Large grocery stores around here offer cheaper gas if you shop at there store. This can be up to a dollar a gallon off.
Electric vehicles aren’t helping with the transition to electric vehicles. Cars are more expensive than ever. If one has a choice between an annoyingly necessary vehicle that can get them to and from work and take care of long trips, or something that costs the same (or more) and can’t even get you halfway across the state on a single charge, which would one with a limited budget pick?
I have some friends that tried to take the plunge with EV. They bought one used, so some age on the traction pack. Cold-ass winter came along, the car doesn’t do active thermal management of the pack. They could barely make it 24 miles between towns. Their next car will be a hybrid. Until EVs are priced similar and behave similar to ICE cars, it’s going to be a slow roll to convert people.
The “transition away from gas vehicles” and the “transition to electric vehicles” aren’t the same thing and shouldn’t be conflated.
The bulk of the transition should be to other forms of transportation, not simply subbing out disastrous gas automobiles for only-marginally-less-disastrous electric automobiles.
I wish more people, more ordinary non-Lemmings, understood this.
Even if you can’t get everywhere with a bike, you can definitely go some places. Last year, completely on accident, I went a whole month only using my car twice. 90% of my trips were to the grocery store and other close-by destinations.
Electric cars are just an evolution of the status quo designed as a pressure valve to prevent the momentum for real change from building up.
Yup can confirm. Leased a new car six month ago. Wanted to get an electric, but the downsides of electric cars just didn’t make sense. Much more expensive, and worse in winter. Cheaper to charge, but not at all enough to make up the huge extra cost.
When the Chinese make a cheap ev that is better than fuel cars, it’s going to become more profitable than Tesla.
plugin hybrids to me are an important step. If it can do 10 miles without starting to use gas and the person plugs it in they will use very little gas.
and can’t even get you halfway across the state on a single charge
This is the part that needs to be rethought. Depending on speed and stuff, I can go about 200 miles on a charge. Want to go farther? Fine! DC fast charging is, in fact, fast. Plug in, take a pee break, stretch for a minute, and get a bite to eat. In 20 minutes, you can get a lot of charge in most cars (granted, my Chevy Bolt needs a little more time but that battery technology is relatively obsolete)
We already stop on the road for other reasons. It’s not hard to combine stops, and it will only get easier as chargers get built up. Stop pretending we need to drive 500 miles without stopping, that’s dangerous anyway.
I actually see this rest stop idea as really cool advantage to bring life back to random locations across the country. Kinda like the 1950s Route 66 road tour theme that was popular back then. Create a stop with some goofy thing to look at, some food, some place to stretch, a park, a rock wall, whatever. Great opportunity to capitalism while creating fun and working around the range problem until technology improves or countries like the US get with the program and go more public transport.
As for:
Stop pretending we need to drive 500 miles without stopping, that’s dangerous anyway.
It is more a functional reality in western states, not a luxury or something to boast about. One can drive that 200 miles (likely your charge range will be less at 85MPH with a 60MPH headwind and ascending 4000 vertical feet over a few hours) without having services, utilities, or even towns. The range is a necessity to get back to civilization, let alone finding a charger or gas station.
I’m doing about 52 miles a day in an EV that costs me $0.90-$1.20 a day depending on the temperature. Including other fees from power company is based off use it’s technically double so $1.80 to $2.40. Let me know where you are getting gas that cheap for ~2 gallons and I’ll go fill up for my mower please!
Gas stations themselves have loyalty programs as well. Same deal.
Gas discounts are pretty small.
At least for Kroger, you get $0.03 baseline with no discount. After you spend $100, you get one fill up with $0.10 discount up to 35 gallons. My vehicle in particular has 11 gallons. So my maximum discount is $1.10, up from base line $0.33 discount. $1.10 discount per $100 spent is barely worth it.
Even if you used all 35 gallons, that’s $3.50 discount per $100 spent.
So if you have a massive vehicle that takes 35 gallons, you can save $35 off the fill up after you spend $1000 in the store. Could you have saved that $35 by shopping at a different grocery store?
I eat meat daily, who thought grocery stores cared about the environment when trying to sell meat at “low costs” and advertising it as much as possible. If they sell beef, they are a big chunk of the beef.
If you pull two vehicles in you can max out the discount. I fill both of our cars every month for $1/gallon discount just for doing my normal shopping!
This has definitely slowed our ev adoption we couldn’t afford a new car but we got a used car really cheap and it gets good mileage and i’m getting discounted gas so…
We are thinking in a few years we can trade in the two older gas vehicles for a decent electric vehicle when we don’t need 2 anymore
Yes they are, many of the ones in our town have EV chargers in the front row that is free. And then further out are the gas pumps that cost money.
I hate this shit. Groceries asking for phone numbers and cards and shit. I don’t even give a shit about the unwarranted indefensible invasion of privacy. I just don’t want to have to experience the interaction.
What do you expect from large coorporations? A conscience?
Yes, actually. And everyone else should, too.
This is a very North American problem.
The bitterness toward those with gas cars isn’t helping either. I drive an electric now and I like it, but I hate how we’re working so hard to force people. It’s not right. Freedom is important.
I have never seen this except in the most gimmicky manner around me.
Maybe they could also offer free EV charging spaces in parking stalls that are close to the store, in addition to still offering gasoline. They’re going to have customers that drive both.
