Reasons People Aren't Buying an EV or Tesla
I've been doing some research lately and talking to people who own a gas car and why they haven't bought a Tesla or an EV as their next car. There are 3 primary reasons, plus some more that I've found as a common answer to this.
Range Anxiety
The first is range anxiety and the worry that they'll be in traffic and that the car will run out of battery. I have to admit, that when I first bought my Tesla, I had range anxiety. The reason I did is that I was not used to an EV. I wasn't used to driving it, seeing how much battery it used, and gauging when I need to charge it. I would charge well above 50% every time because of this worry.
After taking my car down to 2% and seeing that it didn't change at all, and I was able to charge it just fine at 2% and seeing videos of a newer Tesla driving even at 0%, I am no longer worried about this. I don't even have charging at home. Once a week, I take my Tesla to a charger nearby and let it sit there until it's at 100%. I can do this because I have a Model 3 RWD with LFP batteries - and those batteries can be charged to 100% without much issue.
The answer to this is better education and that most people can simply plug in to an electrical outlet in their garage to charge. Apartments and condos also need to install power outlets to let EVs charge in their garages and parking lots too.
Battery Degradation
Another concern I've seen come up is those who have researched batteries and how fast they degrade. There is a concern that the battery degrades, and this is different from a gas tank. After driving a gas car for a year, you don't lose 10% of your gas tank. With an EV or a Tesla, you will experience a loss of range on your car over time as you drive it. This bothers many people, apparently.
The other concern with this is that those people don't see a way to get a new battery easily. Even I don't know what to do to get a new battery from Tesla, except through the service center in the mobile app. But, I don't know how long it will take or how much it will cost - it may cost $10,000 for all I know, but I do know that this cost will go down over time.
I think the answer to this is that Tesla needs to better advertise battery replacements and make it easy to do and share how much they will cost. This gets rid of this concern.
Early Adoption of EVs
It's very true that EVs are not in the saturation phase. They are still new, as is the charging infrastructure for them. This is much different than the typical gas car that most people drive. Also, it's much different to think in terms of Wh/mile or kWh batteries from a gallon of gas, a gas tank, and the price of gas per gallon. It's a new way of thinking that takes time to understand.
After a month of regular driving, I became accustomed to an EV and now realize they are so much better than a gas car. They have so much less maintenance. My maintenance for the life of my car is going to be:
* Washer fluid
* Rotating tires and buying new tires
* Changing the air filter
For a gas car, there's plenty more to worry about, along with the gas needed for the car.
Minimal maintenance = less $ vs comparable ICE vehicles pic.twitter.com/hAGV3jxABw— Tesla (@Tesla) April 12, 2023
As you can see from Tesla's own Twitter account, an EV requires much less maintenance. The only thing that costs more is new tires - that's it.
Are these the top 3 concerns for getting an EV? Can you think of any others?
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Other Reasons People Aren't Buying a Tesla
I've been talking to people who don't own an EV to try to understand why they don't. Here's the most common answers:* Don't want the car to die in traffic (0 battery)* Batteries degrade fast with fast charging* Not enough support - still in early adoption phase$TSLA @Tesla— Jeremy Noel Johnson (@AGuyOnlineHere) April 23, 2023
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Jeremy Johnson is a Tesla investor and supporter. He first invested in Tesla in 2017 after years of following Elon Musk and admiring his work ethic and intelligence. Since then, he's become a Tesla bull, covering anything about Tesla he can find, while also dabbling in other electric vehicle companies. Jeremy covers Tesla developments at Torque News. You can follow him on Twitter or LinkedIn to stay in touch and follow his Tesla news coverage on Torque News.