This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
The overall technology of EV is better than ICE but that doesn't mean every EV is better than every ICE.
Cars may be better than horses but no horse ever exploded the way a Ford Pinto would.
Given that there was significant overlap between when cannons were introduced and horses were phased out of general warfare, I have no doubt that many unfortunate horses have in fact exploded.
I paid $6000 cash for my current car about eight years ago. I'm retired, so I only drive it about once a week. I've put less than 2000 miles per year on it. Also, no cameras, no screen, no phone app, no nothing I don't need or want.
There's no way I'm buying a $30,000 car, both because I couldn't afford it, and because what I have fits my needs perfectly.
So, are EVs "just better"? For some people, or maybe most, I imagine so. But, no, not for me, not unless the VW boss wants to give me one for free.
Apples and Oranges my firend.
You can also buy used ev's for less than $6k.
The arguement wasnt about price, its about what is a better vehicle for the average driver.
I love cars, and im mourning the death of the manual transmission. But i bought an EV for my daily. Its just a better daily use car. Less maintenance, lots of convenience, no extra cost in gass prices and technically faster than my toy car. It doesnt give me the driving experience i want, but grabbing takeout, or sitting in traffic, its just better.
It also has the added benefit of watching you all the time!
Not exclusive to EVs though
You can barely get an EV old enough not to do it, if at all. You can easily get an ICE old though though
But yes, it's all new cars.
If I could trade my current car for a feature similar EV for no more than a coupld of grand out of pocket, I would.
Home charging, silence, no gas payments, and instant torque control for a couple of grands? Sounds like a sweet deal.
Its ugly, but you can ger bmw i3's for less than 5K. If you just want a people mover..
I have no doubts about electric cars being nice or "the future", but the price of these things is still a problem.
A (reasonably) new one with the range I need (~400km+) costs way more than I care to spend. That is partly because batteries still cost too much, but also very much because they still have a tendancy to gatekeep larger range figures for use in luxury cars.
And getting older second hand is still too much a questionmark in terms of how much of a chance there be you'll end up having to fork over big for a new battery or motor and/or write it off prematurely.
Another problem is that I also have no way to charge it at home and would be fully at the mercy of public charging infrastructure. And generally speaking as a taller man, I feel some of them can also be quite lacking in terms of interior space.
Why do you need 400km+ range? Is this for a daily/weekly need or a once in a quarter holiday trip style need?
Can i work on it? It's it as serviceable as my Subaru? Are the parts as cheap? Cost of ownership seems to be a topic no one talks about.
People talk about that topic all the time.
The drive train generally doesn't need service. You don't have to change oil, you don't have to change transmission fluid, your transmission probably won't grind itself into metallic dust because the transmission is a single speed and it's certainly not a CVT. You don't have a timing belt to change, or a serpentine belt to change, or an air filter to change. You don't have to sweat an emissions problem, you don't have to worry about error codes about running too rich or too lean. You don't have to worry about your headgasket leaking. You don't have a bay of stuff heated to around water's boiling point for extended durations accelerating wear on various hoses. You aren't going to have a belt tensioner go south, the DC/DC converter is less likely to lose it than an alternator. You won't need to replace spark plugs, you aren't going to have a turbo that screws you over.
Instead of all of that, you have a pretty bullet proof drive train except that the battery will chemically wear, but even that seems to be not as bad as believed with battery management systems babying the batteries. The car almost certainly weighs too much, which will manifest in handling and tire wear.
And of course, there's gas v. electric. If (and sadly only if) you charge at home, an EV in my area is roughly like having a hybrid and $1.00/gallon gas. If you charge publicly... yeah that's priced really high.
So at one point, there will likely be a huge single expense for the battery. However, that is instead of frequent oil and air filter changes, occasional belt replacement, and a host of likely repairs that a gas car generally incurs over that sime time. One very big expense at once instead of tons of little expenses and a few big expenses.
If the initial cost of the vehicle were competitive, hands down the EV is going to be the right choice if you can charge at home. Trickier question in an apartment or renter's scenario.
That's ignoring the very common issues multiple models have where the coolant leaks into the motor and you need a new motor/transmission unit. You really have to do your research on the exact model you're buying.
And research battery pack repairability. New pack costs more than a used car, but in some, single cells can be replaced if needed. It's rarely every multiple cells that fail, but if a single one does, the battery is nearly useless.
Hmm discussed recently just on Lemmy here: https://news.mit.edu/2026/us-drivers-electric-vehicles-offer-emissions-benefits-cost-savings-0512
