Is there an EV in your future?

bigrebnc1775 · Apr 15, 2022

DGS49 said:
Guide to Every EV for Sale in U.S. for 2023

Use this quick guide to find the EV with the right efficiency, range, and price for you, from the practical Chevy Bolt to the exotic Porsche Taycan.

www.caranddriver.com

I have linked a recent summary of currently-available EV's in the U.S. Other models are slowly dribbling into the marketplace. Most are priced out of the range of most consumers, although with the combination of the possible (up to) $7,500 tax credit and the fuel cost savings, if your budget for your next ICE car was $X, then you might be able to budge 1.15*X for an EV, provided you are comfortable with your own charging infrastructure where you live.

I'm not sure how the EPA calculates MPGE (miles per gallon equivalent), but it doesn't really matter. The number is there for you to compare one car with another, not to calculate your energy cost, month to month. For most purposes, 100 is "good" and much less than that starts to compromise whether it is beneficial to get an EV at all.

While skeptics abound, there is no question that EV's are LIKELY to be less troublesome and longer-lasting than a comparable ICE car. There is no radiator, no exhaust system, no electronic nannies to keep you from destroying the planet, and so on. Electric motors are, according to many reports, lasting longer than warranted or expected. As the market matures, there will be both OEM's and aftermarket shops that will replace individual dead cells, to spare you the cost of a five-figure replacement cost when the time inevitably comes. Parenthetically, I was in Amsterdam a few years ago, and was surprised to see almost the entire taxi fleet driving Telsa Model S sedans. THEY were reporting battery life of at least 500k km (300k miles), before the fully-charged, indicated range dropped below 80% of new. After that, I understand that it drops rather quickly.

The Tesla Model 3 continues to outshine all other CARS in its class. The price, range, and features are superior to the others, even though there is no longer any tax credit available. The Mustang also looks good, as does the Ionic5. VW is selling a shitload of ID4's in Europe, although there is nothing on the spec sheet that makes the mouth water.

The value of used EV's (almost all Tesla) is artificially depressed by horror stories about the cost of battery replacement, but I suspect that this issue is overblown. If you get a $90k Model S for thirty grand, then have to spend ten thousand replacing the battery, you still have a great car at a great price. And as I say, there is an emerging market of shops who will replace only the dead cells for a fraction of the cost.

One issue that I've wondered about is the issue of TRACTION. A lot of American car buyers, especially in the former snow belt (diminished due to Climate Change) are neurotic about winter driving and believe they need AWD in every vehicle in order to command the road. But I wonder...if you have an EV with the MOTOR over the drive wheels, coupled with good all-season tires and all-speed traction control, that vehicle should do perfectly well in all conditions up to a foot of snow, in which case you should stay home anyway.

While I won't get a vote, I will encourage my wife to trade her 3-series for an EV when the time comes in a year or so.

Any other/conflicting thoughts?

Fuck no but I have seen an advertisement for an electric bicycle that I might be interested in.

petro · Apr 15, 2022

I put on too many daily miles with long unpredictable commutes working in construction. Need to carry tools.
Also need a larger vehicle to tow the camper or boat into remote areas where even gas stations are sparse and charger stations don't exist.
Safe to say I will never own an EV.
Nothing against multiple vehicle technologies, but don't mandate preference or behaviors based on a false premise of reduced environmental impacts.

Mr Natural · Apr 15, 2022

In 50 years, they'll be laughing at us and our gasoline powered cars.

odanny · Apr 15, 2022

I got behind a white Tesla today with dark tinted windows and black wheels, and as I sat there at a red light, I was just struck by how beautiful a car that it is. It easily competes with European sports cars, and obliterates American and Japanese cars when it comes to styling. I'm envious of those who drive these cars. Having a glass roof is pretty cool, too.

Missourian · Apr 15, 2022

Mr Clean said:
In 50 years, they'll be laughing at us and our gasoline powered cars.

task0778 · Apr 15, 2022

Is there an EV in my future?

NO. EVs might make sense for urban dwellers, although I would rather upgrade and use public transportation and have less cars. But they ain't the answer for too many other people. I think it won't be too long before we develop an alternative fuel that is environmentally clean and cheap.

krichton · May 6, 2022

Bob Blaylock said:
It's only more convenient if you have a charger at home, and a charger where you work, so you can leave it charging when you're not driving it.

It is much more convenient to find a gasoline station to fuel up a conventional car, on the way home from work, than it is to find a charging station to charge an electric car, and then to have to wait there for hours for the car to charge. If the point is ever going to be reached when an electric car will be as convenient in this manner, I very much doubt if I will live to see that point.

I just recently learned that a good friend and colleague of mine, someone I would have expected to be smart enough to know better, bought an electric vehicle some time ago, and is learning the hard way what a bad idea it is for someone in our profession. I guess he has a charger at home, so he's OK as long as he gets projects nearby. But on more distant projects, he has to waste a lot of time, and go quite far out of his way, to get his car charged. Car chargers Are rarely, if ever found at construction sites, where whatever is ultimately to be there is still being built, and there are still plenty of places where there simply isn't a charger within fifty miles or so.

A single 15 minute charge will give you 200 miles on your tesla. A 5 minute charge will give you 70 miles, and so on and so forth. Charge for hours? At home yes, but at a supercharger on the road? Uh, no. Stop spreading this nonsense.

Bob Blaylock · May 6, 2022

krichton said:
A single 15 minute charge will give you 200 miles on your tesla. A 5 minute charge will give you 70 miles, and so on and so forth. Charge for hours? At home yes, but at a supercharger on the road? Uh, no. Stop spreading this nonsense.

Let me know when the point is reached where you can charge an electric car at a rate comparable to pumping gasoline into a real car. If I'm still alive when/if that point is ever reached.

Blues Man · May 6, 2022

petro said:
I put on too many daily miles with long unpredictable commutes working in construction. Need to carry tools.
Also need a larger vehicle to tow the camper or boat into remote areas where even gas stations are sparse and charger stations don't exist.
Safe to say I will never own an EV.
Nothing against multiple vehicle technologies, but don't mandate preference or behaviors based on a false premise of reduced environmental impacts.

Yeah the thing is the larger the vehicle the less sense an EV actually makes.

If the argument is that an EV is better for the environment at least.

There is a tipping point correlated to miles driven when an EV becomes cleaner that an ICE vehicle because the production of EVs is actually dirtier than the production of ICE cars.

For example your average compact EV will actually reach that tipping point in less than 15K miles but a full sized electric SUV won;t reach that tipping point until almost 100K miles

westwall · May 6, 2022

krichton said:
A single 15 minute charge will give you 200 miles on your tesla. A 5 minute charge will give you 70 miles, and so on and so forth. Charge for hours? At home yes, but at a supercharger on the road? Uh, no. Stop spreading this nonsense.

Your numbers are fantasy. I recently drove to Phoenix. A acquaintance with a Tesla did the same drive, and we left at nearly the same time.

I beat him by 13 hours.

krichton · May 6, 2022

Bob Blaylock said:
Let me know when the point is reached where you can charge an electric car at a rate comparable to pumping gasoline into a real car. If I'm still alive when/if that point is ever reached.

It'll probably happen within the next 5-7 years. I'm sorry you're so old now you'll never see it.

westwall said:
Your numbers are fantasy. I recently drove to Phoenix. A acquaintance with a Tesla did the same drive, and we left at nearly the same time.

I beat him by 13 hours.

I'll tell you what is a fantasy, thinking that you can outpace a tesla by 13 hours over a 500 something mile stretch.

westwall · May 6, 2022

krichton said:
It'll probably happen within the next 5-7 years. I'm sorry you're so old now you'll never see it.

I'll tell you what is a fantasy, thinking that you can outpace a tesla by 13 hours over a 500 something mile stretch.

Yeah, only it happened. He blew by me multiple times, but we would catch up as he was doing a charge. We passed him in Hawthorne, Tonapah, and he had to stop in Vegas for a full charge because he couldn't afford to do the damage to his battery with another quick charge.

That's a little feature they don't talk about too much. Rapid charging kills battery cycle life.

Alan Stallion · May 6, 2022