Because those who need to drive more or farther (e.g. rural folks) are also very much less likely to buy electric cars, maybe even just for political reasons.
That seems to be the same theory as the above comment though, as the inverse means that those who live further and have lower income may not be as likely to buy electric
No because farmers are rural, and live in their business.
If you live in a rural area you need to drive more because less places are in walking distance, not that that means you can't use an ev, but you know 'people'.
Most rural residents are not farmers, and especially aren’t land owning farmers. Even on farms most of the employees don’t live on the farm but are hired help.
You'd be absolutely astounded by the number of $70k pickups out here. Just about everyone has one, probably because beautiful houses cost only 2x what a nice new car costs.
Rural folk tend to be more resourceful when it comes to personal vehicle repair, and EVs are usually difficult or even impossible to repair without a certified mechanic.
I took a Tesla (to be inspected) back in 2016 to local place my family used my entire life
The mechanic nearly berated me for buying an electric car, mentioned who electronics are the least reliable part of a car, and said mine was already defective -- because he didn't understand regenerative braking
Needless to say I stopped going there. But the experience really drives home your point
Another interpretation is that people who drive EVs are also realising that multi-modal transport is better, so they are shifting their journeys to "non-car".
This is a double win!!
Taking an ICE vehicle off the road, and also, using the replacement vehicle less - so less road wear, less energy used, less traffic, more pedestrians and cyclists and car sharers.
> In 2022, the average BEV drove 12,950 kilometers (km), surpassing for the first time the average distance of 12,000 km for diesel passenger vehicles. Overall, average passenger vehicle travel has steadily declined in Norway, from about 13,800 km in 2007 to 11,100 km in 2022.
> Average BEV distance gradually increased from around 11,800 km in 2015 to 12,950 km. EV penetration in Norway is slightly skewed towards customers and counties with above-average annual driving requirements, and charging infrastructure and vehicle range are no longer limiting factors.
Which makes sense, the ideal case for EV is someone who drives a lot every day, since you save compared with ICE for every mile driven.
One early Tesla success story was a rural postal delivery man who managed to pay for the then very expensive Model S with the mileage payments he received that assumed he was burning fuel.
Note that this graph could be used to support the exact same conclusion as the current article, between 2016 and 2022 EVs drove less miles than ICE. There's a very clear trend though.
And the data for the current story is from second hand sales. Which adds probably upwards of 3 years lag to the data.
It's a total nonstarter for me. Bring unsure that I can find a working charging station, and have to go out if my way to take that risk sucks.
I've rented quite a few EVs long term and if you have to travel 200+ mile trips even 5% of the time they incite terrifying range anxiety in some (most) parts of the country (US).
If you are always or very nearly always under 100 miles a day, they're fine. Most _people_ live in that realm, but most _areas_ in the US are full of people who do not.
That's how "climate change" activists think - not to create something great and outstanding but make you miserable by making something great and outstanding either illegal or prohibitively expensive.
That's what EV are good for, outside of narrow good use cases. People just don't wanna use them for anything except virtue signalling.
In the UK we 'technically' have a fuel duty escalator that goes up each year (I say technically because it's been overridden by the chancellor every year for the last decade).
Anyway, I think that's a good idea for these situations.
I communicates that prices will be going up in the long term and allows people to cut their cloth accordingly.
I do share your concern though. I think we need to resurrect the idea of the 'peoples car' to get cheap new EVs out there, to make up for a lack of depth in the second hand ev market.
I was thinking about buying an electric car when I realized an electric scooter would serve me nearly as well (maybe even better), be 50x cheaper, and I wouldn't need to register it.
Same but for an e-bike. Some people treat it like a lifestyle choice, but once you see it as just another utility you can shed a lot of the BS rhetoric around it. The math checks out.
Just scoot/bike/skate your way to work if you can, and be happier and wealthier for it.
Yes, for relatively short commutes and in cities much smaller vehicles than fully sized SUVs and likes would make so much more sense. From resource and space perspective. You can fit more of the road they take less parking places and overall less resources.
Maybe it should be mandated that when you are buying an EV the sales people go over alternatives...
We anecdotally fit a number of these scenarios suggested. My wife in gas SUV commutes to work, but that is short 4-5 miles each way. I work from home with electric vehicle but do more errands and kids activities. After 4.5 years, I barely have 12,000 miles on the car; though, in the last year it has been closer to 5,000 miles, maybe.
There was also a big event in 2020 that would have caused people who could afford to buy expensive Teslas to drive a lot less. Other EVs at the time were lacking in range, affordability, and/or practicality and would probably not be anyone's primary vehicle.
