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Comment by Waterluvian | Hacker News Reader

> Adjusted for population, Teslas are ~5x more common in heavily Democratic counties than they are in heavily Republican counties.

What about adjusted for income? Are republicans truly not buying as many electric cars? I know there’s a bunch of stereotype behind renewables and gas and such, but is that enough to explain a 5x difference?

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Rural people buy Trucks and SUV's not cars.

This is why Ford has exited the Car market except fo the Mustang.

Tesla's "CyberTruck" while popular with the same "blue district" crowd that likes the Model S, was NOT popular with the buyers of F150's or Silverado's

The model Y would be, but is largely out of the price range for people looking for a mid-size SUV, in that price range people want a Full Size SUV.

the model 3 is purely a "City Dwellers" Auto

Does it really matter? An important reason to buy an EV (particularly if they're more expensive than gasoline cars, which is sometimes but not always true) is to combat climate change. Belief and concern about climate change are strongly politically correlated in the US, and he's very specifically unaligning himself from the political group that cares.

Does this explain the entire 5× difference? Probably not. But:

> Are republicans truly not buying as many electric cars?

Very, very probably yes.

It’s broken down by county and not individuals for a reason I’m guessing. Urban areas tend to tilt dem, rural areas tend to tilt gop. The utility of EVs is undeniably higher in urban areas.

To emphasize: I’m just speculating.

Not just that, but also that rural areas are less likely to have sufficient charging infrastructure.

Huh? In rural areas everyone has a driveway beside their house they can run an extension cord to. It's urban areas where charging can be difficult because most people don't have a parking spot that they own and can reasonably supply electricity to.

Agreed. If you own your own detached house it's easy to charge your EV. Get a 240V 50A circuit put in and you can charge basically any EV back up to full in the time period between arriving home in the evening and first heading out the next day.

Cities skew towards wealth, population density, and democrats. The republicans who buy teslas are just a lot more likely to live in democratic districts. (Voting preferences aren’t evenly distributed among demographics)

Rural districts are much more likely to be Republican and owning a tesla in such places also makes a lot less sense. Fewer charging locations and a high likelihood of trips that will require more than a full charge.

EVs are a better fit for suburban or rural sprawl (attached private garages) than for high density street parking with no power outlets.

If one wants to flaunt wealth and social consciousness, trucks are the flip side to the Tesla. It's pretty easy to get a truck up into the high five figures.

I suppose if you torture the data enough, it confesses =D. I believe EV ownership is not associated to political orientation, all other things being equal. (source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096669231...)

Yep. Not great data science, although the conclusion is likely true-ish.

Also I suspect big urban vs suburban vs rural differences in current EV buyers given range and charging factors. That happens to also mostly correlate to politics.

EVs are extremely expensive compared to the equivalent ICE. Democratic districts tend to be more affluent[1].

This makes sense, in a naive sense. A good deal of Republican votes come from the central states. While these states tend to have a COL that matches the AGI of the residents, a Tesla costs about the same no matter where you live in the country.

[1]: https://www.standingforfreedom.com/2021/04/irs-data-shows-th...

This is a good point. I'd buy a Tesla if it wasn't so expensive at this point spending 30k on a care just isn't something I could justify.

It's 2022, there now are decent EVs that are cheaper than Teslas.

Yeah, I'm not buying the literal premise of the article. There's a lot of wealthy conservatives in those areas who are in the market for fancy cars.

But the reality might be worse:

A few years ago Teslas were widely seen as really good machines, the hero that followed Car Guys vs Bean Counters, whether that was justified or not. I'm just not hearing that anymore, from anyone. The positive vibes are just... gone.

I suspect the damage to the brand is massive, but not strictly political. It turns out, most people don't like shitposters.

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