How can people not afford an EV, but can afford gas

[JetFalcon]

I'm just wondering with numbers. Those who claim who are poor and can't afford an EV or Tesla, how do they still afford gas?

I remember the guy who hit my Tesla Model 3, he kept talking about how he was in debt, has to pay a divorced wife. To the point he is pawning off stuff just to pay for gas. Just seems dumb to pawn stuff off, you should have just not bought that thing and used it towards gas, thus having more gas than less gas for the same money. I feel at some point, someone who buys a cheap $2000-5000 car could have bought a used Tesla Model 3 and come out ahead after driving 10k-20k miles.

I think it's approximately $20 to fully charge a Tesla Model 3 from around 0 to 100 percent in CA during off peak hours. 75kwh * 27 cents = $20.25

And if someone can't afford a nice car, how they afford gas? Like if you buy a $1000 car, after about 15 full tanks in CA, you pay more for gas than your cars worth.

I don't know the numbers, but what is the very minimum a person needs to be making at a job or how much must they have in their bank account to barely afford the cheapest used EV or Tesla possible? Will the cheap consumer Model 2 help out with people financially struggling?

People keep saying cost is what keeping some people away from EV. But I feel those who are still buying entry level BMW or Mercedes can definitely could have gone with an EV or Tesla instead.

 

[Gasaraki]

I feel ya. I see people with $50,000+ pickup trucks and they complaining about being poor. I'm sorry, if you're broke or poor, you should be selling that pickup truck and driving a sentra.

 

[linux-works]

repairs on a tesla are still something that will NOT be pleasant to the masses. they are not fanboys and wont put up with the 'post sales tesla experience'.

cost of repairs and parts is insane for tesla. and many places won't even touch any tesla repair work.

you can't just get a quick charge cheaply if you dont own a house. supercharging isn't THAT much cheaper than gas and its a huge time sink for those who work by the hour and cant afford to sit there and wait for a charge.

those who are blue collar also wont likely have 'free charging' at work like many white collar jobs have.

its just not ready and not time yet for the masses to jump over to electric. as much as we'd like to see it, so many things are just not there yet.

folks on a tight budget would not - and should not - put up with the rat race that is tesla-service. weeks and months without a car, waiting for parts or service? showstopper. 100% showstopper.

I dont recommend teslas to anyone but fanboys and those that can afford lots of downtime. its a select group and its NOT ready for prime time yet.

long long way to go. mostly on the service side, to be honest. but home charging for apartment dwellers (like me) is a PITA and when my 2 years of free SCing run out, I'm without a good solution, myself.

annual maintenance is likely going to be less for the tesla, but $deity help you if you get into an accident and need parts that are not in stock. and if you dont have a lot of shops that will do tesla work, its also a major demotivator.

if we can ever get to the point where even apartment people can do overnight charging, THEN it will be ready for the masses. but not until then. not everyone is a home owner and not everyone has free destination/work charging.

 

[Gasaraki]

repairs on a tesla are still something that will NOT be pleasant to the masses. they are not fanboys and wont put up with the 'post sales tesla experience'.

cost of repairs and parts is insane for tesla. and many places won't even touch any tesla repair work.

you can't just get a quick charge cheaply if you dont own a house. supercharging isn't THAT much cheaper than gas and its a huge time sink for those who work by the hour and cant afford to sit there and wait for a charge.

those who are blue collar also wont likely have 'free charging' at work like many white collar jobs have.

its just not ready and not time yet for the masses to jump over to electric. as much as we'd like to see it, so many things are just not there yet.

folks on a tight budget would not - and should not - put up with the rat race that is tesla-service. weeks and months without a car, waiting for parts or service? showstopper. 100% showstopper.

I dont recommend teslas to anyone but fanboys and those that can afford lots of downtime. its a select group and its NOT ready for prime time yet.

long long way to go. mostly on the service side, to be honest. but home charging for apartment dwellers (like me) is a PITA and when my 2 years of free SCing run out, I'm without a good solution, myself.

annual maintenance is likely going to be less for the tesla, but $deity help you if you get into an accident and need parts that are not in stock. and if you dont have a lot of shops that will do tesla work, its also a major demotivator.

if we can ever get to the point where even apartment people can do overnight charging, THEN it will be ready for the masses. but not until then. not everyone is a home owner and not everyone has free destination/work charging.

Yeah I wouldn't get a Tesla if you have a tight budget. A Leaf or Bolt would be a better choice if you want an EV.

 

[21EV]

I think the person with the $50,000 truck claiming to be poor might have a spending problem and not an income problem. Though that type of behavior is not confined to gas vehicle owners!

I also checked for the cheapest EVs available within 500 miles of (according to Autotrader) are older generation Nissan Leaf, Smart Fortwo, Ford Focus or the Mitsubishi i. These were all ones with less than 100 miles of range when new. As a result a used one with the original battery might not work for people trying to get to work, especially with apartment dwellers with limited access to their own charging.

I think the answer boils down to the lack of quality used options at affordable prices which will change over time and varying levels of charging infrastructure for these vehicles.

 

[linux-works]

I do hope that battery-swap makes a come-back in the US. its getting to be 'a thing' in china but US has resisted.

you dont have to worry about charging speed. you can properly charge the pack offline and when electricity is cheaper.

its at most 10 minutes (closer to 5, I think) to swap, so its more like a gas station wait duration, which is what its going to take to get mass acceptance.

if the pack swapping takes off, then buying a used older car that can take swappable packs is no longer a sticking point.

wish elon, with all his MONEY, would just revisit the idea. I know they tried it, for a short while, but they gave up too soon and for the wrong reasons.

I am also quite sure that sometime, in the next 20 years, we'll have standardized battery packs as choices. not every car will take them, probably; but a standard set of sizes that can be vendor-independant, THAT is also a necessary thing for mass acceptance to happen. and its not hard, its just that vendors dont want to give up what they think is competitive, but in reality, should not be. powering your load (transistor radio, whatever) should not depend on one vendor's 'battery'. when you think of it in the big picture, you have to agree that what we have now (car c2 has battery c2, etc) is not optimal for anyone BUT the vendor.

 

[jimm01]

There's the upfront cost and then there's total cost of ownership--that's why some recommend a carbon tax on fossil fuels. The issues is those the can least afford it will have the biggest burden.