Re:In China, an electric car lifestyle
by WhompingWindows on Monday February 25, 2019 @10:24AM
(#19246228)
You're incorrect, you should consider all forms of electric transport - seems you're just referring to car ownership. If you're talking about scooters, bikes, mopeds, skateboards - those are all coming in at an affordable level and comparable to someone who needs a beater to get around town.
Poor people generally can't afford to live within bike or moped or good transit distance to work.
A schoolteacher living in North Bend isn't going to moped 30 miles down a freeway to get to her workplace in Seattle.
Re:In China, an electric car lifestyle
by umeshunni on Monday February 25, 2019 @01:05PM
(#19247788)
But they can certainly hop on an electric bus (as some MetroKC buses are now)
And only have a 2 hour one-way commute!
As opposed to a 40 minute drive. It's truly a wonder that poor Americans aren't falling over head-over-heels to get on the non-automobile commute bandwagon. The bandwagon that either requires tripling their commute time, or living somewhere they can't afford.
In next week's discussion of the subject, we will look at the trade-offs of suggesting that the peasantry, when they lack bread, should turn to eating cake.
Re:In China, an electric car lifestyle
by toomuchtodo on Monday February 25, 2019 @10:46AM
(#19246412)
You can get a decent ebike for $500. You can get a still-good Nissan Leaf used for under $10k. These are within the grasp of a lot of folks.
Yeah but you can get a still-good small gasoline-powered car for a small fraction of that, and it will have 3-4 times the range of the Leaf and refuel time of 5 minutes at the nearest gas pump.
A person working a low wage job, working 12 or 16 hour days burned-out may pop into a fast food restaurant for a quick burger. An executive with time to spare and money to burn may have time to cook their own meal with high quality ingredients.
It's the same for electric vehicles. You save on costs since it is cheaper to "fuel" it but the initial cost and the lack of charging stations is a problem right now. If you have the money and the resources it's great but right now not everyone has that ability.
I can certainly see it eventually that vehicles will be all be electric. But for now it's too expensive for working poor or even middle class, at least in my region. So for now it's fast food.