kEiThZ
Superstar
I don't know what hybrid car bit KeithZ, but mine didn't cost a lot, gets 3.7 lp100k real-world on some trips, has never had a mechanical fault, and will go nearly 1000k on a tank.
I don’t understand this because I drive a hybrid Toyota.
I get 1000km a tank and I gas up once a month and it costs me only 61$cad for a full tank
I wasn't talking about fuel efficiency. On roadtrips, we easily get 700 km from our 45L tank. At times, with some careful driving, good weather and geography, I've gotten 900km. What I was talking about was maintenance. I still need to do that oil change every 15 000 km. I've still had to do routine ICEV maintenance, like replacing spark plugs, timing belts, engine air filter, etc. I'm not including unscheduled repairs that EVs don't have like the vacuum pump. It's an 11 yr old car and at the time was a great and fuel efficient option. But I don't want to have ICEV maintenance in my next vehicle. It'd be nice to be reduced to mostly consumables like brake pads, wipers, tires and washer fluid. Maybe the odd battery coolant flush every few years.
Also, of late, the trend is to put in smaller engines with turbos, whether hybrid or straight ICEV. This saves fuel. But you now need higher octane. So whatever you would have saved from gas, will inevitably be eaten up, by having to use premium fuel.
Chinese government subsidizes Chinese automakers. Without government money all the Chinese EV manufacturers would have gone bankrupt long ago. The Chinese government also keeps Japanese cars out of the Chinese market due to past grievances surrounding WW2.
This is a rather jingoistic and nationalistic talking point. And I say this as somebody who doesn't want to see China win economically and strategically. The subsidy claim is tired and lazy. Sure, their EV industry got going that way (and it's a tactic almost every Western country is trying to imitate right now), but they now have a mature industry that is globally competitive. And that's why legacy automakers are losing in China and just about everywhere else that electrification is taking off. Heck, Chinese EVs are taking share in Japan itself. How would that be possible, if it's all supposedly be driven by subsidies in China?
Chinese EV's are not associated with quality. Their battery technology is questionable.
China has three quarters of the world's battery industry. That would not be possible if their battery manufacturing was "questionable". And it's not just EVs. I would bet money that most of your kids toys and most of the electronics in your home have Chinese batteries, and you have never once worried about them. Like everything else, there's a quality spectrum for items that come out of China. And you get what you pay for.
Understand that Chinese society is full of corruption.
This is eye roll inducing. Look up any of the past scandals in the West and tell me we're innocent. Heck, we're less than two decades out from mass corruption in the American housing market nearly destroying the Global economy. We've also had plenty of automotive sector corruption from Dieselgate to Takata air bags to the Toyota accelerator scandal. Convenient how we quickly memoryhole all the times industry in the West screwed up and then tried to hide it or bribe and manipulate governments out of penalties.