A recent survey shows not all Canadians are ready to make the switch to an electric vehicle as they have concerns about charging stations, cold weather and battery life.
A recent survey shows not all Canadians are ready to make the switch to an electric vehicle as they have concerns about charging stations, cold weather and battery life.
Unsaid part of headline: “Most Canadians can’t afford a new car, and many that can don’t own a house and have nowhere to charge”.
Electric cars, as they currently are, are a rich person’s solution to climate change.
This.
My next car will be whatever used car I think will get me through 4 more years. Maybe the one after that will be electric. But until people can walk onto a lot and drive away in an EV, or, especially, find one on Kijiji, then the number of people whose next car is an EV is going to remain low.
The fact that the number of people considering it right now is anywhere near 50% is a big deal.
TBF, I was watching a YouTube video yesterday where he mentionned that there’s actually a decent used EV market now. We bought a used car ˜10 months ago, and EVs were out of the question with autotrader listings in Ontario starting at ˜$40K for any EV in good driving condition. Now you can find some all the way down to ˜$20K.
Still that’s like 3-4 times most people’s budgets for cars, if they even have a budget.
There are very few used cars for <$7,500 that aren’t “As-Is” or should be labelled as such. I know the used ICE market has also softened a bit, but not that much.
When we were looking, I was considering a beater since our last car was a '05 Civic I bought with 120K km from a used car dealer for $5K (plus snow tires & rims). Before it was totaled, with an extra 180K km and over a decade of wear, it was worth more than that. EV prices are insane, but ALL car prices are insane.
Oh 100%, I’m just saying people struggle to even afford ICE used cars, let alone EV ones, that prices are just insane. 20k is like 5 months of rent for a family.
That’s gotta be regionally specific, because there are no full electrics, used or otherwise, around here for under $30k.
I just search autotrader for all of Ontario. You can find even cheaper ones below $10K, but they’re old models and probably have very limited range. However, as a second vehicle for around town trips (with daily at home charging), they’d be a pretty good option.
I’m going to stop you right fucking there.
Fucking Ontarians thinking they’re the whole fucking country again.
Let me guess, when someone tells you their stove has stopped working, you counter with “mine works fine”, don’t you?
Whoa. Why are you being so aggressive?
I stated in my first comment that I’d searched in Ontario, so I was just clarifying that my search was province-wide. I found those prices all over the province, so I don’t think it’s “regionally specific.” (unless you were trying to convey regions of Canada?)
I don’t know where you’re from, and couldn’t guess it from a quick search of your comment history.
EDIT: I’m not trying to say, “Toronto is the centre of the universe,” or anything like that. I’m just trying to give context to my statements.
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That’s the main reason my current car isn’t an EV.
When my previous car got written off by insurance, I needed a replacement ASAP, and wasn’t in a position to wait 12-48 weeks to order one that I couldn’t even test drive before putting my money down.
.
And yes, transit, bla bla… they won’t let me take my toolboxes and ladder on the bus - even if it went where I need to go.
They’re way too expensive for most people. Even taking any savings into account from not needing gas, less maintenance, and rebates.
A lot of them are about double just buying a gas car sticker price wise.
I want an electric car but it’s hard to justify it.
Not to mention a lot of people can’t afford (or otherwise can’t justify) the expense of a new car in general. We’re just starting to see some of the very early Leafs drop below $10,000, so there is hope, but the range/dollar needs to improve a bit to make sense for most people.
Of all the used EVs you can get, old leafs are probably the riskiest due to their lack of active battery cooling. Lots of problems due to that decision.
Your best bet will be when the LFP based cars start getting older and hit the used market.
A lot of that comes down to how much you drive it. I did a post a few weeks back that showed a brand new Kia Niro EV could be had for about $200 more per month than a brand new Kia Forte, something like $1000 vs $1200 total cost once you factored in gas for 20,000km a year in driving. The difference would be way more if you only drive 5000km per year, and the difference goes away completely if you drive 30,000km a year.
Yup, bought my electric car because I used to drive 20-30k kms a year. And for a while, it was dirt cheap to drive. Then the pandemic. Now in 4 years, I’ve put less than 15k/year on it.
The problem is that a lot of people can’t afford either Forte or a Niro, and even more can’t afford the up-front cost of the Niro, but might be able to swing a Forte.
And the Forte is the cheapest thing they make; Kia, like most OEMs, killed their subcompact offering (the Rio, in this case) in hopes of driving buyers to more expensive options, like compact crossovers. EVs are the worst, but not the only, part of price-inflation in the automotive sector.
Should we see a repeat of 2008, a lot of OEMs are going to be caught without cost-effective offerings. Good luck moving $80K crossovers in a credit crunch.
If you can’t afford either, then the discussion isn’t really about you. Cost of living is an entirely different issue than ICE vs EV. ICE vehicles WILL cost you more over their lifetime (at least here in BC)
The point of the article is that electric car adoption is stalling, and the reason is because they’re largely unaffordable, and the unaffordability of them and housing is only going to make it worse.
So I’d say the discussion very much is about making transportation accessible.
I really hope car sharing like Communauto picks up because that currently fulfills a large part of the needs of a car, and has the advantage of reserved parkings and can be connected to slower charging stations when it’s not in use.