We've been reading headlines about Tesla, Nissan Leaf, and several other recent arrivals in the EV market the past few years, but the growth curves are starting to look very interesting:
We already wrote about the recent ZSW report that found that the world electric car market was up to 740,000 at the end of 2014. Other cool stats noted there included:
- China saw 54,000 electric cars registered in 2014, a growth of 120%.
- The US grew 69% to hit 290,000 total electric cars, about 39% of all electric cars on the road.
- Japan grew 45% to hit 110,000 total electric cars.
- The overall global electric car market saw a growth of 76%.
However, we missed sharing a big one, but thanks to reve putting it in a headline and a hat tip from Bob Wallace, we’re getting it now. Actually, you just saw it in the title: ~43% of the world’s electric cars were bought in 2014.
Coupled with the ongoing steep drop in the price of solar panels, we are quickly approaching an epochal tipping point in transportation, energy, and many other realms. My family is ready to switch to an EV as soon as a mass market car is available where we are. How about other Soylentils, do you plan to jump to an EV too, or hang on to your ICE?
(Score: 2) by mmcmonster on Tuesday April 21 2015, @10:05AM
I own a Tesla. They're definitely not for everyone. You probably shouldn't get one if you drive 200+ miles a day or if it's your only car and you do a lot of road trips where you drive for hours without a fixed destination.
As for the cost of the car, you probably shouldn't look towards it unless the other cars you are looking at are over $50k.
But if you're looking at an Audi A6 or BMW 5 series or similar, you should definitely go for a test drive.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 21 2015, @10:20AM
(Score: 1) by gordo on Tuesday April 21 2015, @03:43PM
Just be careful... I went for a test drive and ended up with a P85D.
(Score: 2) by mmcmonster on Tuesday April 21 2015, @08:17PM
Almost happened to me. The sales rep definitely didn't try to up-sell me on anything (if anything, she convinced me I didn't need a couple options I was thinking of).
You gotta love when they say the drive unit and battery are warranted for 8 years, infinite miles.
If I had to buy again, I would probably end up with the same model I have now. My wife wants the Model X when it comes out, but (at least for now) I think we need one ICE car in the family. Even if she only drives it a hundred miles a week. (We use the Model S over 500 miles a week and pretty exclusively on the weekends.)