Electric cars should not be sold in Cold States?

I’m not sure how this post relates to mine about poor guardrail construction and maintenance. but yea, sure, cool story.

I see no small number of 2500+ class diesel trucks in the Dallas area with all sorts of bling - questionable levels of lift, conspicuous Fox shocks, off-road tires, rock lights, towing packages - that appear to have neither left pavement, nor towed, nor even hauled with anything approaching regularity. There’s a strong overlap between this demo and those that will recite the usual litany of reasons they hate EVs and their profound existential need to own a massive truck … whose actual use case is commuting to a work location transporting little more than themselves.

And yeah, for various reasons - including herculean spadework by marketers - that’s the state of the market: people want trucks for the cultural aesthetic and perceptions of safety with the underlying insinuations of rugged utility being used quite rarely. I say this as someone that previously owned a 4WD F150 that went meaningfully off road all of twice and made hauling runs of any substance perhaps two dozen times in the 5 years I owned it.

People are going to do what they’re going to do for reasons that make sense to them, and the rationale will not always make sense to others. The point of these discussions isn’t necessarily to persuade on the spot so much as ask people to think about and consider how things can be different in the future.

Heated seats are a common feature in EVs for this reason - considerably less energy required to conduct heat to the occupants vs warming cabin air.

Fast charging is intended to be for convenience and priced at a premium accordingly. As the biggest direct cost is electricity - likely bought on the spot market - it should come as no surprise that the price fluctuates daily if not hourly. Indirect costs include depreciation on expensive fast-charging equipment, property lease, maintenance.

The federal government makes a lot of long term R&D bets. Most miss. Some pay off - ala hydraulic fracturing got its start from DoE research going back to the the 1970s and took some 3 decades to mature into the new domestic fracking boom that we’re seeing today.

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Your post including the description of your son driving with the heat off reminded me of these quirky 3 wheel Zap cars from 2006-2008.
There was a dealership near Lititz PA that sold these road legal “Golf Carts in disguise”
Anyway they made a pickup truck version and I saw a guy driving one near me with a 7000w Gas Generator in the bed hooked up and running so he could get a few more than the advertised 40 mile range (Which was false) unless all 40 miles were downhill :slight_smile:

Needless to say these cars did not sell well at all and ended up in full recall in 2008 due to having Single master cylinder and undersize brakes.
Anyway here for your viewing pleasure is the Zap legacy;

If you enjoyed that then here is even earlier Golf Cart wannabe that had a dealer in South Williamsport, PA (Home of Little League World Series).
They had 3 on the lot and never sold one of them. Red, Blue and Yellow.
They sat there for years and suddenly 2 were gone and the Red one was there for like another 10 years.
A guy I grew up with lived next door to the place and every time we would talk I would have to ask “is the Citicar still there?”
Here she is;

Enjoy!

The Telegraph
The West’s humiliating electric car climbdown has begun

Fantastic!
What brand of beast was that digging into the grass?

Mr. Bean shows me where the Sheldon character on Big Bang got some of the mannerisms.

I’d totally get one of those 3-wheelers. Not regged as a car but as a MC in most places. No idea about insurance, but I’d definitely keep one of those in the driveway. As a literal grocery-getter, I doubt it can be beat.

Here is the Citicar in action off Youtube.
Can’t help but laugh.;

I don’t believe the Isetta was an electric vehicle, but it was innovative. There is no question in the long run about whether electric vehicles can be “made to work” for most people. They will have to be made to work, unless a different power source can be economically developed. Fossil fuels are going to continue to increase in cost over the long term, according to the resource supply experts. That’s why the fossil fuel industry (including some big political donors) have invested a lot of money in a long-running media propaganda and government lobbying campaign against electric vehicles.

Every policy planner knows that it’s cheaper to invest in developing new technology and infrastructure earlier, when there is more time before the need is an emergency. When the price of gas goes up to $10/gallon in the USA, then $20/gallon, many of the same folks who have been complaining bitterly about the government investing in electric vehicle technology and infrastructure now will be complaining bitterly that the government did not invest more in the same technology and infrastructure earlier.

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Same as it ever was… :thinking:

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The per gallon price of gas at the pump does not include the huge, huge price of the US military presence in the middle east as witnessed now and goes back to WW ll or earlier.

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For those that are upset about the government support of EV, it would be worth it to contemplate the massive government support fossil fuels get…AND they make BILLIONS every year. WHY are we doing this? (Oh, yeah, it’s because they own politicians.)
It’s not like they are struggling, except for their greedy image.

Coal, oil, and natural gas received $5.9 trillion in subsidies in 2020 — or roughly $11 million every minute — according to a new analysis from the International Monetary Fund.

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It’s called Reliant Robin

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I have seen one of those robins in queens, several years ago, a blue one iirc. you can not pay me to get into one, also they may not be cars, legally, they may be registered as motorcycles

That was my favourite Top Gear segment of all time

20240206_061326

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Actually, that’s not a Robin, it’s a Reliant Regal Supervan.

I want a vehicle that can get me straight line from where I’m at to where I’m going by creating it’s own path without stops or having to deal with other travelers in between. Don’t care how it’s powered, I just want it.

an aircraft.

Ripping holes through spacetime brings its own sets of challenges and perils.