Another driving force, perhaps the biggest driving force, is ecological. A very significant fraction of people today would, all else equal, choose electric cars over gasoline for the benefit to the environment. And all else is gradually becoming more equal. As you implied, the biggest remaining hurdle is the battery size. But for many people, it’s already good enough, and for many of the rest it will probably be shortly.
We’re not in this position because most people give a real crap about the ecological impact of their actions. They want to make a difference only when it doesn’t entail giving anything up. If you think that enough people will buy into electric cars for high minded reasons to make a difference, just how do you think we got into this situation to begin with? Do you really think the average American, Russian, Chinese or African person cares more about their environmental impact, or a cheap, fast, car? The evidence strongly points one way. People won’t even stop flushing wet wipes because it’s mildly inconvent for fuck’s sake.
Until the average electric car is at least as useful and no more expensive than the average ICE car there is no contest. That might be a good argument for imposing the cost of the externalities of ICE on people, but without that, dream on. “Good enough” isn’t what a “significant” fraction of people today give a shit about, unless they’re paying less for it.
i would consider buying an electric car if it were as fast as my hot hatch, had comparable range, and weighed less than 3000 lbs. i doubt that will happen for quite some time.
Not prior poster, but mass is detrimental to almost every aspect of the driving experience. Heavy cars accelerate slower, brake longer, turn worse, and wear tires more quickly than an equivalent car that's lighter.
no, a base 911 is about $30,000 cheaper than the fastest model s and will easily wreck it on a track. the tesla can certainly beat it in a drag race, though.
massive acceleration in a straight line gets old really fast, and you can't legally enjoy such a car on public roads. any performance oriented car over $25k already has too much power to fully appreciate this way. once a car is "fast enough", weight is the single most important factor for real world driving enjoyment.
