As you might have guessed.... higher gas prices has increased interest in EVs [ADMIN WARNING: NO POLITICS]

[Great Gatsby]

I been meaning to post on this thread. I had 3 people over the last weekend tell me they are seriously looking at EVs. That is not to mention people who were just asking me general questions about EV ownerships. It feels like interest is definitely spiking.

A lot of people I know are also just fed up with the gas prices. $100+ fill ups aren't uncommon. Used EV inventory is drying up. All anecdotal, of course, but it does feel like the tide is turning around my neck of the woods.

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[Rade]

I still get approached by people asking about the Rivian. The conversation is always the same. Their biggest fear is range anxiety. One gentleman said he would not buy anything that gets less than 400 miles in range on a charge.

I asked him "How far do you get on a tank of gas?"

"240 miles."

"But the cost...!"

"I have not been to a gas station in 18 months. It costs me less than $10 to keep this charged at home, less when the solar is pumping."

"But there's no place else to charge!"

"There isn't an EV charging station on every corner, but there is one within practically 5 miles of the next one around here, and many of them are free to use."

"But the price of the EV!!!!"

"$83k, loaded. How much for your F-150 Platinum?"

"I could never drive an EV..."

"...and I won't go back to a gas-engine truck."

Usually by that point, the conversation has ended.

 

[Great Gatsby]

I still get approached by people asking about the Rivian. The conversation is always the same. Their biggest fear is range anxiety. One gentleman said he would not buy anything that gets less than 400 miles in range on a charge.

I asked him "How far do you get on a tank of gas?"

"240 miles."

"But the cost...!"

"I have not been to a gas station in 18 months. It costs me less than $10 to keep this charged at home, less when the solar is pumping."

"But there's no place else to charge!"

"There isn't an EV charging station on every corner, but there is one within practically 5 miles of the next one around here, and many of them are free to use."

"But the price of the EV!!!!"

"$83k, loaded. How much for your F-150 Platinum?"

"I could never drive an EV..."

"...and I won't go back to a gas-engine truck."

Usually by that point, the conversation has ended.

It's a lot of copium. A lot of the issue with adoption IMO is straight up lack of education to the general population. Years of FUD have worked as intended. People are CONVINCED you need at least 500 miles of range that charges within 5 minutes with charging stations at every corner for EVs to viable. And oh, you will still need to replace the battery every 2 years, assuming it doesn't burn your house down.

The Rivian was a fun conversation starter, albeit a frustrating one as non-EV owners tend to have a lot of opinions and assumption about EV life. I always entertain genuine curiosity but once the conversation turns from questions to uninformed statements like "well they are just as bad for the environment with the mining" or "you have to replace the tires every year", I check out and let it die.

 

[2kwik4u]

.......uninformed statements like "well they are just as bad for the environment with the mining".......

I shut down a family member on this topic this weekend.

Just had to ask this line of questioning.

Me: "Sure, digging a limited resource out of the ground to use in a car takes a lot of energy, manpower, and time. Out of curiosity, how recyclable is oil?"

Them: "Well, it's not"

Me: "How recyclable do you think lithium is?"

Them: "Uh, I have no idea"

Me: "It's almost 100% recyclable. The losses during the process are minimal, and because of the value it's highly incentivized to recycle. Once you burn oil it's gone. Make sense?"

Them: "Well, um, er, I mean, mining is bad"

That's when I reach your point of "clearly you don't want to change, I'm out"

Also, interestingly enough that same relative is a financial advisor and I made an analogy of EV's working like compounding interest that really resonated with her. Premise being that an EV's efficiency to convert energy into movement isn't limited to just that vehicle. Because the energy creation is outsourced away from the vehicle, any efficiencies gained with the generation get to be applied to ALL EV's, not just that one. With an ICE, the energy generation is onboard, and once built is locked in forever. So, the EV paradigm is quite similar to compound interest in that you continue to get gains in the future on top of the gains you've already gotten now..........While that analogy isn't completely correct, I made it up on the spot and it really drove that point home. I doubt it did any good though, she's too set in her ways to change with logic.

 

[Great Gatsby]

I shut down a family member on this topic this weekend.

Just had to ask this line of questioning.

Me: "Sure, digging a limited resource out of the ground to use in a car takes a lot of energy, manpower, and time. Out of curiosity, how recyclable is oil?"

Them: "Well, it's not"

Me: "How recyclable do you think lithium is?"

Them: "Uh, I have no idea"

Me: "It's almost 100% recyclable. The losses during the process are minimal, and because of the value it's highly incentivized to recycle. Once you burn oil it's gone. Make sense?"

Them: "Well, um, er, I mean, mining is bad"

That's when I reach your point of "clearly you don't want to change, I'm out"

Also, interestingly enough that same relative is a financial advisor and I made an analogy of EV's working like compounding interest that really resonated with her. Premise being that an EV's efficiency to convert energy into movement isn't limited to just that vehicle. Because the energy creation is outsourced away from the vehicle, any efficiencies gained with the generation get to be applied to ALL EV's, not just that one. With an ICE, the energy generation is onboard, and once built is locked in forever. So, the EV paradigm is quite similar to compound interest in that you continue to get gains in the future on top of the gains you've already gotten now..........While that analogy isn't completely correct, I made it up on the spot and it really drove that point home. I doubt it did any good though, she's too set in her ways to change with logic.

But did you hear her point of mining being bad though?

It also makes me laugh when the alternative is fracking and building pipelines through thousands and thousands of miles. While we can all agree that yeah mining is indeed bad, it is not like being environmentalist is the reason people drive ICE vehicles. It is just an argument they throw to try and even out the playing field, when in fact, it is not.

The plot twist I throw out though is that I didn't buy the car because I'm an environmentalist. I just bought it because I liked the way that an EV drives. If anything, owning an EV has made me more aware of how we use energy and has made me more conscious of these things, not other way around.

 

[beatle]

The single best argument for an EV is just to get someone to drive one. Talk about all the charging and environmental stuff afterwards. Virtually everyone is blown away and then the justifications start about how they can put up with charging on longer trips and how they could set up charging at home.

 

[SANZC02]

The single best argument for an EV is just to get someone to drive one. Talk about all the charging and environmental stuff afterwards. Virtually everyone is blown away and then the justifications start about how they can put up with charging on longer trips and how they could set up charging at home.

I can’t agree more. I drove my first EV back in 2016, do not see myself buying an ICE again.

 

[iansriv]

Love the R1. It's my first EV. No arguments on the execution. But, I find myself missing my old 911. The sound of that engine is a part of my childhood because my dad owned one. I miss the stick shift as well. I could fit my golf clubs in the frunk and I still had room to fit my sunglasses in the car!

 

[Thedude]

Along with higher fuel prices have come higher electricity prices. Due to fuel cost increases my rate just went from $0.29/kwh to $0.37/kwh.

 

[Count Orlok]

The Count was talking to

Along with higher fuel prices have come higher electricity prices. Due to fuel cost increases my rate just went from $0.29/kwh to $0.37/kwh.

The Count generates much of this own electrons although much of it now goes toward his 15 tons of geothermal water to water and water to air heat pumps.

 

[madhat]

Love the R1. It's my first EV. No arguments on the execution. But, I find myself missing my old 911. The sound of that engine is a part of my childhood because my dad owned one. I miss the stick shift as well. I could fit my golf clubs in the frunk and I still had room to fit my sunglasses in the car!

That's the beauty of everyone adopting EVs. My daily will probably always be EV, but now there's more oil left over to keep my thirsty Rx7 pumping out fumes!

 

[skyguyscott]

So, an update; EV sales are up pretty much everywhere except US, where they are down as of Q1 2026.

Here's a link to a a round up of articles on global EV sales.

 

[ksurfier]

There is very little oil left, so won’t be an option to drive gas-guzzlers for much longer…

No matter how you slice it, the world appears to have an extremely limited amount of “cheap and easy” oil left.

In the U.S., much of the remaining production is no longer cheap conventional oil. It is higher-cost supply, including shale, tight oil, and deepwater resources.

The chart below shows oil production rising for decades, then falling sharply after 2025 in a “Seneca cliff” scenario.

The key point is this: even that steep decline may still be far too optimistic.

If the world has only about 285 billion barrels of proven 1P oil reserves left — reserves with roughly 90% confidence — then global production may not be able to stay as high as the chart suggests through 2035.

In plain terms: the chart shows a crash, but the real crash could be faster if the remaining reserve base is smaller than assumed.

And the timing is critical.

If Middle East production takes 4–5 years to recover, the world could burn through more than half of the 285 billion-barrel 1P reserve base before that recovery even happens.

That would leave only about 100–135 billion barrels of proven oil remaining. At global consumption rates of roughly 80–100 million barrels per day, that represents only about 3–4 years of supply before another steep decline becomes unavoidable.

The bottom line: a temporary production shock could become a permanent supply crisis if the world burns through its remaining cheap, proven oil faster than new production can realistically be restored.

 

[Great Gatsby]

Love the R1. It's my first EV. No arguments on the execution. But, I find myself missing my old 911. The sound of that engine is a part of my childhood because my dad owned one. I miss the stick shift as well. I could fit my golf clubs in the frunk and I still had room to fit my sunglasses in the car!

And that's the thing - you can enjoy both. The EV vs ICE divide never made sense to me. I think an EV daily driver + ICE road tripper or weekend car is the best mix available. If one can afford both, that is a dream setup. An EV likely will never (and should not try to) match the feeling of driving a manual and that's fine. We can just enjoy things for what they are.

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