People seem to get all religious about Teslas(and EVs in general). Either for or against. On one side people try to convince others that EV is near perfect and will fit their life just fine regardless how they use their vehicles. One just have to adopt. Many really cannot use EV and/or do not want to adopt to it. Let it go. On the other side I see statements like "I cannot use an EV because of [whatever reason] therefore it's just a niche product." That's just as silly There are a lot of people that use cars differently and will have no problem with having a Tesla as their only vehicle.
I don't try to convince others that EV is fine regardless of how they use their vehicles. But there are a LOT of people out there for whom an EV would work really well, and there is a LOT of misinformation and outright confusion about EVs. I like to counter the misinformation, and answer questions to solve the confusion, because after buying my first PHEV on a whim, I discovered that electric driving is really cool, and I think there are many people who will be happier with it. Certainly not everybody, and for some people they'll need to wait a few years for better technology and/or lower initial costs, but I think EVs are where we're going to end up in 20-30 years except for a few niche uses.
For me this is purely a practical and financial question. Practicality is fine. Cost is more questionable. I don't think they work as a cost saving proposition(at least not in an absolute context compared to non-premium vehicles). A hybrid Accord vs any Model 3 in terms of total cost to own and Tesla stands no chance. Not even close.
That depends. If you're a new-car-every-three-years kind of person, EVs are unlikely to be practical, though if you get a new car every three years I can't imagine you value financial practicality in all areas of your life... There's plenty of analysis of this issue, and a good one that links to a Google sheet where you can put in your own values for the variables is here - They show that the Model 3's TCO is similar to a Honda Civic for a 5-year ownership timeframe:
https://cleantechnica.com/2019/06/14/tesla-model-3-vs-honda-civic-15-cost-comparisons-over-5-years/
What does the resale look like on a few year old EV?
Depends what it is. For Teslas, the resale is surprisingly good. As someone who would love to buy a used one, this drives me a bit nuts! I see a lot of Model 3s that are a year old that are going for within $1000 of what the same one would be brand new! For older ones, a lot depends on which version of Autopilot it has (or doesn't) because cars without any autopilot cannot be upgraded to have it, and cars with "Autopilot Hardware 1" (the MobilEye ones) cannot be upgraded to Autopilot 2 or later (the Tesla in-house design that has 8 cameras and will be full self driving capable). Autopilot 2 and later cars (late 2016, and all 2017s and later) definitely fetch a premium over the earlier ones.
For other EVs, especially older and shorter range ones, it's the opposite. Older Leafs, for example, are pretty darn cheap. I bought my loaded 2013 Volt Premier a hair over a year ago for under $10K.
I would imagine that newer non-Tesla EVs will fare somewhat better, especially those brands that have figured out how to make better batteries that don't degrade much, and will likely follow a similar depreciation pattern as ICEVs, or potentially be worth more in the longer term as there are fewer mechanical things to fail. 10 years from today, comparing a 10-year-old EV vs a 10-year-old ICEV, both of which will have depreciated significantly so that OpEx is much more important than CapEx, the ICEV will be worthless in comparison, provided there's a sufficient supply of 10-year-old EVs to meet demand.
As pure EV range increases and cost decreases, we’ll see an inevitable shift in the bell curve. If it ever gets to 1,000 miles of range with a 30 minute charge time, said vehicles will work for 99.9% of drivers.
I doubt you'll ever see a 1000-mile range EV in the form they exist today (ie, Lithium battery powered). You'd have to carry around thousands of extra pounds of batteries, which means lower efficiency (and thus the need for more batteries!) and high cost. A 500-mile range EV with a 10-minute charge time is far better, easier, cheaper, etc... Or a 300-mile EV with a 5-minute charge time.
Exceptions: A vehicle designed for towing, but not actually towing anything, might be able to make it 1000 miles. And eventually, maybe we'll have supercapacitors instead of batteries and the weight won't matter as much.
