The question is rather simple. I'm quite sure myself that my next/first car will be electric. As a student, I simply can't afford to pay for gas now and especially not in the near future with gas prices constantly rising. I like the idea of being able to sustain your transportation needs from your local AC-outlet, and I'm really excited about the benefits that electric engines bring to sports cars.
I know that for a lot of people an electric car is not an option because of the high price of adoption and limited range for those who need to commute hundreds of miles every day. But are there other reasons for people not wanting to go electric?
If the price was lower. Right now unless money isn't an issue they just aren't worth it. I'm confident this will improve over time however as gas becomes increasingly expensive.
If the price was lower. The future is here and it costs an arm and a leg.
This is completely valid. However we are seeing prices come down in the high-end. For example, a 2013 BMW M5 costs more than a signature-spec Tesla Model S. I will likely not buy a car in the next two to four years, and by then I hope that the price of electric hatchbacks will have come down considerably.
I can't see myself getting one anytime soon. I don't have anything against them but I'm 7' tall and 400lbs so I just don't fit in cars. Until electric trucks come around, which I imagine will be quite a long time to come, I'm pretty much sticking to gas-powered.
I'm 24 and just got my license. I live in an urban area and the furthest I'd have to travel to see family is either 240km or a flight across the continent. The nearest urban area to visit is at least a day by road and ferry, so a flight is far more likely if I'm going there. I see no reason for me to ever buy a gas powered car in this day and age. A diesel truck maybe, but not a car.
I think electric cars are more of a status symbol than they are effective. The whole green bullshit initiative. Just like recycling anything other than aluminum (aluminium) and glass (glassuminium), it cost more in energy than reusing old stocks would. Electric cars still need electricity to run and until you can charge your car off of solar panels, wind mill and hydro power plants then you're still using coal/nuclear to charge your car and probably having more of a "carbon footprint" than otherwise.
If you really want to be energy efficient, then don't buy new products, don't wash your clothes every day, don't leave any lights/electronics on that you're not using, consolidate all your errands into one trip, etc. Don't be like my sister and want a Prius to be energy efficient but drive 30 miles to and from the tea shop and leave the house with all the lights and TV on.
No, I hate electric cars and wouldn't even buy them if they were free
Why?
@Jams said:
I think electric cars are more of a status symbol than effective. The whole green bullshit initiative. Just like recycling anything other than aluminum (aluminium) and glass (glassuminium), electric cars still need electricity to run and until you can charge your car off of solar panels, wind mill and hydro power plants then you're still using coal/nuclear to charge your car and probably having more of a "carbon footprint" than otherwise.
It is true that in most parts of the world our electricity is still produced from coal and nuclear power. However we will run out of oil in the not too distant future. Biodiesel might be a solution, if it didn't mean turning food into fuel in a world which is starting to struggle from worse and worse food shortages. Furthermore, only about 15-25% of the gas you put into your car goes into moving the thing and the things within it. A vast majority of the energy is dissipated through heat, sound and unnecessary motion. Modern electric cars manage to transfer around 60% of the electricity that comes out of the socket into movement. In addition, large power plants are much more efficient at producing power than the small combustion engines found in automobiles.
So is E still a yes? If so, then that. It has nothing to do with my carbon footprint or a bullshit symbol of status, and everything to do with the cost of gas.
So is E still a yes? If so, then that. It has nothing to do with my carbon footprint or a bullshit symbol of status, and everything to do with the cost of gas.
So you could afford a $350/m payment, higher insurance for a new car and probably higher DMV fees but not a tank of gas? Apologies if you're European, it's probably different there. But here in m'urica, if you buy a $60,000 car then you're in for at least 5 years of something like $350 a month payments and higher insurance on top of that (unless you're some kind of money saving machine and bought it straight cash). Or you can get a fuel efficient used car payed for what a down payment on that new electric would cost. You'd have lower insurance and DMV fees to boot.
Edit: I work in the auto body repair business and if you wreck an electric, there's a really good chance it'll total out easier than a non electric. If it doesn't total out, then the parts are always higher costing along with import cars like Mercedes, etc.
The problem with electric vehicles is that they're actually far worse to make than combustion engine vehicles. Also unless you setup your own alternative energy source to charge them, you'll be powering it from coal power plants, which are even worse than what a modern car outputs through the exhaust.
At the moment electric cars are nothing more than a fashion accessory.
When they can get over 400 miles on a charge, I may be interested. They'd also have to have a battery exchange or super quick charge, so I could "fill" the battery in around the same time as gas fill. I have no need desire to switch to tech that will inconvenience me.
Electric cars still need electricity to run and until you can charge your car off of solar panels, wind mill and hydro power plants then you're still using coal/nuclear to charge your car and probably having more of a "carbon footprint" than otherwise.
As for the topic, the next car I buy is going to be electric. I don't plan on buying a car until I'm done with university and have paid off my student loans, though, and that's ~5+ years away. By that time, gas prices will be so absurd, regular cars will be less economically viable than electric vehicles.
My wife and I live 90% of my week within 5 miles of our house and only drive about every 3rd day or so. We're definitely looking at our next car being electric but it'd still be a second car to replace her Beetle. We still have my FJ for long trips and camping, etc.
Hoping that I can rely on public transportation for the entirety of my life, but electric cars seem like something that would be cool in about thirty years.
Electric cars still need electricity to run and until you can charge your car off of solar panels, wind mill and hydro power plants then you're still using coal/nuclear to charge your car and probably having more of a "carbon footprint" than otherwise.
As for the topic, the next car I buy is going to be electric. I don't plan on buying a car until I'm done with university and have paid off my student loans, though, and that's ~5+ years away. By that time, gas prices will be so absurd, regular cars will be less economically viable than electric vehicles.
I've noticed a lot of people giving Nuclear Energy a bad rap the past few years. I don't see why, it's one of the best energy sources we have available right now, especially with the advent of Thorium reactors or whatever they are called.
I think electric cars are more of a status symbol than they are effective. The whole green bullshit initiative. Just like recycling anything other than aluminum (aluminium) and glass (glassuminium), it cost more in energy than reusing old stocks would. Electric cars still need electricity to run and until you can charge your car off of solar panels, wind mill and hydro power plants then you're still using coal/nuclear to charge your car and probably having more of a "carbon footprint" than otherwise.
If you really want to be energy efficient, then don't buy new products, don't wash your clothes every day, don't leave any lights/electronics on that you're not using, consolidate all your errands into one trip, etc. Don't be like my sister and want a Prius to be energy efficient but drive 30 miles to and from the tea shop and leave the house with all the lights and TV on.
Yup, good point. The general infrastructure is really the thing keeping electric cars from being truly effective and "green." In the (hopefully near) future, though, when solar panel technology is vastly more efficient in a smaller package, an electric car that charges itself from a combination of a solar panel roof, wind-powered fan system, and friction from brakes could be extremely feasible and effective.
Where do you see me talking like they're currently more cost effective than the standard guzzlers out there? I'm just talking about the obvious inevitability. There will be a point not too far in the future where only the one-percenters will be able to afford the old style combustion engines.
edit: Also I used the word gas instead of petrol. I think it's safe to assume I'm a Merkin.
i just don't like the style the cars are shown. if they made them look like a regular car than maybe i would think about getting one. they just look ugly and they're big. i like small cars because i'm a small person.
I have a relatively long daily commute so sometimes an electric car wouldn't cut it (there are some plug-in stations here and there however.) maybe something like a plug-in hybrid.
The quicker everyone starts embracing electricity for cars the quicker we don't have to invade countries to 'protect themselves against each other' to exploit their oil. I seriously don't get how the answer is here but so unimplemented that its pretty impossible to take part in.
The quicker everyone starts embracing electricity for cars the quicker we don't have to invade countries to 'protect themselves against each other' to exploit their oil. I seriously don't get how the answer is here but so unimplemented that its pretty impossible to take part in.
Oh, I'll tell you how. The biggest, most powerful, profitable, and influential exercise in currency accruement in humanity's history: oil companies. Heck, there's an entire country whose sole source of vast wealth and success is based completely on oil. But we'll run out of this limited, finite resource soon enough and be forced to scramble for an alternative, so don't worry, or do, and fear for the future.
I'm not sure the whole, electric cars are still bad because the electricity you use to charge them comes from coal, argument works very well outside of the US. I'm not sure about other countries, but in Canada at least, about 60% of our power comes from hydroelectricity. In some provinces, BC and Quebec (maybe more), it's closer to 90%. Perhaps we're an anomaly, I'm really not sure, but it seems that here at least it makes environmental sense.
I personally wouldn't buy one until they get to be the same price as a regular car. Maybe someday I'll be in the market for a luxury car, but as a graduate student (who can't even afford a regular car), I really don't have the money to spend $50,000 on a car. I love the idea of electric, but it just doesn't make economic sense yet.
I won't be all that interested in electric cars until they are more or less self-sufficient and/or I live somewhere that has adopted charging stations outside of my own home
My next car probably won't be electric but I would hope that at some point, we're all driving electric cars (or some other form of energy that isn't gas).
My option isn't in the poll. I don't hate electric cars I hate the culture that surrounds them. The biggest problem I have with electric cars themselves is the limited range and the fact that most have been fairly boring to drive (minus the Tesla and a few others). So a bigger range would help. But more fun driving mechanics would be just as important. Plus, I would have a hard time associating myself with the people who most often buy them.
The quicker everyone starts embracing electricity for cars the quicker we don't have to invade countries to 'protect themselves against each other' to exploit their oil. I seriously don't get how the answer is here but so unimplemented that its pretty impossible to take part in.
Oh, I'll tell you how. The biggest, most powerful, profitable, and influential exercise in currency accruement in humanity's history: oil companies. Heck, there's an entire country whose sole source of vast wealth and success is based completely on oil. But we'll run out of this limited, finite resource soon enough and be forced to scramble for an alternative, so don't worry, or do, and fear for the future.
Well I know the renewable resource will win out eventually, its just how long that'll take which bothers me. Anyone seen Looper? I want solar panels on cars, bish bash bosh, done. I go back home to Ireland four times a year and near me they have about eight wind turbines and those turbines power the neighbouring villages around and any over the people with turbines in their fields get paid for suppling, the system works. Let's just cut all the oil companies off at the legs and say we don't need it anymore. If I was really that pro active I could apply to have solar panels on my house and fill an electric car through that but still, I take public transport anyway :D
I'd buy an electric car only If it acted exactly like a normal petrol car except quieter.Sure the future isn't in electric cars anyway it's in Hydrogen powered cars .Hydrogen cars only produce water, they work like normal cars ,they are being made today ,they already have filling station in a few places and Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe .it's just hard to produce on a big scale but that will be figured out soon enough I think .
@Jams: "E. My next car won't be electric." Where do you see me talking like they're currently more cost effective than the standard guzzlers out there? I'm just talking about the obvious inevitability. There will be a point not too far in the future where only the one-percenters will be able to afford the old style combustion engines. edit: Also I used the word gas instead of petrol. I think it's safe to assume I'm a Merkin.
I wanted to know if you'd pick higher car payments over paying more for gas. I don't think things are going to change as soon as people think. Everyone probably thought we'd have hover cars by now, but we drive the same old cars they did since the 20's. Only difference is you get to plug in your iphone now.
No, I hate electric cars and wouldn't even buy them if they were free
You wouldn't be buying it if it was free.
I recently bought a gas power car, but I am pretty sure by the time I need a new car electric cars will be pretty common. So I think my next car will be electric or at least a hybrid.
I work for several dealerships and the mechanics (and managers for that matter) at all of them universally agree that both the all-electric and hybrid vehicles they work on are pieces of shit. And you still have to pay to charge the things. And charging them still burns oil, only in a much less efficient way due to the substantial amount of energy loss from power traveling long distances over the grid. Ultimately, you're paying way more for a vehicle that is kind of crappy so that you can feel better about yourself even though it doesn't really provide that much of a reason for you to feel better about yourself. You're better off getting a conventional vehicle that is very fuel-efficient.
If the price was lower, from what I remember reading the new models can pull out like 200 miles, which is more than enough for like 99% of trips I would do.
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