Ich werde ein Prophet sein

This will absolutely destroy the automotive industry. The average car buyer in a rural area cannot even be bothered with these due to 1. Lack of charging stations available 2. Length of commute 3. Reduced efficiency/battery life in cold weather 4. Shorter overall life due to battery wear and tear.
What will happen is the used car market will absolutely EXPLODE and prices will skyrocket, making these scarce and expensive.
Repairs on existing gas-operated vehicles will now cost more as well, as more and more people keep gas vehicles longer or buy used gas operated vehicles which will require more frequent repairs.
The flip side on this is gas prices may go down quite a bit, due to lack of demand if no one/less people are driving gas operated vehicles.
The cascade of damage to the economy will be astounding.
What no one talks about either is the ethanol subsidies to farmers, which for many of them constitutes the only way the can make money on their corn.
Public transportation in even urban centers is relatively awful, outdated, late, and downright dangerous in some situations, and in now way, shape or form can handle any kind of influx of people who now must use it to get anywhere. Rural areas, forget it, it doesn’t exist.
So now if you live lets say in rural North Dakota. You need to go to the airport, which the closest one is in Minot, about 80 miles ONE WAY from Harvey ND. The Nissan Leaf gets 99 miles per full charge on the highway per manufacturer. This is in ideal conditions, not sub-zero temps that North Dakota frequently gets. Mileage now drops to 50-60 miles. There are no charging stations between Harvey and Minot. There are three in Minot, but they are not at the airport, but rather about 3-5 miles away. How will you make it from Harvey to Minot? So now you have to plan ahead to stop at the Walmart super center and charge your Leaf to make the final trek to the airport. And then the same thing all over again, with no real guarantee you will make it one way anyway.
Even where I live, there is only one charging station close by, and by “close” I mean not even a charging station. Seriously. This is what the map says when you click on the location:
120V wall outlet. Bring an extension cord. Ask for Erin or Chris. So it’s basically a business that will let you charge there but your on your own. And it’s about 2 miles away.
The closest public charging station is 12 miles away.
So say I have to go to see three properties on any given day. They are located in fairly rural towns, the first one is in Hopkinton MA. About 34 Miles away. There are some public charging stations there, so on a cold winter day I could make it from my house to my first stop, but then to continue on to say Worcester, another 20 miles from there, I would be foolish not to stop and charge again before continuing on my way to Worcester.
A day that would take me approximately 2 hours in a gas powered vehicle, and this includes going inside the properties, taking pictures, showing them, whatever, has now turned into a nightmare of finding a station, and waiting there while I charge.
I doubt the 80 mile range myself, as independent data has shown that in ideal conditions, i.e. 80 degrees an average leaf driver was only getting 65 miles. In cold weather, that was dropping down to 35-40 miles!!!!
So this is insane. It not only is dangerous to be on the road in rural areas in these things in cold weather, you now have to take into account multiple stops with wait times for charging.
There’s all kinds of BS on how to make your battery last longer, like using seat heaters instead of cabin heat (yeah, that’s great when it’s negative 20 outside. Plus, how the hell can you de-ice your windows like that?) store the car inside (good luck if you don’t have a garage, not to mention even if you do they typically are not heated unless you are in a luxury home)
“The AAA tested three different EVs under controlled circumstances to gauge their performance in stop-and-go-traffic according to cold, moderate and hot climactic conditions. While the test found the three models averaged a range of 105 miles at an ambient temperature of 75 degrees, this plummeted to just 43 miles when the thermometer dipped to 20 degrees. Scorching temperatures likewise adversely affected the tested vehicles, though a bit more moderately, limiting the average range to 69 miles on a charge at 95 degrees.”
Do you know how many days it’s 20 degrees or less in Massachusetts? A lot of fucking days.

The data on commutes is very misleading as well. Logan Airport is ONLY 75 Miles from my house. With no traffic, clear roads, etc this trip takes an hour. Especially now that they got rid of toll booths and it’s all high speed overhead tolls.
HOWEVER, if you work at Logan and need to be there at 9am, you will need to leave my town at 7 am to make it on time. You will sit in traffic most of the way. Ok, so at idle your EV will consume almost zero battery, right? HA! Wrong!
“Breathing means condensation on cold glass, which requires use of electric defoggers. Longer nights mean more use of headlights. And cold tires, snow, and slush will increase rolling resistance, all of which will reduce range.”
So basically your trek to work in an ice storm is going to suck hard, and you better make sure you get that puppy plugged in as soon as you arrive. And if you work someplace without an employee parking lot or garage, that also has charging stations, good luck to you.
I guess more charging stations will have to be installed as well, and I wonder who is going to pay for this?
That’s pretty much a two-fold question, because as of right now, there’s not enough of them to really matter. But check out this byzantine article on charging costs:
https://www.plugincars.com/guide-to-public-charging-costs.html
So what about the actual INSTALLATION of the stations? Where does that money come from?
https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1102231_should-utility-customers-pay-for-electric-car-charging-stations-they-dont-use
Yep, eventually all of us will be paying for them in the form of subsidies.
And then there’s this article:
https://www.greenbiz.com/article/steep-utility-fees-are-killing-electric-car-charging-stations

So yes, this is going to get wicked expensive, wicked fast. And I can tell you right now, once the government is involved, whether it be state, local, or federal, it will be a total cock-up and result in it costing more, for less, with a few connected people walking away with tons of money and the rest of us holding the collective bag.

So if you are thinking of trading in your old vehicle, I would say rethink that choice carefully.