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Comment by bryanlarsen | Hacker News Reader

What's going on in Poland? Why is the EV market share there lower than in the US?

The median monthly gross income in Poland as of 2026 is 7.6k PLN ($1.9k USD) and like 80-90% of it will go towards your living costs, EVs will probably be a thing here in a decade or so when there's second hand market for cheap used ones coming imported from richer countries.

Probably lower buying power, poor on-the-go charging network and people not “trusting” the Evs as much yet

Also electric power generation is dirtier in Poland (still lots of coal), so the relative emissions benefit is lower.

If the power is generated by burning coal and after transmission efficiency losses etc, gasoline cars could actually be better for the environment.

I think I've seen studies that they still aren't. ICE are really (thermally) inefficient.

Most people don't worry so much about thermal efficiency and care more about cost per mile..

If I could buy a type of vehicle that was only 10% thermally efficient but the fuel was practically free, that would be pretty cost effective even if not thermally efficient.

If it's 100% coal, then yes, otherwise EVs are better. And since the grids are moving to renewables all over the world, it will continue to get better.

Even it's 100% coal the EV's are generally better. But it's close enough to equal that you can bias the comparison either way through vehicle choice. The standard mechanism was to choose one of those horribly inefficient compliance vehicles manufacturers created by putting an electric engine in a gas car frame. "It's a fair comparison because it's the same car". Choosing an EV 1000 pounds heavier than a purpose built EV will make the gas car look good.

It's not even the weight of the EV but mostly how you calculate CO2 of the EV manufacturing part (which is usually higher than that of ICE). That combined with high-coal electricity generation pushes the lifetime CO2 break-even point further away.

Once EV manufacturing is decarbonised (which is I assume ongoing) this will be moot too.

It would want to be either a _terrible_ coal plant or a _terrible_ transmission network or both. Internal combustion engines are brutally inefficient next to big thermal plants.

I mean, EVs are supposed to be cheaper than ICE vehicles. They probably would be if EU didn't let its automakers manufacture a high margin market again by blocking more affordable competitors

They weren’t until recently rich enough to fund the required charger infrastructure. Most people don’t want an EV until it flips from “not too big of a deal if you plan ahead” to “of course I can always find a charger”.

We don't have a lot of superchargers etc. so you mostly rely on what you collect yourself.

EVs here make the most sense if you have solar panels on the roof, something to store the energy in and obviously a house.

Most of the Poles don't have a house.

Edit: superchargers map https://www.tesla.com/pl_pl/findus?bounds=60.47900349927211%...

I know it's not about Tesla only, but it says something.

Local legislation can make a huge difference. In my country, you can install solar panels without storage, pump the electricity directly to the company, consume theirs, and pay the difference. Our house produces more than we consume, so charging an EV would still be mostly free for us.

If the energy company didn't buy our electricity, we would be forced to use batteries to store the surplus to charge the EV batteries.

The only disadvantage is that during a blackout, we still produce energy but can't use it. Fortunately blackouts are very rare in my region.

Same here, but the initial cost is gigantic. And after a lot of Poles made the leap of faith and went all in on renewables, the gov changed the rules of buying/selling so now if you don't have a storage, there's a very small chance this investment will ever pay off. And if you want to have a storage, then you basically need a small bunker, a separate structure, to stay compliant, which requires from you to be even more wealthy.

Our government almost went the same route, but settled with a small nominal fee even if your consumption was negative. During those uncertain times I even considered a Tesla Battery, which had just entered the market here. Fortunately, there was a change of presidency, and sanity prevailed... for now.

EVs are still pretty expensive, besides I'm sure that PIS decided that EVs are somehow a communist plot and will let Tusk turn your kids atheist. EVs are only just around the tipping point where they are cheaper without political incentives. And you need some political good will for charging infrastructure etc.

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