I want an EV. My problems are…
I can’t afford it. Every vehicle I have ever own has been used and under $20k. I don’t trust a used EV because batteries.
I can’t afford to install a charger in my home.
I hate how new cars don’t have tactile interfsces. I get a ticket for using my phome while driving but every new vehicle has a giant “phone” I have to navigate tonchange the radio.
I have no interest in newer cars, ICE or EV, affordable or not, because they seem to be plagues by bull shit subscription nonsense.
I can’t afford to install a charger in my home.
Technology Connections made a great video showing that most people don’t need a dedicated charger for an EV, a standard plug in a garage usually works just fine unless you have specific needs.
I agree with your other points, and it’s a reason I don’t have an EV either.
It also is practically impossible to get an EV that isn’t chock full of invasive user-tracking equipment. Only the Slate EV truck seems like it might avoid the privacy invasive stuff, as well as having physical controls and no touch-screen at all.
Every vehicle I have ever own has been used and under $20k. I don’t trust a used EV because batteries.
We’re at the point where we have long term data on lots of battery models, and failure rates (and performance degradation) have shown a surprisingly high longevity:
https://www.npr.org/2026/03/02/nx-s1-5706658/electric-vehicle-battery-lifespan
$20k can get you plenty of used EVs in great condition. Poor resale value is a notorious problem for EV owners. Or a massive benefit for anyone willing to buy used.
For most EVs, battery health is typically still between 85-90% at 100k miles. Meaning that if it could do 250 miles when brand new, it can still do 220 after 100k. With a few notable exceptions, battery packs rarely fail. Some models will even report it, or you can find shops to collect the data more directly.
While cost depends on your exact situation, the biggest expense in getting a home charger is running the 240v cable. $2k-3k (grand total, everything included) is common, and likely to be recouped in fuel costs alone in the life of your first vehicle. It also increases your home’s resale value, usually by more than it cost to install. Of course, this is assuming that you own your home and have the freedom to install one.
I agree with your complaints about new cars. However, that really doesn’t have much to do with EVs aside from most of them being newer. I will say that there are some encouraging signs on the horizon to watch for, and some models are better (or less awful) than others.
What I learned during my research when shopping evs is they seem to outlast ice cars, the batteries dont degrade like people thought they would and keep the majority of their range. Now that I have one I’d probably trust buying a used ev over an ice car, also I already got used to the power so I don’t think I’d ever get an ice car willingly
I think the early Chevy bolts were like the perfect entry ev car. They had a recall on the batteries so they had to be bought back and had new batteries installed and were selling for like $12-15k as basically new with more range than before with the bigger packs. Plus being early evs they were tactile for everything
The 2027 version that just came out is going into the whole subscription stuff too so I think its going to be hard to find a cheap little ev made in the us without that garbage going forward which really sucks and I hope my bolt lives forever
But yeah like you mentioned if you can’t charge reliably at home or work then makes no sense to get an ev
I want 125 mile range and swappable batteries.
My daily commute + any additional driving rarely exceeds 60 miles. If I could swap it for a 400 mile range battery before a long trip, that’d be cool. Just rent the battery for a week.
It might just be easier to rent a car for the trip, I can’t imagine having to add or remove batteries or how good shared batteries would be if they are constantly installed and removed, and if you go to places that dont have charging infrastructure renting a gas car would probably be the way to go
I upvoted for the rental suggestion. So many people get stuck on edge cases, like an annual road trip, that they lose sight of the (immense) daily benefits.
For most people, you’ll actually come out ahead by buying an EV for daily life, and renting a gas car for the week of your trip. Plus, you can get a rental that holds all of your passengers/cargo much better than your daily driver.
Yeah, renting would work too. Though honestly trains would be best.
Yeah I guess depends where you are trying to go, I was imagining like camping out in Utah or Arizona sometimes even gas stations are rare
I want all electronics out. Make it all dumb and just show the speed and the battery usage/health information.
I want all electronics out
Wish granted. The battery and motors have been removed too :)
Counter with a trolley problem:
You are on the trolley tracks. You don’t know when the trolleys will pass but you know the speed is 600mph. There’s a lever that you can pull. To your right there are 700 tracks. To your left there are 700 tracks. Along the tracks there’s a packs of lions. Do you pull the lever?
No, I distract the lions with my laser pointer before running away
I got my ev with the idea that it will be just for commuting during the week, then we’d switch to my wife’s gas car for the weekend trips, since we live in a small city with a few cities being about an hour or so apart that’s what we thought would happen.
As I got used to driving the ev we started to just use it all the time as the range is good enough for that, and if I need to top off before the commute to work I can plug it in to any regular wall socket to get a few miles over night to make it to work and get the free charging
