this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2024
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If it's a business trip where time matters where you can't afford to loose 25 minutes every few hours, why are you driving instead of flying?
Because planes won't drop you off at the client's house, even when you ask nicely.
But it's still going to be fast (and cheaper with wages factored in) to fly while using one of the countless 'last mile transportation' options available when the distance is greater than an EVs range while you can't afford to loose time to charging. The only exceptions I see is those jobs who need tools/supplies on site in which case you are almost definitely taking a fleet vehicle and this whole problem is moop.
I appreciate you trying to problem solve someone else's job so that your preferred solution makes sense, but have you considered that maybe you don't have all the answers?
Flights aren't cheap.
Contractors pay for their own transport.
Contractors aren't hourly.
Most small businesses don't have "fleets."
The "last mile" could be 6 hours from the nearest commercial airport.
Direct flights don't always go where you need them to go or leave at convenient times.
You're right about needing tools and supplies which was another reason flying was a non-starter, but a car is also a place where you can sleep in a pinch. If a job takes longer than expected, you might not be near a hotel, much less a charging station.
There are a lot of reasons I don't do those jobs anymore, and I love working from home now. Less than a year ago, I looked for an EV or PHEV that I could afford and would fit four people and a dog. There weren't any. That was my original thesis, that the cars are still too rare and too expensive for mass adoption. Charging networks are a sub-problem that requires attention, but fixing it won't fix the primary issue.
Your thesis is fundamentally flawed though because you are taking your situation and extrapolating to the public as a whole. While I'll agree the market for new EVs is stupid right now the used market is far from. I say that writing this from my 22' model 3 I paid 18k for used. And that price wasn't a fluke.
I'd also like to add the last mile transportation I was referring to isn't public transport or some ride share app but the industry of van drivers who specialize in business transport. Companies like PTI or Halcon who specialize in getting you from anywhere to anywhere.
I wouldn't pay $18k for a model 3 regardless, but that's still a price that is out of reach for the vast majority of people buying a car. I believe you are taking your financial situation and assuming it represents the public as a whole.
And if you think most people driving to work can afford a paid transport, that just reinforces the previous point. You're completely out of touch.
The avarage used car loan in the United States is 26k. That price is not "out of reach for the vast majority of people buying used cars".
The average is not the median, and there's about 20% of the population living below the poverty line that can't qualify for a car loan. If you exclude the top 10% that can afford much higher loans, that average goes way down.
Median is 23k...
according to the 2022 US census the poverty rate is 11% not 20%, it hasn't been above 20% since 1959.