Electric Vehicles Are About To Get Crazy Cheap
Electric cars are nearing a major milestone that will propel adoption to new heights
A decade ago, barriers to electric vehicle ownership were everywhere. Range was limited — the best selling vehicle of the day, the Nissan Leaf, offered just 73 miles (or 117 km) per charge. Longer ranges were available, but costly. The Tesla Model S could offer as much as 265 miles in the highest end variant, but at a price tag of over $80,000 put it out of reach for most buyers.
The problem was worsened by the lack of chargers — few existed, and those that did charged painfully slow. The typical “fast” charger of the day could charge at only 50 kW, which would take half an hour to fill even the measly battery of the Nissan Leaf. Tesla improved on the issue somewhat with the Supercharger network, which could also charge at a more respectable 120 kW.
Very few models were available, leaving little room to choose. If you were in the market for a truck or large SUV, you were out of luck entirely. If you wanted a range of 200+ miles but weren’t willing to purchase a Tesla quite yet, you were out of options. And the process of actually buying one could be painful — dealership salesman often knew even less about electric cars than those attempting to buy them.
