18% of California EV drivers move back to ICE

[Fatherdougal]

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News...

Interesting! I know many EV drivers here on PH state that once driven you'll never go back but guess Americans don't necessarily share the same sentiment..

[Fatherdougal]

Err, the study's from the University of California. So maybe you'd feel more comfortable with pretty much the same article but a touchier feelier website name?

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-021-00814-9...

[Fatherdougal]

vaud said:

The counter view would be "82 % continuance rate for battery electric vehicle owners for a first generation new technology"

That is a counter-view - albeit a very skewed one. I'd be very surprised if 18% of early adopters of CD players went back to cassette. Or 18% of early mobile users gave them up and went back to landlines. Given they are supposed to be te future of motoring and the only option to buy new from 2030, I'd say this shows why the takeup isn't anywhere near where it needs to be, given all the propaganda we get on EVs.

[Fatherdougal]

ATG said:

I wouldn't go casting "very skewed" around after writing you original post. Seriously, look at the stuff you've written.

Seriously, I have and I'm very happy with it, thanks!

[Fatherdougal]

Dark85 said:

Cars are a vastly different product. There are usage cases where EV's are not viable; because of range (especially so in America), lack of body shapes (you still can't get an electric pickup truck), and up front cost. Some people circumstances will have changed to make an EV no longer viable, some will have got one because of tax incentives or a desire to be an early adopter when they didn't suit their circumstances in the first places. It makes perfect sense for these people to change back.
They are also vastly more complex meaning a much more incremental nature to improvements; a CD is a CD. Phones are a better comparison, but landline to mobile doesn't work because they serve somewhat different purposes and up until pretty recently the vast majority of people had both. If you want to compare to other early adopter tech, how about the Palm Pilot or other PDAs? I imagine plenty of people who used them went back to a normal phone, before the iphone and Android smart phones came to dominate. And that happened in less time than there is for EV's to become dominate.

Fair enough, but PDAs and Palm Pilots didn't have significant tax breaks to encourage their take up, which EVs do and still people revert. Whilst I have no desire personally to have an EV, I don't really have a dog in this fight - I genuinely thought it was interesting that nearly a fifth of users would swap back - it doesn't really fit the narrative I've seen on PH.

Seems like EVs are like cyclists here - a bit polarising. As I say - I don't want one, but live and let live...