Oh no, but what will gas guzzlers use as an argument when they act like after 10 years you can't charge your car anymore if it turns out that the batteries last longer than expected in the real world like people have been telling them for years?

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Don't worry, every spare module in the cars, regardless of their drivetrain, has a chip that needs to be paired at great cost so they'll get people buying new cars anyway through cost of ownership alone. This fuckery started with electric cars to create FUD around them and protect legacy motor companies' decades of investments into engines.

Our family will be buying a new car in 2-4 years. My father has doubts about EVs even though our use case is perfect for them: we drive 15 minutes to town and back, and the once-per-year road trips to Germany can be covered by their charging network; it's not physiologically feasible for any one of us to safely drive over 3 hours straight anyway. He is critical since the technician absolutely lambasted electric cars for how dangerous they are to work on, and that they are uninsurable in garages because of the fire risk etc. How do I convince him that it makes little sense to still use a gas or hybrid for the next 12-15 years?

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

So far EV cost of ownership is way lower and they require barely any maintenance so I wouldn't worry about that, it's all fear mongering.

As for your father, you can lead a horse to water but you can't force it to drink, if he would rather waste money on gas then that's his problem to deal with. He could at least get a PHEV and drive the 30 minutes on battery power alone but still have a gas engine as a backup to reassure him.

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

We have enough land and material to build a shack for an EV that we wouldn't care about burning down. His major concern is the repairability: allegedly the service station can quarantine the car if the battery is a little too warm at cost to the owner and potentially never return it. And a lot of them "will just straight-up deny service" in fear of a HVDC electric shock, which is allegedly not deadly but forces the technician to undergo 5 days off work for electrolysis blood testing.

A friendly German family bought a hybrid that isn't even plug-in... in 2023. It still has incandescent lamps. These people REALLY put very little thought into the real cost of keeping a gas engine running for 15 years, especially with projected gas prices in Germany (already 80% higher than here). At least I don't feel guilty because I had no say in that.

Yes, my father finds the mechanic he goes to friendly but he needs to realize the EV alternative is not finding another but needing no mechanic for the most part.

I don't have much money but I can cause some leverage by only allowing loans on my name on a pure EV, no matter the size. Even the mechanic said rental for the road trips is easier than we think, and when my parents travel alone even German trains are cheaper than fuel. The mechanic's views are certainly outdated, he also said EV owners keep running over cats at night because the cars are too quiet but they have mandatory speakers now.