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Comment by seventyone | Hacker News Reader

How did you get a Bolt for only $8k? What rebates are offered by whom on used cars?! When did they start doing that?

And as always, the number one reason to buy a Tesla is "best charging infra available". That's it. You still can't drive a non-Tesla across the country reliably. The other charging networks are in a terrible state of disrepair (far worse than Teslas!) and have significantly fewer locations which makes long distance travel in an EV impractical.

Americans don't need every car they own to be able to drive across the country, but they certainly want to. It's hard to get that out of people's heads.

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That supercharger dominance is much less so in Europe. I'd even say, completely nonexistent. Therefore, much more even competition. And Tesla's competition at similar prices is just getting started - to me it seems that the technological gap (if there ever was such a thing) has been completely levelled, and the cars from all other factories are iterating faster and more efficiently. Turns out that if the big car companies really go for it, their ability to build good EVs isn't systematically worse than Tesla's. Not that any sane person ever really thought that, other than hype believers.

I have an EV and I wish I could use Superchargers but my car is buggy and won't charge with them.

I'm in California. There's a $4k rebate from PG&E (electric utility) and a $4k rebate from the federal government if you buy a used electric car. It's income dependent too. The car itself cost $16k including taxes and registration fees. So, $8k after everything.

https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/used-clean-vehicle-cr...

Amazing, this flew under the radar for me

I can confirm the charging aspect. I've had a leaf since 2018 and we have a chademo fast charger, which only 1/10 stations have. It can be all but impossible to find a working, not in use chademo charger. I love, love the car, but can't recommend a leaf to anyone because of this problem. The only place chademo is even supported at this point is Japan.

In Europe, Tesla uses the CCS2 standard (like everyone else except the Leaf), and Tesla's network is just one of many. It doesn't have a significant advantage. European Teslas even suggest 3rd party chargers in the built-in nav.

In some places it may even be better to buy an 800V EV, and use the faster Ionity and Fastned networks.

In America, 100 years is a long time. In Europe, 100 miles is a long distance. Americans will very often take 500-mile drives, at least often enough to make it worth buying a car that can support it.

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