I do agree electric is not for everyone, but some people can make use of them.
Pretty much everyone in the suburbs or multiple for most. Of course nearly every one of them can charge at home. Most apartment buildings in major cities will have less than half of the families owning even 1 vehicle. Manhattan was the lowest I've seen with just 22% of households owning vehicles. Looking at statewide numbers is misleading, as 1 car enthusiast can offset dozens of those car-less families. I can't remember a time we've had less than 4 vehicles in our household, doesn't change the fact that the people who live in the high rise apartments in San Fran simply don't own vehicles anymore. Even sf's ownership rate of 70% is not at all representative of people in high density housing as there are a bunch of houses around the city with garages and therefore easy vehicle ownership. I guarantee for those in apartments that number is below 40%.
I would argue that most people could Painlessly switch to a full EV right now. Almost every commuter I know drives less than 200mi/day and could easily charge their commuter car at home over night. Few people take 600+ mile road trips that would require multiple charge stops anymore and of those of us that do I’d bet it’s extremely rare that many do so more than a few times a year. We road-tripped my buddies model 3 from Fort Collins to CA and back and never had to charge for more than 22 minutes aside from the over night at the hotel. Most fuel stops take that long in reality if you aren’t 1 of those assholes that parks at the pump and then goes inside for snacks and to hit the restroom. 5 minutes fueling, park, go inside, before you know it you’ve been at the gas station a good 20 minutes anyway. Fast charging doesn’t take all that much longer and after 200-250 miles I relish getting out of the car for a bit anyway. If they build a wrangler EV with at least a 350 mile range I’ll trade the 2022 in no problem.
Registration data is misleading unless you're going to cross reference high density housing vs homes that could easily charge EVs in the garage or driveway somehow? Even my data doesn't paint that picture as it's for household vehicle ownership regardless of dwelling type. Of course when you have apartment buildings only required to provide 10% parking capacity or less per apartment depending on the city, even 40% vehicle ownership is going to create a parking nightmare and feel like "everyone" owns a vehicle.
This is very true, it's just people keep latching on to the extreme cases to justify why EVs are a no go.
Assumptions are made without validated data; that's doesn't pass the smell test outside of California. My group has one parking space (mix of outside lot and covered) for each unit. I know other buildings in my area are comparable (we have to compete). You are generalizing and focusing only on high rises which, surprise, is not a minor percentage of population residence in Chicago. I would suspect (only because I don;t have the data and am not a property owner there) SF is similar.
EDIT: (sorry not directed specifically to youBXFX) The extreme case is this: there is not enough power generation presently (15-20yrs to bring a new plant online) to power 1/3 of EVs charging simultaneously AND powering all the other things on the grid. There need to be 3x the powerplants at MINIMUM to handle the load and that is assuming the grid can handle it (another issue). This is not an extreme case. This is what engineers are sounding the alarm about. It's a technical issue. The infrastructure (powerplants) are needed and it takes many years to get them approved and built. It is MATH, not emotion and happy-feel-goodness.
I totally agree with everything you wrote with one small edit, I'd change 'most' in the first sentence to 'many'.
The union of concerned scientists disagrees with your take on grid capacity
If you read with comprehension, they all admit the grid and generation needs to be expanded and upgraded over several decades. Their words. We cannot "switch over" to all EVs in 10 years. Just do the math on current (no pun intended) total Twhr capability and current use. We are using 95% of what the generative capacity is at the present time.
The whole scheme is to get a lot of people to stop driving period, by a lot I mean most.If you read with comprehension, they all admit the grid and generation needs to be expanded and upgraded over several decades. Their words. We cannot "switch over" to all EVs in 10 years. Just do the math on current (no pun intended) total Twhr capability and current use. We are using 95% of what the generative capacity is at the present time.
Who is paying “rich” people $7,500 to buy EVs? Last I checked, it was a tax credit, not a tax rebate. Meaning you needed that much in tax liability to offset the credit. Plus, there is a $300k AGI cap. That severely limits the pool of “rich” people even getting the credit.
This. You'll get your full EV Wrangler with JM.
That $7,500 you actually owed the coffers, but your friendly government is kicking it back to grease your wheels, so you can pretend it's "your" money, someone in the exact same position as you buying a gas guzzler Wrangler without the
magic isn't getting that kickback.
