICE vehicles. This is what I posted a couple pages back relative to the drop in prices on used Teslas…
Tesla is dropping these prices because they can. Period. Model 3 and Model Y are cost competitive BEFORE incentive with similarly equipped ICE vehicles. When we bought our Model Y I priced a comparably equipped Chevrolet Blazer RS AWD. To be comparably equipped that meant the Blazer had to have AWD, Adaptive Cruise, panoramic sunroof, front and rear heated seats, 20” black wheels, rear cargo cover. Price for the Blazer was $52,810. Price for the Model Y was $52,790. And I might even qualify for the $7,500 incentive. That is price parity. |
Range is less of the issue now.
Even charging the ID4 to 80% results in 245 miles which about when I had to fill up my LaCrosse. It had a small tank. It's the "perception" that it's a problem is the problem.
Most EVs from GM are 300 plus miles for range now. Only the Nissan Leaf is under 200 that I know of.
So while I agree, the actual issue isn't range by itself, as even 200 miles would be much less of an issue if you could a) find easy public charging that b) didn't take 30 minutes. I am 10 minutes from a charger that can give me 100 miles range in 30 minutes. That's a Level 3 DC charger. Home charging makes it a no brainer.
And your parity comparison is spot on. The issue is GM hasn't reached parity within its own products. Lyriq is $15,000 more than an XT5. Blazer EV? At least $10,000 over a comparable Blazer. Probably not completely accurate but close. When it's a "free" choice then we'll see.