Given my impression of the average American, I wouldn't say you and I are good data points for the average.

I'm not saying progress can't be made. I'm not even saying it won't be made. I'm just saying that for a lot of us, it has a long way to go before we are get there.

I mean, Los Angeles (or maybe California) just passed a law stating that landlords need to have a working refrigerator before they can rent out a unit. We're a LONG way off before we get EV chargers for renters. I won't even speculate on what those EV chargers will cost to use. It will definitely be a lot more then off-peak homeowners have to pay.

That's not how commodity pricing works. Of course the masses will pay for the elites power usage. Utilities don't care where the demand is coming from, only that they are happy to supply it and they are also allowed to surge price their products.

Everything about America makes more sense if you look at it through the lens of big business. USA exist to help those with money make more money. You don't even need to be an American to enjoy the benefit. For example, anyone with the money can buy real estate in the country, regardless of residential status. So a rich person from African, Asia or Europe or Central/South America can buy land here, even if they won't ever be in the country.

When you hear the term, "American interests" what they really mean is "American business interest". It's one in the same. The voters, I mean, consumers are just here to enrich our betters.

There is zero will to change this, even amongst the Democratic politicians. Maybe some of the progressives, but I have a strong feeling that they just want to enrich themselves while pretending to talk about helping the people. How many homes does Bernie Sanders have again? All from being a politician as well.

Except we don't have deregulation. We have copyright, patents and other government backed things to foster "competition". Without that, you could just copy and sell. The only advantage would be first to market. I hear China is good at doing this, this being copying the work of others, then selling it for less.

My car is no where near my apartment. We have a covered area that isn't next to anyone's apartment. The closest apartments are at least 20 feet from a car, and that would require dragging a line across a walking path.

Clearly not all apartments are equal. Some people even live in towers and part their cars under the building. The was my last place. No charging there either.

Only if you omit things knowingly. Sometimes we just have incomplete knowledge. I wouldn't call that misinformation.

34% of the country is not an edge case. Talk about out of touch.

It shouldn't need a tax credit to make it viable.

Why would I replace meat with fake processed stuff? Better off just ditching meat and going for alternative proteins. Healthier as well.

Thank you for your honesty.

Your entire country is smaller then my state. But sure, totally fair comparison. Go search duck duck go for "UK land mass compared to california", ask AI. it will tell you that

So you'll have to excuse me while I laugh that the range problem was solved already. USA is a big country. We also have about 34% of us living in apartments, per another duck duck go search "how many Americans rent apartments". This doesn't account for condos, which have the precise same issues for charging as apartments, aka there is no infrastructure at home.

So sure, the day to day for some Americans is solved for range anxiety, but that's only assuming you don't want to use your car to drive more then 300 miles. I like being able to get from San Diego to Las Vegas on one tank of gas. Cost me about $40 one way, less when I fill up in Vegas.

Maybe one day these issues will be solved. I love the idea of EVs, but they aren't practical for everyone and no amount of hand waving will change that.

You forgot (deliberately left out?) that when people went onto unemployment, it was boosted by $600 extra dollars a WEEK. A lot of people literally made more money staying at home then they would of made at work.

This also doesn't take into account that, in California, if you said your job was affected by covid, the rent would get waived until a certain date. My mom was property management during covid and was legally required to disclose this information. So now you have tenants making more on unemployment while also not having to pay their rent. Most moved once the freebies ended, never paying that rent back.

So yes, there was a lot of cash floating around and we haven't even talked about the fraud going around.

My car isn't a status symbol. It gets me from point a to point b. Does the modern car some how do this cheaper? Not if my car is paid off and has cheap insurance. Not like you can drive any faster then I can, legally speaking.

Even with California gas prices, the gas needs to almost double in price while electric rates stay frozen for an EV to be cheaper then a normal hybrid. Electric rates aren't going to stay frozen, so it's going to be a matter of which goes up faster and how long I can keep my hybrid running. So far, it's doing spectacular, though I do keep up on maintenance.

I won't deny it's happening. I just don't give a fuck anymore. When I see all the rich folk and the politicians driving EVs, while stop jetting around the world on private planes, maybe then I'll give a fuck. You won't ever see that though. Rich folk don't need to follow the rules commoners do but they will most certainly try to blame the poors for all the problems.

In the meantime, I'll do whatever I can to reduce my personal costs balanced by convenience.

And why do you have a PHEV and not an EV? I imagine because if you want to use gasoline for a longer trip, you don't want to have two cars. My best friend has a PHEV and he's able to charge at work but not at home. So it's still saving him money and reducing co2 but doesn't cripple his ability to just use gas if need be.

I wouldn't mind a PHEV but my regular hybrid is good enough for now. It's only got 70k~ miles, so maybe in another 6 years I'll be ready to let go of it, as it's only 6 years old now. There is also the question of the cost of gas vs the cost of electricity. I'm in California, and gas is only around $4.50. Electricity is roughly $0.50 a KwH. Average EV gets about 3 Miles per KwH (some worse, some better). My car gets about 50mpg. I'd need roughly 16KwH to get 48 miles, but that would cost me $8, as opposed to $4.50 for gas.

So gas needs to almost double in price before it's even worth it, and electricity isn't going to stay at the same price either.

None of this accounts for the fact that my apartments aren't going to be installing chargers any time soon, nor the fact that charging networks still need a ways to go. California is doing pretty good but it's not nearly as easy as gasoline is.

None of this even brings into account the price of the EV, which isn't cheap either. One day it will get better, probably, but that's not today, this week, this year, probably not even this decade.