Featured Letter to Biden from 4,000 US car dealers: Slow BEV production and distribution

Studs destroy the asphalt. Seriously - between freeze expansion & studs you ought to see how gnarly much of roads are in MT.

 

True. But here in Colorado they just pour more funds into the roads. Snow plows and tire chains also kill roads. But I'd rather kill a road than a family.

Not that studless winter tires haven't come a long way. But on glare ice there isn't a replacment for tire studs.

 

As with many manufacturing industries - greater choices often brings lower prices. Look how much less expensive & safer our newer battery tech is. And as for the liars of gas car builders - the stats show that the EV Market continues to grow, despite them saying otherwise;
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/global-electric-car-sales-rose-31-2023-rho-motion-2024-01-11/

[QUOTE ]".... global EV sales last year were largely in line with the 30% growth Rho Motion had forecast. For 2024, the firm forecasts global EV sales growth of between 25% and 30% ......"[/QUOTE]
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The question isn't whether or not a person can travel around the world, the question is whether or not if they can do it in 80 days.

I'm still in the neutral zone here as I have no idea how quickly or by how much the EV take over will actually happen.

For an example, my current car is a Toyota Avalon hybrid now with about 150k miles. In another 5 years I'll have about 250k miles. Will the Avalon still be running strong then or will I drive it another 5 years and hit $350k miles? By that time will I be able to buy an EV? I'm open to the idea, but I'm also aware that the market may still not be there by then. I thought by now we'd be seing a lot more EV's including affordable econo models, but so far EV's are still a small portion of cars being sold, and econo cars are not becoming more plentiful but rather they are disappearing entirely.

I guess the good news is that used EV's are again starting to depreciate rapidly. This could be good news for us used car buyers.

My concerns are:

• Most manufacturer's haven't been able to make EV's profitable even with luxury car prices. Even if they make those cars profitable, how are they supposed to make cheaper, econo cars possible? How long with it actually take to get these cheaper EV's in the USA?
• Without any ICE or EV econo models in the USA I predict this will cause used car prices to increase across the board. People with $20,000 or less for a car will have no option except to buy used. This could keep used EV car prices high too.
• Assuming we do get economy priced EV's, will they be worth the price or will the range, charging rates and longevity greatly suffer? At least with an economy ICE it can still go as far as a luxury ICE and fuel up in the same amount of time, with longevity being the only concern, if that.
• Insurance prices keep going up, and EV's seem to make it go up even more. So while I should be able to save about $100 per month on fuel by driving a Tesla Model Y, according to many quotes I did the Model Y would be some $70 more per month to insure, making the fuel savings not as great.
• Repair costs have me concerned too. If insurance costs more, then that indicates that repairing the car for things that insurance doesn't cover will cost more when it becomes necessary.
• Having a place to charge still has me concerned too, as I'm a renter and finding a place to rent has become extremely difficult. Dragging an extension cord across an apartment building parking lot doesn't sound like fun.