[highwaylights]

In the UK the price of gas is currently around the equivalent of $7/gal at the cheapest due to how it’s taxed here and the absence of a subsidy.

Electricity is around 18c/kwh overnight.

I can’t understand how gas cars get sold here anymore at all.

[makeitdouble]

Isn't it still a PITA to charge for more than half of the population ?

Most of EU cities have the same issues. Due to appartment density an EV makes sense only if you own your house, run a cable from your flat to the street, or win the charging lottery and/or fight for a spot at some shared location.

Alternatively you can make it a routine to charge at a public spot while you go shopping, but it means you're double annoyed when it doesn't work out for whatever reason (spots already taken etc)

[pmg101]

Me neither. My fuel costs went from £1000 a year to £100. And I don't even do that many miles. Why isn't everyone jumping on this? Meanwhile a lot of moaning about the "cost of living crisis". People are strange.

[adastra22]

Electric and internal combustion cars do not cost the same though. Even a plug-in hybrid which only has ~50mi range before the ICE turns on was a +$8k feature (in practice, $10k - $12k after dealer shenanigans and taxes) when I last bought a car. I'd have to drive 8+ years without ever using a drop of gasoline for that to make sense, by your numbers. A full EV was $20k - $30k more than similar ICE models.

[cogman10]

That's in the US where we have a bunch of tariffs to protect the local auto industry.

In the UK, you can get really cheap EVs because the china ev and battery market is open to them and their importers.

Further, because of the nature of both public transport and the city layout of the UK, there's much less of a need for long range EVs. Almost everything there is both walkable and within walking distance. It's very unlike the US.

I survived in the UK for 2 years on foot. It was really not that bad.

The Hyundai Kona Electric starts at £32,400. Which is ~$43,500 freedom bucks.

But there's very little reason why the majority of brits couldn't survive with the Dogood Zero which starts at £5,500 (and has a 50 mile range).

[adastra22]

Those comparisons were from the same manufacturer, so tariffs should be similar.

I ended up going with the RAV4. I just looked and the gas powered RAV4 is $29k, while the plug in hybrid model (toyota doesn’t do full EV) is $45k, so there is still a very big difference in price.

[rootusrootus]

Plug-in RAV4, aka the Prime? I haven't looked in a while, but when we were shopping last we took a look at those and the price was insane. There was no reason to get it over the hybrid unless you wanted the extra horsepower.

[adastra22]

Welcome to the EV market, where cars cost twice what they should because choosing to buy an EV is a status and conscientious choice rather than economic.

[formerly_proven]

> Electric and internal combustion cars do not cost the same though.

They do in other (non-US) markets, without subsidies.

PHEVs are a bad deal, always were. Only make sense if there's subsidies or tax advantages for buying them over pure combustion cars (unfortunately a thing in some markets). Most PHEVs are never charged and PHEV batteries are roughly 4x more expensive per kWh than EV batteries, so there is no cost benefit in the electric drivetrain.

[adastra22]

There are no subsidies for EVs in the USA.

[pmg101]

When I buy a used car with a fixed budget then I can choose ICE or EV, at that same budget.

It's true that I could choose more luxury or spaciousness on my ICE vs... well, everything else being better on the EV. But I wouldn't.

[cogman10]

I don't think I could understand not getting an EV in the UK. Everything is so close together and public transit is really good. You can practically survive in even the most remote regions with just a bike alone.

[adastra22]

For someone who doesn't drive an EV, what is that in $$/mi?

[cogman10]

EV sedans use ~ 250Wh/mile. So £0.18 is ~$0.24. So you are looking at about $0.06/mile.

Much cheaper if you get a much smaller EV (which are much more available in the UK).

For example, the Dogood Zero uses 95Wh/mile which means $0.02/mile.