Today I can go to a local Chevy dealer and buy a left-over 2020 Bolt EV for $20,000 and never need to pay for gas or an oil change.
That is true in VA or FL. Not so much in the rest of the country. I can't help but wonder how a dealer sells a car with an MSRP of $38k for $20k? Someone is losing money, or the profit margin is far larger than we have been led to believe.
I always found EVs to be appealing in the 70's thru 90's. I would have been an early adopter, except every time I really got serious about it, they couldn't meet my needs at that time. Even from a bicycle commuter standpoint, the EV would have created a traffic hazard for it's speed up hills, whereas the bicycle at least could ride slowly on the side/shoulder of the road and not impede traffic.
Now we have mainstream EVs with mainstream performance, but the price point is higher than the comparable ICE vehicle. The left over Bolt is a good counter to that. We have friends in VA that drove out to MS to buy a motorcycle from us in their Tesla and they are accustomed to the EV ways. After picking up the bike, the very next stop was a Tesla Supercharger and a 30-40 minute pause to charge.
The problem with a $20k Bolt is the $4k used ICE vehicle that does the same thing, requires no new infrastructure and will last just as long if I take care of it. Will I pay more in maintenance? Car to car, yes. Will it exceed the $16k in purchase price difference over the life of the vehicle? Probably not. Could I easily spend more than that? Sure, if I wanted to, or bought an old British car.
I believe at some point cars will be largely regulated out of the average person's life. Most people won't be able to afford the vehicle or the taxes and other costs associated with it. This is the Government's traditional method for removing something from the marketplace. With AI self driving vehicles, it will be more common to call for a car when you need one than to own one. Even in rural areas. A return to living, (closer to), where you work will be part of this gradual process.
High density urban dwellers already do this now. A lot of the younger generation kids I know in large cities don't own cars or want them. Many of those same people don't want to own a house either. After the housing market crash in the early 2000's it's hard to argue with the monetary points they present on that issue. They would rather spend money doing things than tie it up in possessions. This, coming from kids with $3k laptops and $1k smart phones that pound out code on the floor of their apartment and are only employed via contract basis for specific projects. Some never having had a steady job.
The flip side is the blue collar workers that need reliable basic personal transportation to get to work, rain or shine, 5-7 days a week. And don't have places to plug in a EV at work or home w/o running an extension cord out the window. Many in places w/o infrastructure for good public transit. The EV is just a pipe dream for them, and not one they see in their near future.
I'm not in the demographic that is being aimed at by the marketplace. I own my house, have no job and keep vehicles far longer on average than they would like me to. The marketplace is aiming at the "I have to have the latest thing" buyers with an income stream that supports their fantasy that they can just have payments forever and never pay anything off, just trade it in on the next new thing. I know kids with phone contracts where they automatically get the next new model phone as soon as it comes out, regardless of how often that is. I'm surprised Tesla hasn't offered that kind of purchase plan yet.