[Dormant] Electric Vehicles

Not your commenter, but I appreciate your laid-out feedback on the <100mi EV. The first gen Leaf is exactly what I'm shopping for due to the continued (although reduced) price gouging of used EVs/hybrids since 2020. If I was in your situation where Home Depot was 35 minutes away, I'm not sure I'd even go for a hybrid. Sounds like mostly 50mph+ roads so a great gas car might work better, unless you're in a hilly/mountainous area that would hurt the climb of a low power gas car too. However, I live somewhere with at least 10 HDs within 35 minutes. Based on some rough math, 20% of the US population is within that 240 mile range from me. I would guess 75% of them have less than a 20 minute drive, mostly fuels by slower roads and traffic. That's just one of the main pop hubs in the country, so I beleive 35+ minutes each way for errands may not be true for half the population.

That's not to say you're wrong, of course, not at all. I applaud your dedication to the platform I have not yet myself gotten on board with. I'd like to, but price has been a barrier until recently with a crossover between market, salary, and need. That's been my choice by being cheap and choosing to have multiple enthusiast vehicles (including my 23mpg-city 4x4 commuter smaller than a miata) worth $3k each. But now that I can work remote when it snows, I don't have parking constraints now, and I never actually went wheeling in the 4x4, I'm really considering trading it out for a lower EV.

So what's my point? I think your conversation above is really highlighting a divide - likely intentional from above but unintentional from you - about whether EV can work or not. You're living the life where it's not very compatible as a sole vehicle, but making it work anyway. Most people in your situation seem to beleive EV will simply never work. There's a misinformation act to take the "all cars must be EV by 2035" to mean gas is gone, when in reality it means all models must have an EV version available. I beleive we're stuck in a his&hers situation with vehicles too. I drive a shitbox I don't like on the highway for more than 20 minutes and my highway cruise missile car is often broken. So we take my wife's car often for trips. My commuter could be easily swapped for a ratty 80 mile Leaf and never have range issues. That's my situation but I beleive it applies more broadly. I did the math once and figured the average car-owning household (so removing carless people) has 1.3 cars per adult. So most households have a car per person and many have spare cars in some way. And that's no even getting into the American dream vacation of 800 miles per day being absurd and incredibly rare. This fuels a greater divide where rural folks get mad at city folks for pushing EV or, worse, enjoy and thrive with an EV. This country is so drastically diverse in density and geography. It fuels this idea that states, the land masses, are sentient and therefore big states are more representative of the country. But that's not a country, people are. And, as exemplified by overbearing Border Patrol allowances, 2/3 of the US population is within their jurisdiction because 2/3 of the population lives within 100 miles of a border. That means the entire interior, I estimate 3/4 of the land, has 1/3 of the population. In no way am I saying that 1/3 should be forgotten or bullied. But I beleive that overepresentation of that actual need for greater range spills too far into the cushy suburbs where an EV would only benefit from the traffic compared to gas. That then morphs into a fear of the government taking everything away. Probably by design.

I still don't really know where I was going anymore. You've provided a great recount of how rough a <100mi EV can be debilitating. I'm still convinced an old Leaf is perfect. I still hope they'll make those <100mi range EVs but with appreciably lower cost.