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Originally Posted by darcane
1) There is a much larger disruption to your daily routine when your EV battery is drained vs your phone. Phone can be plugged into a charger nearly anywhere and almost immediately be returned to service. Charging your car in a random location can be a challenge and you must wait for a sufficient charge to be able to use it.
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I see the current EV situation as similar to the smart phone transition.
Before smart phones people were often seen running around in distress because their mobile had died. And as most people did, they had left their charger at home.
Then began the frantic race around the office looking for somebody with the same brand (and sometimes model) of phone so they can charge their phone. "Do you have a Nokia, no it's a Samsung, how about you, your phone looks like mine, oh you left your charger at home too."
Then when they did find a charger they were then tethered to the desk because the charger barely added enough power to supply the current call. The mobile phone became very immobile
That's in an office situation with ready access to power points and a degree of security. Spend some time at the airport and see the crazy goings on driven by mobile phone flat batteries. People searching around the lounges looking for a power point to grab some power to resurrect their phone. Then unable to even go to the toilet because they can't leave their phone unguarded. Leaving it to the last minute to board their flight to try and maximise the amount of charge they get and risk missing the flight.
By comparison, EV charging is much less stressful. Plug it in, lock the doors and go and have a coffee, maybe make a few phone calls, go to the toilet. Come back rested, relieved and revitalised, ready to continue the journey.
Once everybody starts doing this it won't seem a hassle but rather just what you do.
People will look back at the experience of a 6 hour non-stop car trip with bewilderment. Why would you torture yourself like that, why would you miss out on the best bit of the trip. The recharge points. Where businesses, seeing a captive audience, created an experience designed to draw the commuter in (whilst artfully emptying their wallets of course).
Quote:
Originally Posted by darcane
2) Smart phones have remarkable features that dumb phones can't compete with. I don't see that happening with EVs. Most features added to an EV can be added to a conventional car. A few things EVs are better at, but in general, EVs have reduced functionality (such as shorter range) but higher up front cost. Unless we have artificial incentives to encourage EV adoption, I think it will take a long time, if ever, for EVs to make up a significant market share. That said... our government is already adding artificial incentives, so maybe they would continue adding more.
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The EV has many features that would be hard for a dino-burner to match. Here's a couple.
It's silence, both inside the cabin and out. As more and more motorways are created, as more and more housing is built closer and closer to those motorways i think the silent nature of EVs will be a big selling point. There may even be routes through highly populated areas where gas driven vehicles are restricted from operating during night time hours. Gas powered vehicles will be forced onto bypass routes just like heavy transport currently does.
Low ongoing costs, servicing, maintenance, etc.
Some people will point to the cost of eventual battery replacement but those batteries will not cost anything like what their price is today. Remember early mobile phones where an extra battery cost almost as much as the phone (another reason why people ran out of charge). Whereas now $10 gets you a replacement battery for your $500 phone. EVs will benefit from the same economies of scale.