We can hope for that, but the problem is that such a car would be excluded from being sold in CA (and likely the Northeast US as well), EU, UK and China from 2035 onwards. It doesn't make financial sense to develop and build vehicles that can't be sold in those places

 

With a lack of infrastructure for Hydrogen or any other kind of fuel you have to be pretty clueless to think anyone will invest in the development of cars with that technology. Electric cars can be charged at home. The charging infrastracture is greater than that of gas stations. Like ALOT bigger right now.

 

Thats fine but it seems premature to stop buying ICE cars this early in the game.

I just bought a Bimmer and I will probably not buy an EV until 2030 at the earliest.

At that point I will stop taking interest in performance cars and find a new hobby.

You see, for me sound is of utmost importance. You can build an EV that can do circles around my current Porsche but I just don’t want it. No personality, no appeal whatsoever.

 

I would love to say the same. I want to remain enthusiastic about sports cars. Nothing about EVs appeals to me. I just don’t want one, and yes I’ve test driven and launched a Taycan. Major yawnfest

But the truth is, this move is being forced on us all. What can be done?

 

I'm old enough to remember when 4-stroke engines were going to be the Next Big Thing. '2 strokes are primitive, can't make emissions and they sound terrible. 4 strokes are so much cooler!'

I vowed right then I would never own one and never have.

The overall market is much smaller than it's mid-90s heydays but 4-strokes are just a tiny sliver of the market today. Turns out, 4S were heavy, complicated, expensive and had a whole host of issues in the cold weather.

I believe that is what is going to happen to electric cars. Despite massive hype and investment, the EV market has plateaued at around 3% share. Tesla is making money, no one else is. Tesla can see the writing on the wall which is why they are working so hard to expand in China and Asia.

At some point - soon - EVs are going start stacking up on dealers' lots as customers like me walk past them for ICE powered cars.

 

No. It’s not. Not even close.

You can’t include home EVSE as they aren’t accessible to the public. What good does a bunch of inaccessible EVSEs do me?

Public charging stations < gas stations. By a lot.

And most of those public stations are L2…so….slow. So slow that I can’t regard them as useful to get from point A to point B.

So limit to DC fast charger…even most of those are lower kW…also slow. And of the higher power ones many are Tesla and not open to non-Tesla vehicles, so again, what good does the charging station do me if I can’t use it?

Most other higher power ones in the US are EA and they don’t have the best track record for reliability at the moment….and…also outnumbered by gas stations 100:1.

And…even if they were there in quantity, the higher powered ones are still 10:1 slower than gas to refill.

So, no…charging infrastructure is not greater than gas stations. Not even remotely close. Infrastructure is one of EVs biggest weaknesses right now (weight probably being the other one).

 

EV manufacturers aren’t banking on us to buy in; they’re banking on our kids & our kids’ kids to buy in. Soon the newest EV will be like the newest iPhone. Everyone trying to upgrade to the ‘latest & greatest’.

 

Toyota isn’t clueless.

There are 7 gas stations in my two square mile town.

Charging infrastructure? 2 Free Public Level 2 chargers (most often occupied by a Tesla not even plugged in). Plus, a Supercharger station behind a Wawa that typically has a line, because Tesla’s network and slow charging isn’t what it is cracked up to be.

Very affluent area. Multiple 911s on my block. Street parked Ferrari two blocks away.

There isn’t enough public charging infrastructure and its orders of magnitude behind gas stations.

As for home charging, I am fortunate to have dual electric services to my house, because I heat my driveway and walkways with electricity. I have plenty of capacity for multiple Level 2 chargers, but it is important to understand that some homes (even nice big ones) do not have enough space for yet another 60A breaker in their panel.

I am an EV fan and I think that if you’re able to charge it at home overnight (off peak rates), they are very much here and now, but let’s not pretend that they are accessible to everyone yet.

 

EVs will happen because for normal people doing normal drives and commutes an EV is absolutely a better experience than a gas car.

And where the majority of normal buyers go the companies will go.

 

Of course, yes. I can only speak for myself.

And I never said that I will never buy an EV. I’m more practical than that.

I said that I will no longer be a performance car enthusiast once I start buying EVs. I will return to being who I was before, and find other interests. Being into fast, modifiable performance cars with personality is just a stint for me. If EVs weren’t the future I would do this for a longer time, but EVs will be the nail in the coffin of this hobby.

 

You must not live where it gets cold. An electric F-150 weighs 6,500 pounds. Okay, throw some lumber and sheet rock in that thing, have the crew climb in and try to get up a snowy driveway while the cabin heat is sucking up battery power like crazy. Or try to get that thing unstuck from the mudholes since the roads in the new subdivision haven't been paved yet and it is raining.

Every small contractor in the world has either a pickup or a van, EVs would be fine ... for Arizona.

 

Nah, battery being sucked dry by the A/C

...and you are in Anchorage where temps are balmy compared to here.

Although temperatures have been warmer lately than the 56 below a few years ago, -40 is still common and was ten days ago or so. Thus batteries, whether LiFeP04, AGM or whatever is not what I want *** in an ICE vehicle or more importantly powering my car here.

We're on an arctic storm watch here through Monday night with 2 feet of white stuff (you'd think we're in Valdez) awaited, ice fog and warmer (would you believe) temperatures which will make black ice appear "magically".

Olga and I will be busy; yep she's a turbo diesel with a Interstate wet cell battery permanently on a trickle charger and a connected block heater 4 hours prior to use. No use for EVs here today, tomorrow or ever. But who cares, we've got less people in Alaska than a suburb of LA.

siberian

 

Been driving Teslas for 6 years now. Not a single minute i needed a gas station or missed one. Probably 150k miles driven total in two cars with bunch of road trips. Some of you have no real world experience with electrics but way to much time to comment on things you dont know 🤦🏻‍♂️ Porsche and others will get up to date on charging stations aswell. The present and future is electric there is zero doubt about it and dont get me started with self driving. I also think the 911 should stay as is, with a manual transmission. Nothing appeals me of an electric 911 or a self driving one, but these are unique cars not in the interest of 99% of the population.

 

A buddy of mine who is also my CPA lives up on Chena Pump, drives to his office in the AKUSA bldg every day. He has an older Toyota Tacoma, his wife drives a Suburban. As cheap as he is with the short drive, he's an ideal candidate for an EV. No way does it make sense.

 

Uh - maybe I'm confused - but I'm pretty sure your 911 (and likely any other car you've ever owned and driven) IS a 4-stroke engine. Intake, compression, combustion (power), exhaust.