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• A polar bear killed a mother and baby in Wales, Alaska, earlier this week.
• The remote community is raising money for the memorial of the deceased. 
• The attack was Alaska’s first fatal polar-bear mauling in more than 30 years. 

A remote village in Alaska is banding together to process their grief after a mother and baby died in a polar bear attack.  

The bear killed 24-year-old Summer Myomick and her 1-year-old son Clyde Ongtowasruk on January 17 after it chased multiple residents of Wales, Alaska.  

According to reports from Sky News, the pair were walking from a school to a health clinic when the bear, which a snowstorm had camouflaged, mauled them to death. 

At one point, the bear chased local residents — who had been trying to scare it away — into the school before the school’s principal, Dawn Hendrickson, slammed the door in the charging bear’s face, Sky News reported. 

“The polar bear was chasing them and tried to get in as well. Just horrific. Something you never think you would ever experience,” Susan Nedza, the chief administrator of the Bering Strait School District, told Sky News. 

Only 160 people live in Wales, Alaska, and a GoFundMe has been set up for the family of the deceased.  

The GoFundMe notes that Wales is only accessible via a small passenger plane, and a portion of the funds raised will go toward assisting family members in getting to the small, remote village on the western coast of Alaska, close to Russia on the Bering Strait. 

The fundraiser describes the fatal mauling as an “unfathomable tragedy and heartbreak.”  

This fatal bear attack is the first of its kind in over 30 years. In 1993, a polar bear killed a man farther north of Wales in Point Lay. Biologists later said the animal showed signs of starvation, the Anchorage Daily News reported. 

According to the Associated Press, Alaskan scientists have found that changing sea-ice habitats have increased polar bears’ land occupation, raising the likelihood of encounters with humans. 

Polar bears in the US are only found in Alaska, which is home to an estimated 4,000 and 7,000 of them, according to the US National Park Service. 

• Today’s electric car buyers have a lot of questions.
• They want to know about charging, batteries, and how an EV fits their lifestyle.
• Dealers should be able to answer these questions about EVs.

The next wave of electric car buyers have a lot of questions about these vehicles that they should be able to ask their dealer.

EVs made up about 6% of auto sales in the US in 2022, indicating there’s still a long way to go to educating and convincing prospective car-buyers to go electric. That means that the automakers pouring billions of dollars into developing and launching these cars are banking on the fact that their customers will get their questions answered and concerns assuaged enough to pay a pretty penny for one. 

Potential EV drivers have plenty of questions, and there’s plenty you need to know before buying an electric car. GM VP of EV Ecosystems Hoss Hassani told Insider in November that consumers ask its “EV Live” call center representatives about home and public charging, battery longevity, serviceability, and warranty — and even whether they can run an EV through a car wash.

Of course, not every EV is sold by an automaker that relies on dealers. Tesla and the EV startups hoping to emulate its success operate direct-to-consumer models instead. Regardless, here are some tips on what to ask your dealer or sales advisor if you’re considering buying an EV.

Will the range an EV gets me fit into my lifestyle?

There’s something to be said about not conflating an EV itself with the experience of driving one or plugging it in, but one negative experience or misunderstanding could be a turn-off and a lost sale.

It’s why, while most consumers seem to be getting past their range anxiety (after all, the average driver doesn’t need more than 300 miles of range), it’s important to ask about how an EV fits into an average driver’s lifestyle.

“The biggest thing for people is understanding range and understanding how much they actually drive,” said EV educator and sales specialist Nigel Zeid. “Explaining about not draining your battery down to nothing — those are still, I think, the key things.”

How do I charge this thing if I don’t have a garage?

One of the most notable shifts from a gas-powered car to an EV is how it’s powered. Navigating charging infrastructure can be challenging and intimidating for first-time EV buyers; they’ve indicated that it’s a barrier to their adoption.

“We’ve consistently talked about the time burden and the cost burden for installation and other requirements for electric vehicle owners as a significant impediment to driving an electric vehicle,” said Patrick Anderson, CEO of consultancy Anderson Economic Group. “This is a significant barrier to mass adoption of EVs.” 

From where to plug in, to how to plug in, to what levels of charging there are, to the types of charging, and what to do if a charger is broken, dealers need to address concerns about how charging might be inconvenient, costly, or inaccessible. 

A majority of EV-charging can be done at home, especially overnight.

“They should be able to tell you right off the top of the head how long it’s going to take you to charge at home,” said Buzz Smith, an EV educator and retired auto salesperson who goes by “The EVangelist.” “It’s important that they describe why it’s okay to take 10 hours to fill a car.”

But not all EV-buyers have access to a garage. Those in multifamily living arrangements should ask about reliable public options.

What kind of warranty does an EV come with?

Car-buyers don’t need to know the ins-and-outs of their EV batteries’ chemistry. But given how much this market depends on improvements in battery tech, dealers should still be ready to talk about what separates their EV’s battery from competitors. 

Warranties are also crucial.

“They do need to at least understand what that drivetrain warranty is. Unlike the gas-engine, three years, 36,000 miles, there is no standard right now,” Smith said. “You need to make sure you’re not getting a battery that has a really short warranty period.” 

Plug-in hybrid EVs bring some nuance with two drivetrains, so it’s important to ask what is covered on the electric side versus what’s covered on the gas-powered side.

What kind of service does an EV need? 

Many consumers want to know the difference between servicing an internal-combustion engine vehicle and an electric one. Gas-powered vehicles require some maintenance that EVs simply don’t, like oil changes. EVs also don’t have components like transmissions or spark plugs.  

Prospective EV-buyers should ask their dealers about an annual battery inspection, and tire rotation every six months, Zeid said — the nuances of EVs.

How can I qualify for EV tax credits?

Addressing the total cost of EV ownership, and ways to tap into crucial tax credits, is key to EV market penetration. The average new EV cost $61,448 in December, per Kelley Blue Book (compared with the $49,507 paid, on average, for a new internal-combustion engine vehicle). 

Used EVs are coming down in price, but sat at about $32,750 in December, while the average listing price for a used gas-powered car was $27,143 that month, per Cox Automotive.

The Inflation Reduction Act’s new and used EV tax credits can be confusing, and some aspects of the new credits will change come March. The used credit (launched for the first time this year) will remain the same, but the Internal Revenue Service and US Department of Treasury are expected to release more guidance about whether new EVs qualify for the credit based on critical minerals and battery components criteria.

That’s where things can get tricky. 

“Auto salespeople are not tax advisors or financial advisors,” Smith said. “Now, we should be able to point the consumer to the government websites, as difficult to understand as they are, and say here’s the information. 

“They also need to know: are there any incentives in your state, in your county? If you can choose your electric utility, even the electric utilities may have EV incentives for purchase of the vehicle or leasing a vehicle or even putting in a charge station,” Smith added. “It’s like handing the consumer a discount. It’s another motivation to buy right now, if you can help them through that step.”

• A lot of car-buyers can’t afford a new electric vehicle, but are curious about used ones.
• Today’s pricey electric vehicles will one day enter the used vehicle market.
• That could play a role in the used EV market — and tax credits might not help yet.

The average cost of a new EV hit $61,448 in December, according to Kelley Blue Book — well over the $49,507 paid, on average, for a new internal-combustion engine vehicle. That’s a problem for the automakers in the ever-urgent race for greater EV adoption.

Prices are coming down, but it will take time and isn’t a guarantee. Much of that depends on forces outside of automakers’ control, like dynamics within the battery supply chain. 

A lot of would-be EV buyers are becoming more interested in the used market as a way to drive a cleaner car without such a hefty price tag.

Surveys from firm Recurrent found that just over 50% of EV shoppers in 2021 were instead interested in purchasing a used EV; a year later, that number was closer to 80%.

At first glance, today’s product pipeline might not paint a good picture for the future of the used EV market. About 77% of all EV sales in the fourth-quarter commanded luxury prices, according to consultancy Anderson Economic Group. The F-150 Lightning, for instance, starts at almost $56,000. The GMC Hummer pickup will cost you about $100,000. The Cadillac Lyriq starts at nearly $63,000. Rivian’s R1T has a starting cost of $73,000. 

Lessons learned from the used gas-car market

If you look at the internal-combustion engine world, luxury vehicles account for about 17% of the market share, Kristin Dziczek, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago policy advisor, said at the firm’s recent auto insights symposium in Detroit. 

Prioritizing these and more profitable vehicles over market share has consequences for the future used market.

“If what we’ve produced in the last couple of years has been a rich mix, when that goes into the used market, that keeps used prices elevated as well,” Dziczek said.

The question is how the EV market will react to similar dynamics.

Electric car prices creeping downward

Consumers are seeing new EV prices start to creep down; December’s number was down from the month before, in part driven by anticipation of stipulations in the Inflation Reduction Act making GM and Tesla eligible for crucial federal EV tax credits again. 

Overall declines for used vehicle prices also generally apply to used EVs. The average price of a used EV, about $32,750 in December, is down about 14.4% since a peak of $38,500 last July, according to Recurrent’s index of popular used EV models.

As new EV prices drop, so might their used counterparts. 

“Effectively, when you bring down the new alternative, what you would imagine is that used prices for Model 3s and Bolts would come down quickly as well,” said Recurrent’s CEO Scott Case. “The huge Tesla price drops in new Tesla pricing that just happened last week out of the blue pretty much have a direct dollar-for-dollar impact on used Tesla prices.”

What’s more, “Any impact on automakers deciding to prioritize high-end EVs would not be felt for a while in the used market,” Case said.

Don’t count on the used EV tax credit, yet

Still, used EVs remain more expensive than used gas-cars (the average listing price for the latter was $27,143 in December, per Cox Automotive). The used EV tax credit introduced in last summer’s Inflation Reduction Act could be an answer in the near-term. 

Taxpayers are eligible for an up to $4,000 credit or 30% of the vehicle price, so long as the vehicle is at least two years old, under $25,000, and sold by a licensed dealership, according to the Zero Emission Transportation Association. (The taxpayer also has to meet income caps).

But a majority of used EVs don’t yet comply with those criteria.

“It’s looking like less than a million of these vehicles will be eligible for this tax credit this year on account of being over $25,000 when you buy them,” David Gohlke, energy and environmental analyst at Argonne National Laboratory, said at the Fed symposium. 

Dealers are starting to feel incentivized to drop used EVs priced close to the cap to just below it.