Why does the U.S. economy grow so slowly on a per-capita basis? (we have growth in headline GDP, of course, but much is driven by the increase in population size) “In California, Electric Cars Outpace Plugs, and Sparks Fly” (nytimes) may explain a small portion of the stagnation: some of our best-educated and highest-paid citizens are fighting over electric outlets for their taxpayer-subsidized Teslas, BMWs, etc. Presumably the time and energy that they spend arguing over plugs is time and energy that they’re not spending working.
14 thoughts on “Electric cars reducing American productivity?”
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Like most clickbait (it worked, you clicked and you are now promoting more clicks) the information in the article is flawed. I have never seen “charge rage,” nor have I encountered the sort of attitudes that the article seems to report as being standard among electric car owners that need to opportunity charge.
I bet there is more productivity lost to this sort of article and the related promotion of it and the comments regarding it.
80 miles of range! Wow… 80 miles left is when an EMPTY light comes on in my minivan. Do all electric cars have a dashboard meter showing charging current or an estimate of time left to charge, at this current? Almost none of the charging stations show the current, unfortunately.
sv, it is very dependent on the model. Range anxiety is really a non-issue for the majority of the owners I talk to. My wife has been driving purely electric since 1998 and the range in her vehicles has been 60, 110, 125, 130 and now back to about 80. You start every day with the full range, since you charge overnight.
Tesla, Ford, and GM all promise a 200 mile range car for less than $35,000 in the next two years. I can’t imagine that Honda, Nissan and BMW are going to just let that market go. In particular, the i3 is a 100 mile range in a $50,000 car. They will double that to remain in the market.
I am ready to buy an electric car at $35,000 especially if it can do a certain amount of self-driving. Actually to me the most interesting thing about Tesla is that they are apparently the first to market with quasi-self-driving cars. How is it possible that the bigger companies didn’t get to that first? Or Google?
You are under informed. There’s an Acura out there with lane-keeping. And our i3 has adaptive cruise control that is better than Teslas. It goes down to 0 mph so it works in step and go traffic.
Many people have more than 1 car in the family. 90% of trips are under 80 miles round trip. I could see having an electric runabout for errands around town and never having to worry about range. If you are going on a long trip, use one of your other vehicles.
Right now you can get a lightly used Chevy Volt for maybe $20K and the range is the same as any gas powered car. But 90% of the time it will run all electric.
I like the understatement at the end of the article about how some scum unplug your car so that they can charge their own…. “They may have some amount of entitlement.”
I think there should be a technological solution – a loud alarm if any one touches your charging connecter before it is fully charged. Maybe an electric shock? A locking cable that loops around the charge cable and your car?
The i3 locks the cable in place. The Volt (and Spark) activate the car alarm if the cable is removed when the car is locked.
Oddly, the parking garage in nearby Westwood has one charger for every two spots, which suggests you HAVE to unplug someone if you need to charge.
The parking garage at my hi-tech employer now has over two dozen electric car charging spots. They were full last time I walked by. I’ve heard no stories of “charge rage” yet, but then I drive a mere hybrid.
The lock/alarms should shut off as soon as the car is fully charged or else you have the opposite problem – someone hogs the charger all day even though their vehicle finished charging hours ago. I’ll bet that is even more common than others unplugging someone else’s car.
I assume self driving cars will take care of stuff like this themselves, or should.
BTW, will self driving cars destroy the downtown parking garage business? And wouldn’t it be cheaper for your self driving car just to drive around all day than to pay for parking in NYC?
If there is free charging (which there is currently in Santa Monica and a lot of Los Angeles) than circling the block is definitely cheaper than parking.
Great idea for the port to unlock when a target state of charge is reached. Right now it also acts as anti-theft if you are using your own charger plugged into an outlet, so it would need to be an option.
Telsa is working on a charger that can find the car and port when the car asks for a charge.
Colin, does your i3 have the backup gas motor, and if so, how does that work out? How well does the adaptive cruise control work out in practice? How close can you set it to the car in front of you? (I have heard that is an issue: in traffic, it tries to maintain say 100′ of clearance, but other cars keep cutting into that space) I have heard that the Subaru Eyesight adaptive cruise is also very well done, and only a $600 option on some models.
Izzie: i’ve lately seen 4 year old Volts with 45,000 miles (the warranty goes to 100k) for about $14,000. Quite tempting!
Phil: has your rich friend that is buying the Tesla checked into the details of the Fed tax credit? He might need to lease, to be eligible.
No, we got the pure electric i3. We had a Volt and I understand the attraction of the gas engine to extend range, but you give up 25 miles of range to carry it and there’s a LOT of complexity. The pure electric car is so nice and simple. No oil to change, no coolant, no catalytic converter…
We have a small plane for the longer trips.
The adaptive cruise control is absolutely amazing. It feels like the future, Jetsons like. There are four settings for closeness to the car in front of you. I always pick closest. It’s been amazing in stop and go traffic and on the highway.
John, I just saw listed a certified 2014 Volt for $21K (I’ll bet the dealer would take $20) with only 5k one owner miles and all sorts of warranties (the factory warranty, the CPO warranty, the 100K powertrain warranty, etc.) I’m very tempted. With 40 miles or so of range, the engine would hardly ever come on during local errands, which is 90%+ of our driving. I understand the gas engine will eventually fire up to exercise itself if you never drive it enough to really need it.
Izzie: I’ve heard it is a very soft market for fuel efficient vehicles – low gas prices. Offer $17k. 🙂 You could almost consider it a three year old car now.
There is another IT guy on campus here that is a big Volt fanatic. Had one early on, got into a special deal with the local electric company. Bought a second one for his wife. I saw a picture of the 2nd gen Volt announcement with him sitting next to the Chevy execs.
Until Tesla took the crown for customer satisfaction, Volt had it for a few years at just a point or two less than where Tesla is at. Not sure how Tesla does so well – reality distortion field? It was only six months ago that Consumers Reports had to get manufacturer help to open the driver door, the pop out door handle wouldn’t.