No, electric vehicle sales aren’t dropping. Here’s what’s really going on::Tesla has been slashing prices. Ford just cut the price of its Mustang Mach-E, too, plus it cut back production of its electric pickup. And General Motors is thinking about bringing back plug-in hybrids, arguably a step back from EVs.

  • PeachMan@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    General Motors is thinking about bringing back plug-in hybrids

    GREAT! Ditching PHEV’s was a stupid idea, we don’t have the charging infrastructure for most people to buy EV’s moving forward. We need an interim solution, and PHEV’s work great. They use a LOT less gas for most people (depending on driving habits) but you have the fuel tank in case you’re on a long road trip, or in a charging desert.

    Have y’all seen the new Prius Prime? It starts at $33k, it actually looks kinda cool (subjectively), and it’s FAST (objectively). We need more cars like that.

    • filister@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      PHEV in my opinion is a really dumb idea. It got popular, because it was an easy way for car manufacturers to continue making large SUVs and adhere to even stricter fuel efficiency restrictions, while also benefitting from generous state subsidies. Now that those subsidies are either scaled down or completely removed the PHEV sector is shrinking fast.

      The benefit of EV is not only that you can charge at your own garage but that you also have lower maintenance cost and even if the upfront cost is higher, your cost over time lowers the more you drive it and depending on electricity prices, etc. you can break even with ICE.

      With PHEV, the maintenance cost is higher than ICE, because at the end you need to service and maintain two engines.

      • PeachMan@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        No. It all depends on how you drive it. If you just drive a PHEV around town and do the occasional road trip (which is how most people drive) then the ICE engine sees very little wear and requires very little service.

        If you’re doing constant road trips and burning up the road, a PHEV is not for you. And neither is an EV, honestly.

        • Fisch@lemmy.ml
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          7 months ago

          An EV would work if the infrastructure was there. Modern EV batteries can charge full in like 15 minutes but it’s not even gonna take that long cause you’ll obviously not be plugging it in at 0%. The charger needs to support that amount of power throughput tho tbf.

          • PeachMan@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            An EV would work if the infrastructure was there.

            Right, but it’s not yet. So a PHEV is a better option for most people (for now).

            • Fisch@lemmy.ml
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              7 months ago

              True but the issue is that your government isn’t doing anything about it. They could e.g. require every gas station to have an electric charger (Will be the case soon in Germany)

              • PeachMan@lemmy.world
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                7 months ago

                Okay. And until the government does something about it, a PHEV is an excellent choice.