The cheapest BYD in Australia (~14k USD) takes 30 minutes to charge from 10 to 80% which gets you about 95 miles of driving. The money you save in fuel and maintenance can buy you lunch while you wait. Not ideal for large distances but who is driving their personal vehicle that far daily? The average daily drive distance is ~22 miles so you charge fully like once a week with the absolute cheapest model. Americans are missing out.
The average American drives over 200 miles a week. It takes 1.25 hours to completely charge. The 30 mins is from 10-80%. That’s more time than most people want to spend 1-2 times a week charging their car.
As for the car itself it makes a lot of compromises to reach that price point. For instance it takes 15 seconds to reach 65mph, a bumpy choppy ride due to the suspension, cheap easily scratched plastic interiors, etc. Which is fine if you’re looking for a super cheap car.
You do realise that most people charge their vehicles at home rather than fast charge stations anyway, right? You can literally plug it into the wall of your garage and if you are one of the relatively few Americans that don’t have a garage then you can just charge while you do grocery shopping or even at work. Lack of charging infrastructure is not a valid argument in 2026.
Germany and France have mandated that large commercial parking lots provide EV chargers. Most of central and Western Europe has decent coverage. Supermarkets in Aus and NZ have rolled them out too since some of them previously integrated fuel stations. The US is behind on electrification.
How many hours do you sleep or spend at home a week? I would bet more than the quoted 40-60. You literally have to plug in when you get home and unplug when you leave. That covers the 2/3 - 3/4 of Americans that live in single family homes (US Census Bureau). Even if you want to restrict that to restrict that to detached houses so you can be almost guaranteed that they have a garage or spot next to the house to run a cable then that’s at least 62% so for almost TWO THIRDS of the population, charging isn’t an issue. You’re spending more time on the internet arguing with strangers than it would have taken to fast charge an EV.
They’d have a 25ft+ cord they’d have to put away and set back up every day too because you’re not supposed to leave them laying where you’re gonna charge or mount it on a wall or fence and have a long unsightly cord running across your yard all the time
People don’t want the hassle of having to babysit their battery when gas is fast and reliable.
Never mind if they have to go on longer road trips. 70% of non EV drivers worry about finding charging stations or the time lost to charge it.
You can’t just tell people their concerns are unwarranted and EVs are so amazing it’s worth it to put up with the hassle.
Your link is a summary poster, without much detail from the underlying study... and it was done in collaboration with Ford, which is already a red flag considering the context above...
And it was a study of five hundred Ford Focus BEVs from 2018 and 2019, one model with 76 mi and the other with 115 mi of effective range. This doesn't reflect the reality of today's electric cars or charging infrastructure very well at all. Most current EVs for sale in the US have double that range or more.
Furthermore...
95% of people aren’t diligent about charging and only charge 3 times a week.
Most people do not need more than that. Level 1 charging in the worst case gets you around 3.5 mph of range. If you plug in the car when you get home and unplug it when you leave for work the next morning, that's 35-42 miles of range charged (in 10-12 hours of charging). If you drive 40 roundtrip miles a workday, this is already almost enough to completely account for your energy usage if you plug in every night.
But let's assume for the sake of argument that our hypothetical EV owner is as lazy as you allege. If you have 200 miles of range in your battery and you charged only two nights this week, by the end of your work week you still have roughly 40% of the battery left, which is far from a dire situation. But we still haven't considered weekends. That third charge session could be as long as the entire weekend if you're not using the car: two full days from when you get home Friday plus the overnight charging session between Sunday night and Monday morning. That upper limit of 60 hours is more than the 200 miles of range in your battery all on its own.
Now I'm not saying you need to never leave your house on your days off to own an EV, obviously, but 57 charging hours per week is not actually that difficult to achieve in only three charging sessions. And this example is using the worst case level 1 charging - if you know the outlet can properly handle a constant 12A, then it'll charge at around 5 mph instead, and you'd only need 40 hours on the charger per week for a 200 mile weekly drive.
They’d have a 25ft+ cord they’d have to put away and set back up every day too because you’re not supposed to leave them laying where you’re gonna charge or mount it on a wall or fence and have a long unsightly cord running across your yard all the time
Even if you keep your charger inside when you're not using it, this is like five minutes of effort per day, tops. It's comparable to laying out a garden hose but even less messy. I'm sorry but I just think this objection is bullshit.
People don’t want the hassle of having to babysit their battery when gas is fast and reliable.
I think this is adequately addressed above. But for people who have longer commutes or are really anxious about range, they can have a Level 2 charger installed at home. Now your overnight charge is well over 100 miles of range.
Never mind if they have to go on longer road trips. 70% of non EV drivers worry about finding charging stations or the time lost to charge it.
Now this is actually a concern with some merit, because you do have to be a little careful with road trips if you are going to do them with an EV. Choosing a vehicle that can charge quickly on a DC fast charger actually matters here. (Mine fast charges really slowly and that was not a concern because I do not go on long haul trips.)
Even still, most people who don't own EVs and say they'd be concerned about this, wouldn't be concerned if they were actually put in a situation where they had to figure it out. There are apps like ABRP that act like Google Maps but will do the legwork of figuring out when and where to charge for you. (I am not affiliated with ABRP nor do I use it, but it is the most common tool brought up in response to this concern)
What it generally boils down to is that you have to factor in a bathroom break and a quick stretch-your-legs session every few hours when you need to charge. I would argue that this is a healthy way to approach a road trip, and it is our expectations of extremely short gas stops that should change. But as EV battery capacity continues to increase, and fast charging technology continues to develop, I think within a decade we will easily hit parity or even surpass ICE cars in this niche.
Fast charging is way more expensive than buying your electricity at home though, and can be comparable to gas in some cases. If you only do a road trip once or twice a year, you do have the option of just renting an ICE car for the trip if you want to. Pretty sure the fuel savings from having an EV the rest of the year will pretty much make up for that.
That third charge session could be as long as the entire weekend if you're not using the car
And if you’re not going to stay in all weekend and have plans that require driving over the weekend?
If they go on a road trip they don’t want to have to rent a different car or plan multiple 90 minute stops to charge their car and go out of their way to find charging stations
It may only take 5 minutes to take out the cord and set it up but it takes less time than that to fill their tanks with gas and drive wherever they want without added hassle anywhere in the country.
Many people don’t see driving an EV as some kind of upgrade that justifies the added frustration and steps they don’t currently have to deal with. They don’t care what powers their car and if/when EV becomes as convenient they’ll drive them. Until then if people don’t want to have to plan around charging they’re gonna stick with gas. They’re not wrong for choosing that.
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u/formermq 7h ago
"These" Americans want gas cars, EVs would be too progressive for them 🫩