With gas prices soaring to $5.00 and above, what are your thoughts on electric vehicles. Are the 300 mile current range vehicles enough for you? Would you wait for something to approach 600 miles before buying? What are your thoughts? My wife and I live 30-40 miles from work and are spending $120 to $200 each weekly on gas. As you can see the EV option is looking really right now.
Do have a serious question - what about heat? Heating elements are killers to electrical consumption. How do the MFGs handle that?
Close 2030. 50% goal by 2025
Quote:
Wake me when there's a charger on every corner that charges it in 5 minutes and I'll listen. Everything else simply managing the many negatives.
For you...sure... but you must be either:
1) Not in market for luxury car
or
2) Drive >200 miles per day
or
3) Can't install 240V outlet at your parking location
If those 3 things aren't true, and your choice is BMW v Lexus v Mercedes v Volvo v etc v Tesla, you drive less than 200 miles per day, and you can easily install an outlet...
Then a Tesla is not right for you
OR
You simply don't like the idea now or ever...and that's OK too.
Its Stan. He either trolls or thinks his situation/views are above everyone elses. Why a charger needs to be on every street corner is beyond me.
If an ignore button existed on this site i'd never see his posts.
It’s expensive obviously bht the pricing will come down and other cars will come to market.
Do have a serious question - what about heat? Heating elements are killers to electrical consumption. How do the MFGs handle that?
To me (an obvious avid fan), impact of cold weather are the biggest negatives of bEVs. Range is worse because of the electric heater (but even that not soo bad), regenerative braking doesnt work as well, and also because batteries don't perform as well in cold weather, period.
But besides that, the inside of the car heats up very quickly, no comfort issues..
This. Phevs are a practical solution, and combine electric for short trips as well as hybrid for longer ones. The Rav4 Prime has a estimated range of 600 plus miles. The Rav 4 has been a leader for years in the SUV market, so this is a no brainer if you can get one.
Going back to the EV discussion, I would not base a decision on the price of gas...but the availability of both gas and electric. California, with about a 13% market share of EV's, still has brownouts. To give you prespective, California has about 14-15 million cars total, and somewhat over 1 million EV's. There has to be MASSIVE investment in the infrastructure to support even going to 8 million EV's there.
And that's the issue everyone is skirting. Right now, Hydro and Geothermal percentages are static. We still have Natural Gas and Coal plants, but supplies for both depend more and more on foreign suppliers because of Federal policy. Instead of Nuclear Plants being built on a massive scale, they are being decomissioned. Someone is going to have to buy land and build Solar Panel Farms, and Windmills, plus figure out how to store power when the sun does not shine and the wind does not blow.
Nuclear Power (idealy Thorium) plants need to be put on a Manhattan project raceway for any of this to really work. We need to put this on fast track, and start building them as soon as the technology is there for Thorium.
That's the crux here. Either the Feds do it, and you pay more in taxes, or private enterprise invests in it...but they will expect a return to pay for the costs involved. Electricity is going to get VERY expensive as a result (when do you see Public Utility requests for more income shot down???)
In today's world with wars, supply side shortages, etc. you will also see gas shortages...we simply aren't fracking/drilling now. So you really want a car that has multiple sources to tide you over, in case one source of energy isn't available.
Oh, and someone is going to have to pay for installing all those charging stations (plus wiring,supplying electricity, maintenance of all those stations) as well. I have no idea how that would work in the Metro area.
If you really want to save money, I would suggest investing in solar panels on your house, to ease dependency on the grid.
However, Electric vehicles are a lot tougher to deal with if you don't have a house to come home to and no place to plug in at night. Still a long way to go there.
I'm not sure battery replacement cost will be that cheap. I initially read replacements were more in the $8-10k range, though the battery should last 7-8 years. I love the concept of EV and looked into it before I purchased my commuter.
As and avid grass man, new zero-turn battery replacements are around 3-4k.
What is the exact battery replacement cost and how long should the bat's hold up after 5 years use?
One will save EV though the initial cost to entry is high. If primary usage is drive to work and back, just drive a 40 mpg gas Civic and you'll be ahead of the game. It's a toss away car, so save $25-30k. Buy two!
Quote:
About 80 miles round trip plus $13ish a day in tolls. If I was to get an EV I would go for the long range versions. 220-250ish mile battery is too little for my needs (300+ is ideal). One thing to keep in mind is the mileage they advertise is in optimal conditions, warm weather etc. I am in the market for one but was considering waiting it out a bit until the competition gets tougher. Most, if not all, car companies are eesigning EVs. There will finally be some competition which hopefully will drive the price down or force Motor Vehicle Manufactures to improve on the tech.
Why do you think the range is not sufficient? You could driver back and forth to work 3 times in a day at that mileage.
As long as you have 240V charging at home, you can deplete 150 miles in a day and be fully recharged in 5 hours.
Where I live, they charge a lot more $$ for electricity during peak hours. I work the overnight shift which is significantly cheaper to charge at that time. I would be charging my car on the overnight (which is also when I have to work). Ideally I would like to get 4-5 trips in but 400 miles is not really out there yet.
Quote:
In comment 15736026 TommyWiseau said:
Quote:
About 80 miles round trip plus $13ish a day in tolls. If I was to get an EV I would go for the long range versions. 220-250ish mile battery is too little for my needs (300+ is ideal). One thing to keep in mind is the mileage they advertise is in optimal conditions, warm weather etc. I am in the market for one but was considering waiting it out a bit until the competition gets tougher. Most, if not all, car companies are eesigning EVs. There will finally be some competition which hopefully will drive the price down or force Motor Vehicle Manufactures to improve on the tech.
Why do you think the range is not sufficient? You could driver back and forth to work 3 times in a day at that mileage.
As long as you have 240V charging at home, you can deplete 150 miles in a day and be fully recharged in 5 hours.
Where I live, they charge a lot more $$ for electricity during peak hours. I work the overnight shift which is significantly cheaper to charge at that time. I would be charging my car on the overnight (which is also when I have to work). Ideally I would like to get 4-5 trips in but 400 miles is not really out there yet.
So you want to be able to drive a full week and only charge when you aren't working??
Issue there is that electric cars are not like gas where you use a bunch, then "fill up", then wait again. Best for battery is to keep it plugged in at home (if you're lucky enough to have at home) whenever you are there. Elon often says "a plugged in Tesla is a happy Tesla"
Here in the Pacific Northwest we pay 10 cents per KW and my Model 3 has a 72 KW battery, so to charge from empty to full is $7.20 for approximately 300 miles.
An ICE car that gets 25 mpg would need 12 gallons to go the same distance. You do the math.
If you want an electric car, wait about 5 years or so when the batteries are dying, and the owners are looking to dump them. Assuming you have the scratch for a new battery and the Chinese will sell them to us or you can live with the shortened range of the dying battery, you will be able to pick up that EV for practically nothing.
Quote:
In comment 15736031 moze1021 said:
Quote:
In comment 15736026 TommyWiseau said:
Quote:
About 80 miles round trip plus $13ish a day in tolls. If I was to get an EV I would go for the long range versions. 220-250ish mile battery is too little for my needs (300+ is ideal). One thing to keep in mind is the mileage they advertise is in optimal conditions, warm weather etc. I am in the market for one but was considering waiting it out a bit until the competition gets tougher. Most, if not all, car companies are eesigning EVs. There will finally be some competition which hopefully will drive the price down or force Motor Vehicle Manufactures to improve on the tech.
Why do you think the range is not sufficient? You could driver back and forth to work 3 times in a day at that mileage.
As long as you have 240V charging at home, you can deplete 150 miles in a day and be fully recharged in 5 hours.
Where I live, they charge a lot more $$ for electricity during peak hours. I work the overnight shift which is significantly cheaper to charge at that time. I would be charging my car on the overnight (which is also when I have to work). Ideally I would like to get 4-5 trips in but 400 miles is not really out there yet.
So you want to be able to drive a full week and only charge when you aren't working??
Issue there is that electric cars are not like gas where you use a bunch, then "fill up", then wait again. Best for battery is to keep it plugged in at home (if you're lucky enough to have at home) whenever you are there. Elon often says "a plugged in Tesla is a happy Tesla"
I can’t charge while working. I wanted to charge it overnight (the cheapest time). I work 5 days a week. I guess I could use my ICE car on the 3rd or 4th Day so it charges back up while I go to work with my ICE vehicle. Like I said, where I am at it is around 4x more expensive to charge during the day then it is at night.
Go search for 2012 era Model S used, they are out there...
Quote:
In comment 15736540 TommyWiseau said:
Quote:
In comment 15736031 moze1021 said:
Quote:
In comment 15736026 TommyWiseau said:
Quote:
About 80 miles round trip plus $13ish a day in tolls. If I was to get an EV I would go for the long range versions. 220-250ish mile battery is too little for my needs (300+ is ideal). One thing to keep in mind is the mileage they advertise is in optimal conditions, warm weather etc. I am in the market for one but was considering waiting it out a bit until the competition gets tougher. Most, if not all, car companies are eesigning EVs. There will finally be some competition which hopefully will drive the price down or force Motor Vehicle Manufactures to improve on the tech.
Why do you think the range is not sufficient? You could driver back and forth to work 3 times in a day at that mileage.
As long as you have 240V charging at home, you can deplete 150 miles in a day and be fully recharged in 5 hours.
Where I live, they charge a lot more $$ for electricity during peak hours. I work the overnight shift which is significantly cheaper to charge at that time. I would be charging my car on the overnight (which is also when I have to work). Ideally I would like to get 4-5 trips in but 400 miles is not really out there yet.
So you want to be able to drive a full week and only charge when you aren't working??
Issue there is that electric cars are not like gas where you use a bunch, then "fill up", then wait again. Best for battery is to keep it plugged in at home (if you're lucky enough to have at home) whenever you are there. Elon often says "a plugged in Tesla is a happy Tesla"
I can’t charge while working. I wanted to charge it overnight (the cheapest time). I work 5 days a week. I guess I could use my ICE car on the 3rd or 4th Day so it charges back up while I go to work with my ICE vehicle. Like I said, where I am at it is around 4x more expensive to charge during the day then it is at night.
Yeah I understood what you meant...was just saying that such a plan isn't really great for the electric car and the electricity rate difference is probably less than the difference between gas and high cost electric
Its been widely agreed that this is false. The levels are below the levels that are considered dangerous
I have the Mach E. It's a wonderful car. 350hp is more than most ICE Mustangs and 4.7 second 0-60 time is better than most too.
Instant reaction..throw your head and guts to back of seat type acceleration.. regenerative braking..
Then expanding on the experience: getting over the air software updates routinely to give new features/experience... it's just so much fun!
Example: you think to yourself: hey wouldn't it be cool if my blindspot cameras came up on the screen when I put my turn signal on to change lanes?.. boom, Tesla does a software update and now your car does that when it was never a thought when you bought your car.
In comment 15736751 MartyNJ1969 said:
Quote:
might be blasphemous, the Mustang Mach-E looks really compelling. I'm definitely going to check it out when my current car's lease is up.
I have the Mach E. It's a wonderful car. 350hp is more than most ICE Mustangs and 4.7 second 0-60 time is better than most too.
Plus one could get a dual motor AWD Mach-E with 480 hp and 600 lb-ft of torque, giving you 0-60 in 3.5.
Teslas are very nice, but I'd probably want a Mach E or another EV to be different.
Instant reaction..throw your head and guts to back of seat type acceleration.. regenerative braking..
EVs are fun within the context they are EVs, but for me it's very hard for them to replace the joy of driving ICE vehicles.
In an ideal world, one would have a luxury EV for daily driving purposes. When driving has to be ultra practical and boring, IMO there's nothing better because from a truly objective perspective there are no "weaknesses" to the car. Smooth, handle very well, fast. The regenerative braking could be seen slightly as a negative for lack of smoothness, but having put on 100 miles in various Teslas, it's not so bad.
But lack of sound and transmission is a major downside for an enthusiast car. 0-60 under 4 seconds is a lot of fun in an ICE car, but for an EV is just a temporary thrill. An enthusiast would never want to see ICE cars go extinct. If you don't agree then you're not a hardcore car enthusiast.
Performance hybrids work very well, complementing their strengths superbly.
From my research a ton of new EVs will come out in the next 2 years. That should drop the price down as their will be more quantity. I could wait another year. In the meantime I’ll probably buy a used fuel efficient car to drive, instead of the 6 cylinder SUV I currently have.
Yeah, they're amazing and blow Tesla's out of the water. Pricey sure, but with a 500+ mile range, Id take it.