It's a difficult line to walk. Trying not to let great get in the way of good, but wondering how the tech will depreciate while big leaps in EVs are made each year.
Hence why I bought gently used.
Poll: Do you have, or plan to get, an electric car?
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It's a difficult line to walk. Trying not to let great get in the way of good, but wondering how the tech will depreciate while big leaps in EVs are made each year.
Hence why I bought gently used.
I need to review what has been happening with the Leaf.
I love the teslas. ONLY because they are stealthy and quick. And the large screen in the middle. Battery doesn't really interest me, and frankly seems like a problem. But stealthy, oh yea.
But I now must have Ram Longhorn, 10th anniv addition. OMG. This fall, it will happen. Mucho gas, but I don't drive much. I'm born in Texas, and I must have the truck. Thanks for listening.
But I now must have Ram Longhorn, 10th anniv addition. OMG. This fall, it will happen. Mucho gas, but I don't drive much. I'm born in Texas, and I must have the truck. Thanks for listening.
My father in law is a big time ram truck fan. He actually doesn't drive much anymore due to poor eyesight, but he has his truck so he can pull the boat. I foresee our nephew getting really good at driving his truck with the boat before he goes to college.
IMHO touchscreens are profoundly stupid in automobiles.
If you have a tactile button, or switch, or dial, etc, you can usually use it without taking your eyes off the road.
In order to engage with a touchscreen, by definition you have to look away from the road to see what you're pressing or not pressing.
Touchscreens may lower prices for the automakers, and allow for greater configurability because their controls are software-defined.
But I don't think they improve on-road safety.
OK. I'll bet you're the only person to never tap your phone screen while driving. I wish I was that virtuous, but I'm not.
I do prefer a dial for volume. That's ALWAYS available on the steering wheel. But if you're navigating pandora/spotify/podcasts/etc, it's far easier to tap the screen. I don't read texts etc while driving, but I do use the various features that carplay offers, and Imma here to tell you that touchscreen is faster than some sort of wheel that sorts through the various options. All of it requires eyes on a screen.
Some things definitely make sense to have buttons and dials for. To go completely to touch screen sounds like a bad idea.
My Jeep locks me out of certain touchscreen things when the vehicle isn't in park. I like the idea in theory, but in practice it can be rather frustrating.
My Jeep locks me out of certain touchscreen things when the vehicle isn't in park. I like the idea in theory, but in practice it can be rather frustrating.
Bilsch
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It’s included with the car and will do a full 260 mile charge overnight. It plugs into a nema 14-50 outlet which I put I’m myself for less than a Benjamin. If I need faster then it’s off to the supercharger.
Current Tesla battery chemistry is rated for a half a million miles so I seriously doubt I’ll need a new one. Next battery version due out this year will be good for a million miles.
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Bilsch
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Remember though that Tesla’s were designed with autonomous driving in mind. Also if you need to take your eyes off the road for a moment you simply turn on the autopilot. Since the car looks in every direction with both vision and radar and is never distracted.. it is safer then a human.
I actually do make a very significant effort to never touch my phone screen while driving. At stop lights, yes. But I put it down as soon as my foot comes off the brake pedal.......... Most of the time. I'm certainly not perfect.
I recognize cars have so many features and so much "infotainment" now that you can't have a button/switch/dial for everything. But I do honestly believe that the more controls you have available by feel rather than by sight, the safer.
Tesla's getting there, but I don't consider a car autonomous or self-driving until it's Level 5 -- or at least Level 4 and it disables itself if it can't make a decision. As in I can be passed out drunk in the "driver's" seat and have no legal ramifications from the police for the car driving me home on its own.
Even Tesla says you should always be alert and ready to take over for the car at all times, right?
Sounds like Fedex wants to convert their fleet to all electric by 2040
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Ok. So either really slow or really expensive. Got it.
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Yeah, maybe in 20 years the technology will be there.
The tech is already available. Tesla has semi trucks, either prototypes or ready to order, right now. In the last month I've seen GM and others showing off EV parcel delivery vehicles they plan on selling this decade.
I haven't looked into how exactly they're going to tackle the range/charging issues. I think that this would be a fantastic chance to try out swappable batteries. I think sometime in the last month or two I linked to a story about a Chinese company that was swapping subscribers EV batteries as an alternative to charging (although charging is still the primary means of getting your vehicle from a low battery charge state to a high battery charge state, sometimes you just can't wait for 20 miles per hour of charge).
Then again, there are rules for how long a driver can be on the road anyway. And some (probably more than I'm thinking) loads could just be passed like a baton from one driver that needs to rest and recharge to one that is rested and fully charged.
I haven't looked into how exactly they're going to tackle the range/charging issues. I think that this would be a fantastic chance to try out swappable batteries. I think sometime in the last month or two I linked to a story about a Chinese company that was swapping subscribers EV batteries as an alternative to charging (although charging is still the primary means of getting your vehicle from a low battery charge state to a high battery charge state, sometimes you just can't wait for 20 miles per hour of charge).
Then again, there are rules for how long a driver can be on the road anyway. And some (probably more than I'm thinking) loads could just be passed like a baton from one driver that needs to rest and recharge to one that is rested and fully charged.
Bilsch
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Meh. If someone's gonna drop some huge bills on me, I hope it's enough to cover one of these 
https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a35448659/2022-audi-e-tron-gt-rs-revealed-photos-specs-msrp/
https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a35448659/2022-audi-e-tron-gt-rs-revealed-photos-specs-msrp/
Meh. If someone's gonna drop some huge bills on me, I hope it's enough to cover one of these
https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a35448659/2022-audi-e-tron-gt-rs-revealed-photos-specs-msrp/
50 grand (that couldn't go to towards other obligations) plus the value of my car would hopefully get me a nice down payment on an EV that could tow that trailer. Then I'd get that trailer. Probably without the kitchen but with a big battery, good panels, and a fridge.
I like the outdoors, but I'm not the type who needs to go rough it out in the middle of nowhere for a week. A couple hour hike is enough for me before I get back on the road to clean up and eat something.
I love the styling of the E-trons however the 2021 Model S is boasting some big numbers. For those of you who don't want to read yet another car review, here is an excerpt
https://www.caranddriver.com/tesla/model-s
https://www.caranddriver.com/tesla/model-s
100% agree. I have an older Land Cruiser that's insanely easy to navigate the controls on by feel. I never take my eyes off the road because I've mapped the buttons in my head. Biggest downside is no volume control on the steering wheel so I'm required to take one hand off the steering wheel to adjust volume or change the station. Appleplay is great but messing around with a sub-menu while in traffic is just asking for an accident.
This ^^^^ is also me. I have an older 03' Tahoe for the big stuff, can tow everything I have, and plenty of room for the camping trips with the kiddos.
As a daily driver tho, even with the sub $2.00/gal fuel costs we have been seeing during the dark times... it adds up.
Even with my regular commute being 72mi round trip, M-F, an EV could easily be charged overnight with a standard NEMA14 30/50A outlet.
Agreed, the used market needs to fill up a bit more. I wouldn't buy a new ICE car at today's prices either...
@Bilsch I did not know that. I know the big-T had some of the best battery tech in the business but that's pretty damn impressive. Does Tesla give any idea of what typical degridation to expect from it's battery packs per year or number of charge cycles?
This is off-topic, but gas prices this low still exist in the US?
There is data to suggest that batteries from several mfgs can last upwards of 1 million miles. That's on-the-road driving. Then, once the battery drops below that threshold, the cells can be repurposed for grid-tie storage/powerwall use-cases, and run in this capacity for many years afterward.
THEN...once the powerwall goes kaput, there is cell recycling just beginning to come online. Doesn't have to be your powerwall either, could be another company refurbs the car battery and sells it as a powerwall to somebody else.
There are alot of places these batteries will find use.
AFA the Level-2 charger, you can generally get a 30 or 50A outlet installed for less than $1k, including labor. Then you can get a Level-2 charger like this one for $700.
The million miles I was referring to, IIRC, was from several Tesla vehicles. They were hitting crazy high mileage before the packs were unable to charge past 80% of their new capacity. At this point they are ready for "Act 2" of their lives as powerwalls.
EDIT: I had my metric/imperial units mixed up (Good thing I don't work for NASA....) - in 2019 Teslas started hitting 1 million Kilometers, which is 621,000 miles. Still, not too shabby.
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I think that about this time last year Saudi Arabia and Russia were getting all upset with each other and had a price war. Combine that with domestic production and gas prices were absurdly low, right when shutdowns/lockdowns/quarantine/whatever were being announced and we hadn't all grown accustomed to living with Covid. So driving had been reduced significantly, and people weren't really taking advantage of the low price.
The new RAV4 Prime is interesting to me. The 40 mile all electric range could get me back and forth to work for maybe 3 days. I know it’s similar to the old Volt but it’s roomier and awd. The only problem is Toyota’s don’t lose value, so prices won’t come down for used vehicles for quite some time.
Anyone here have a RAV4 Prime?
Anyone here have a RAV4 Prime?
I meant that as a tounge-in-cheek joke about the high cost of fuel in Ca. It was partially due to a fuel tax increase in the latter part of 2019. I did see regular get as low as $2.35 in April which was nice. It was cheaper to run the Prime in hybrid than pure EV.
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One of my cousins just got one and she loves it. Says it has decent power and great mileage. She drives a considerable amount for her job and is loving the fuel savings.
That’s actually quite impressive. Love the recycling aspect via powerwall.The million miles I was referring to, IIRC, was from several Tesla vehicles. They were hitting crazy high mileage before the packs were unable to charge past 80% of their new capacity. At this point they are ready for "Act 2" of their lives as powerwalls.
EDIT: I had my metric/imperial units mixed up (Good thing I don't work for NASA....) - in 2019 Teslas started hitting 1 million Kilometers, which is 621,000 miles. Still, not too shabby.
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Meh. If someone's gonna drop some huge bills on me, I hope it's enough to cover one of these
https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a35448659/2022-audi-e-tron-gt-rs-revealed-photos-specs-msrp/
That e-Tron is sweet. I was a reluctant convert-in-waiting for the 'system' to mature and infrastructure to be established. Then two years ago we were visiting a cousin and his family in SoCal. He's an electrical engineer, she's a PhD microbiologist, one daughter in college. They're a 3-Tesla family. Yeah. Three Teslas. We flew into John Wayne (SNA), and merging onto the 405 he kicked it into Ludicrous Mode. Reminded me of a catapult shot off an aircraft carrier.
Try as I may, Momma Bear wouldn't relent to allow me to get a Model S. Now it looks like we'll be buying our son's 2019 Prius Plus plug-in hybrid, since Baby #3 is on the way and daughter-in-law can't fit another child seat in the electric Toyota. For a number of reasons she mostly drove it on the ICE drive train, so the battery pack should have quite a few charge cycles left. I finally have an excuse for that 50 Amp circuit for the occasional RV plug in between road trips, and double duty for a high capacity charging station.
Guess that Audi's just gonna' have to wait a while longer.
Brooo Brother
@Brooothru As a Prius prime owner, I have some disappointing news on the amount of acceleration you can expect vs the Model S.
Particularly when the beehive under the hood starts buzzing.
Particularly when the beehive under the hood starts buzzing.
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Yeah, I know only too well. My Go Fast days have pretty much Gone and Went!
No more muscle cars from the 60s or two seat roadsters from the 70s. Since the 80s we've been a two Volvo family, with a smattering of vans and pickup trucks when need dictated. That and an occasional RV. "Fast" has long since become "Past".
Brooo Brother
Bilsch
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Since more EVs are supporting V2L (Vehicle To Load) where you can use the car as a power source when parked, how long until we see someone with an electric brew setup drive out to a mountain stream and brew an electric batch of beer completely off-grid? Sure you could do that with a gas car and generator (or propane brew setup) but where's the fun in that?
Rivian and Lordstown Motors both have said they'd have outlets for power tools, and Hyundai's Ioniq 5 which appears to be aimed at mainstream consumers will have too!
The Hyundai Ioniq 5's cleverest trick happens when the EV is standing still - SlashGear
Just don't do it in a Tesla. :-(
If You Care About Your Tesla's Warranty, Don't Use It to Power Your Home (topspeed.com)
Sure you could do that with a gas car and generator (or propane brew setup) but where's the fun in that?Rivian and Lordstown Motors both have said they'd have outlets for power tools, and Hyundai's Ioniq 5 which appears to be aimed at mainstream consumers will have too!
The Hyundai Ioniq 5's cleverest trick happens when the EV is standing still - SlashGear
Just don't do it in a Tesla. :-(
If You Care About Your Tesla's Warranty, Don't Use It to Power Your Home (topspeed.com)
dwhite60
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Just read a story on another forum where the poster took his Honda Insight to the dealer for a new battery. Claims the dealer told him $9K.
Said someone they work with heard him talking about it. Guy said he had a Chevy Volt and it was $16K.
I'm sure they probably saved that in gas but they didn't bank it away.
Said someone they work with heard him talking about it. Guy said he had a Chevy Volt and it was $16K.
I'm sure they probably saved that in gas but they didn't bank it away.
TwistedGray
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