Electric Cars: Can they finally become popular in the United States?

[Paper Chaser]

Recent AAA survey indicates interest in EVs has declined:  https://newsroom.aaa.com/2025/06/aaa-ev-survey/



In 2022, gas was $5/gal, tax breaks were abundant, governments and OEMs were planning "All-EV" futures, and EVs weren't depreciating (or saw appreciation in some cases) due to supply chain shortages.

Now, gas is $3.13/gal (today per AAA's data), tax breaks are wavering, many "All-EV" plans are being walked back, and EV's have seen significant depreciation which resulted in the second highest "Total Ownership Costs" in 2024:

https://newsroom.aaa.com/2024/09/aaa-your-driving-costs-the-price-of-new-car-ownership-continues-to-climb/




If you have a place to charge regularly, and can buy a used EV, they can be very compelling as many in this thread have done lately. But the hype and trajectory of EV's taking over certainly seems to have slowed among Americans.

[GilesMM]

Recent AAA survey indicates interest in EVs has declined:  https://newsroom.aaa.com/2025/06/aaa-ev-survey/

..

Interest may have declined but actual EV sales were up about 11% 1Q2025 vs a year ago.

[Bartlebooth]

The US may be on a backswing of sorts but it is not the only country in the world.  The worldwide trend shows no sign of leveling off.

https://ourworldindata.org/electric-car-sales

And the Chinese pricing which is probably driving this trend for at least the last couple years will eventually make its way into the US market, whether directly with imported Chinese cars or via the rest of the manufacturers somehow becoming competitive.  Both seem equally unlikely but I am skeptical that a realistic 3rd option exists.

ETA:

Note that worldwide EV adoption has been higher than US adoption since 2017.

I somewhat retract my point...the thread title is in "in the United States".

[Tyson]

I'm not sure why EV's haven't been adopted by the right, here in the US.  Most of the people I know on the right have 'self reliance' as a core value.  To me, having an EV that you can charge at home makes you way more self reliant than those suckers that still have to go to a gas station every week. 

Put up some solar panels and some batteries on your house and you can go off grid completely and be even more self-reliant.

[GuitarStv]

Nothing about modern social conservatism values self-reliance.  Social conservatives want to impose their religious and moral views upon others through big government violence.  Cuts to government programs are only appealing to them when the cuts are designed to cause suffering to people who share different views, sex, religion, or skin colour.

[LennStar]

I'm not sure why EV's haven't been adopted by the right, here in the US.  Most of the people I know on the right have 'self reliance' as a core value.  To me, having an EV that you can charge at home makes you way more self reliant than those suckers that still have to go to a gas station every week. 

Put up some solar panels and some batteries on your house and you can go off grid completely and be even more self-reliant.

Solar electrics are delicate. A gas guzzler can just drink veggie oil you hand-pressed from the plants in your garden. Or used to be able to. One of the pioneers of biofuel made his car run on old french fries frying fat. You could always smell when he was driving down the road.

[Just Joe]

I continue to be impressed with how easily some people can be steered by the media and politicians. With "falling demand" articles a portion of the population will avoid EVs like they are made of kryptonite which helps ensure there will be "falling demand".

We took a weekend "vacation" in our's recently. Drove across our state, drove up in the mtns, etc.

Nothing beats an EV for silence when rolling through a national park enjoying nature. Also regen was VERY nice on slow, steep roads. Bump up the regen and coast. 

Of course the nitwits on the straight pipe (no muffler) Harley-Davidsons (x8) were fun... Fortunately our encounter with their racket was only a few minutes although we could hear them long after we couldn't see them. 

[AccidentialMustache]

Solar electrics are delicate. A gas guzzler can just drink veggie oil you hand-pressed from the plants in your garden. Or used to be able to. One of the pioneers of biofuel made his car run on old french fries frying fat. You could always smell when he was driving down the road.

I thought all the used-oil types were running diesel cars. There aren't a lot of diesel cars here.

An oversized solar array while expensive is a lot smaller than the acreage you'd need to farm to actually provide enough oil for your average of 13k miles/year here. You wouldn't want to do it by hand, but then you need more fuel for your farm equipment (unless it eats hay). 56 gal of oil/acre in the midwest, at 39 mpg you'd need 333 gal which is about 6 acres. That's a lot by hand. Canola would do 111 gal/acre so you'd only need 3 but I'd assume that's a denser planting than soy is so YMMV on effort even if less acres.

If you really want independent, buy property with a river and a slope and put in a 6 kW+ generator. Rugged and simple too. Turbine. Electric motor. Not much more going on there. Vulnerable to drought but so are plants. 

[41_swish]

I rode and e-bike for the first time this weekend and realized just how much of my car trips one could replace. You can pedal 20 mph without barely even trying. I know this is about cars, but for the right use case, buying an e bike could accomplish a lot of your goals.

[LennStar]

I rode and e-bike for the first time this weekend and realized just how much of my car trips one could replace. You can pedal 20 mph without barely even trying. I know this is about cars, but for the right use case, buying an e bike could accomplish a lot of your goals.

Ebikes shorten distances and flatten hills. I think if more Americans would get an ebike, EVs would get more attractive.
Of course only if you could actually use your bike daily, not a high chance in the US infrastructure.

[Frugal Lizard]

My husband got an e-bike soon after I got our Leaf. With our son also loving driving the Leaf, the e-bike made sense for those errands that you just want done quicker than walking or those one that don't need a car and the hassle of a parking space. Two years later he had to replace his car and got an EV.

I want an e-bike and am doing physiotherapy to heal enough from a pelvic injury to be able to bike again. Because the bike would be so much more convenient for those multiple stops convenience trips. Our town is super hilly. And we live on the top of one of them. I used DH's bike quite often before I was injured, despite it being too big for me. They are so much fun.

[Just Joe]

I rode and e-bike for the first time this weekend and realized just how much of my car trips one could replace. You can pedal 20 mph without barely even trying. I know this is about cars, but for the right use case, buying an e bike could accomplish a lot of your goals.

Around here an ebike's ability to flatten hills is the important part, not speed b/c there is nary a flat spot to be found. Even the hilly route from town to my rural house is doable given enough time. I'd like to have more quiet roads to ride on though. Our local growth has made the roads busier than I am comfortable with. The political situation (red state) means it is highly unlikely any bike paths will be constructed to assist. We would benefit from a spoke and hub route system but this town struggles to have a useable sidewalk system for pedestrians.

If DW retires and I have not yet, I will ebike to work and back more often. These days I am the designated driver until she is able again.

[41_swish]

I am seriously considering saving up ~1500 and using my Colorado tax credit on one. I will probably demo one in my day to day life before buying, but they seem pretty versatile if you have solid bike infrastructure by you

[Just Joe]

Took a trip to the mtns in our Kona recently. Found another couple great features of EV life.

First, no noise or very little when doing the park drive through thing. EBikes offer the same feature and I have gotten quite close to several animals that way on the country roads near our house. One was a big owl dining on roadkill at the edge of the road. I was able to get within tens of feet and just watch.

Another is the regen braking. While we were in the national park, a car rolled past us with stinky brakes. Rather than shift down and let the transmission hold them back, they rode the brakes down the mtn. Flat-lander visitor perhaps. ;) We rode the regen down the same mountain roads and gained a few miles of range in the process which is always nice. Didn't even need to touch the pedal.

Had our first charger outage experience this morn leaving the big metro headed back to our town. Our favored chargers were completely off. They are located at an electric cooperative and nobody inside could tell us why. Hmmm.... Drove a few miles and charged at a Hyundai dealer on slower Chargepoint DCFC equipment.

The cost savings is excellent. ~$3 overnight at home on our L2 charger and then ~$12 on the way home from the big metro at the DCFC versus ~$35 with our SUV.