Poll: Do you have, or plan to get, an electric car?

[Airborneguy]

I own a Model 3 Performance. All I can say is I am never going back to ICE.

 

[bleme]

Tesla officially makes its charging standard available to other companies | CNN Business

I'm confused. I thought Musk offered this patent for free from the very start...

https://techcrunch.com/2016/05/26/t...-sustainability-for-transport-and-for-itself/

 

[Kent88]

I'm confused. I thought Musk offered this patent for free from the very start...

https://techcrunch.com/2016/05/26/t...-sustainability-for-transport-and-for-itself/

Musk confuses me a lot.

 

[Airborneguy]

I believe this is different because it will allow non-Teslas to use Superchargers.

It’s a terrible mistake for him because as much as I love my Model 3, the aesthetics are becoming stale. With so many more options - most much better looking - becoming available, Tesla’s only superior product will soon be its charging network. If I can access Superchargers with another EV, I can almost guarantee my next one won’t be a Tesla.

(Posted as my car drives itself )

 

[Kent88]

Car aesthetics are also something I don't understand.

But I think I remember reading that Tesla was going to put in some standard chargers in their supercharger network as a way to drum up interest in their cars with non-Tesla EV owners.

But I really don't want.

 

[day_trippr]

They are clearly enabling, but I'd be surprised if Tesla's charging fleet is a profitable venture for them. Encouraging the adoption of Supercharger tech by other companies would mean more chargers for Teslas making them that much more practical to the car buying public while costing Tesla nothing...

Cheers!

 

[z-bob]

Electric cars make a lot of sense as a small "city car" for daily driving around town. I might own one someday for that purpose. But not for a primary vehicle; there's no infrastructure yet for long trips in an electric (hybrids are okay.) In 40 years that might be different, but the powers that be are currently pushing for a lot sooner adoption than that (like they think unlimited electricity is available now, just plug it in, duh!) and are ignoring the problems.

I test drove a Prius a few years ago and didn't hate it nearly as much as I wanted to.

 

[Airborneguy]

I drove from NJ to Florida after Ian in my Tesla with one hours notice. Took a random route on the way back 3 days later just because I wanted different scenery.

40 years? Forty years ago we barely had computers.

I’m hunting in the middle of nowhere 3 hours from home right now. Showed up with 30%. No worries at all. The limitations aren’t what you think. If you haven’t done it, you’re guessing. I’m not being facetious. It’s just the truth.

 

[Airborneguy]

I made the jump because I drive roughly 2500 miles per month, well above average. It’s a no brainer. I never need to charge on the road except for longer trips. My most expensive electric bill this summer was under $300 - that’s my whole house AND my car. I used to spend $300-400 per month on gas alone.

Unless you drive 300 miles every day, EV life is MORE convenient than gas. By far. No more waiting on lines at the cheaper gas stations (still ripping you off). No more pumping gas in bad weather. No more oil changes. I can warm my car up in my garage. I can carry my whole family with luggage in the trunk and frunk and still merge into traffic faster than a Corvette. No brainer.

 

[Kent88]

Electric cars make a lot of sense as a small "city car" for daily driving around town. I might own one someday for that purpose. But not for a primary vehicle; there's no infrastructure yet for long trips in an electric (hybrids are okay.) In 40 years that might be different, but the powers that be are currently pushing for a lot sooner adoption than that (like they think unlimited electricity is available now, just plug it in, duh!) and are ignoring the problems.

I test drove a Prius a few years ago and didn't hate it nearly as much as I wanted to.

Extended discussion of some of these things would be better in Debate (like who they are and to what degree they're pushing, and what's being done done to improve charging infrastructure).

But one thing I keep going back to is: what do you ask your vehicles to do now. When I bought my PHEV I really thought about what I had asked from the vehicle I was trading in for it. A BEV was an option we were considering, so I looked at the distance vs vehicle range, and at the routes I normally take on my common "road trips" and where I could find fast charging.

We eventually settled on a PHEV. But now that we have another passenger we're considering a different, larger vehicle, and we're looking at BEVs again. With the expansion of charging networks and improved range I really don't think that we'll have a problem with a BEV.

 

[day_trippr]

At least one of our three vehicles has to drag ~5K pounds worth of boat and trailer, and the last legit review I read of the Ford electric pickup was horrible wrt trailering. I'd be lucky to make it from my primary residence to our family house up in NH with the performance quoted...

 

[Kent88]

At least one of our three vehicles has to drag ~5K pounds worth of boat and trailer, and the last legit review I read of the Ford electric pickup was horrible wrt trailering. I'd be lucky to make it from my primary residence to our family house up in NH with the performance quoted...

I've seen a few hit pieces out on the Lightning. I do believe that EVs need to charge faster and there need to be more charging stations to make it easier on towing vehicles, but I also remember the kind of mileage we'd get with our farm truck towing a full livestock trailer.

In your case, it reminds me of my in-laws who love to fish. They rarely take their boat more than 100 miles from their house. Every other year they go on a big out of state trip, but that's an outlier.

 

[day_trippr]

I need to go 150 miles from house to house, a good chunk of it into the White Mountains.
And we do it a few times each year - 4 times in 2022.

It takes my Durango a little over 2 hours with enough gas for the return home. I wouldn't need an electric to match that - presumably it could charge up at our mountain house - but certainly make an up or down trip in one go without stopping for a charge...

Cheers!

 

[Kent88]

Wow my sense of distance regarding the US north east is messed up.

150 miles, with charging available on either end, is certainly doable without the trailer. I don't want to guess what your boat&trailer, and the ascents into mountains would do to range. If you have a boat like my in-laws and not too steep of climbs to make I would guess that one well placed DC fast charger around the middle would be all you'd need with something like a Lightning. If you had two pretty evenly spaced through your trip, I don't think you'd have much range anxiety.

But I don't know what boat you have, nor the grade of the climbs you make.

 

[tracer bullet]

We are so much the opposite of some here. My wife has a 5 mile drive each way into work where she only needs to go 2 or 3 days a week. I have a 4 mile drive each way into work where I go daily but often bike in the summer. Our gasoline bills are not even worth paying attention to.

She'll almost certainly get an EV the next time around. I'm still a bit stuck on wanting ICE in a performance car. It'd be a long time before either of us makes up the EV premium in saved gas, or from an emissions standpoint.

Not saying we won't do it, and predict for at least one of us we will. But we tend to both keep cars a decade or more (they are '11, '15 and '15) and clearly don't drive a lot of miles each year.

 

[Airborneguy]

If my routine was less than 10 miles a day I’d be driving a beast of a truck.

 

[Kent88]

We are so much the opposite of some here. My wife has a 5 mile drive each way into work where she only needs to go 2 or 3 days a week. I have a 4 mile drive each way into work where I go daily but often bike in the summer. Our gasoline bills are not even worth paying attention to.

She'll almost certainly get an EV the next time around. I'm still a bit stuck on wanting ICE in a performance car. It'd be a long time before either of us makes up the EV premium in saved gas, or from an emissions standpoint.

Not saying we won't do it, and predict for at least one of us we will. But we tend to both keep cars a decade or more (they are '11, '15 and '15) and clearly don't drive a lot of miles each year.

We tend to keep our vehicles for a certain number of miles, which has been coming out to about 8 years. If we end up trading our PHEV in it'll be the shortest I've been a primary driver of a vehicle in about a decade.

I told my spouse that we couldn't buy a house near her workplace because I need her to have a proper divide between work and off-work time. I wouldn't mind our next house being 5-7 miles closer.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

But one thing I keep going back to is: what do you ask your vehicles to do now. When I bought my PHEV I really thought about what I had asked from the vehicle I was trading in for it. A BEV was an option we were considering, so I looked at the distance vs vehicle range, and at the routes I normally take on my common "road trips" and where I could find fast charging.

We eventually settled on a PHEV. But now that we have another passenger we're considering a different, larger vehicle, and we're looking at BEVs again. With the expansion of charging networks and improved range I really don't think that we'll have a problem with a BEV.

I think this is key. The question of BEV is very personal, and based on what you need from a vehicle, what you're willing to spend, whether you own or rent and have access to home charging, etc.

I bought my car in 2017. I needed a vehicle with 3rd row seating. I never buy new cars; I prefer low-mileage used and let someone else eat the depreciation. The only viable EV on the market that met my needs was the Model X, and starting at something like $70K I simply wasn't going there. I ended up buying a low-mileage Ford Flex for $26K.

At the time, the charging infrastructure was FAR less than now. The maturity of the EV market was far below where it is even today. So I think it was a prudent decision that an EV wasn't the right car for me.

Now, I plan to keep the Flex at least another 5 years for when the kids start going off to college and can downsize to something smaller. I primarily WFH so it's not like I am putting tons of miles on it and will need to replace it sooner.

By the time we get to 2027, the entire EV market will have changed from where it was in 2017, and will be significantly different than what it is now in 2022. There should be a fairly robust used market by that point and we'll all have had enough EVs on the road to know if buying used is viable (didn't know that in 2017, probably already do now in 2022 but I haven't researched).

By the time I make my next car purchase, my needs will have changed, the EV market will have changed, so I think there's a high probability my next car will be a BEV. But it wasn't right in 2017 and there's no reason for me to upgrade now, so I'm not getting one anytime soon.

 

[Kent88]

The only viable EV on the market that met my needs was the Model X, and starting at something like $70K I simply wasn't going there.

The big reason I'm not super enthusiastic about Tesla. I appreciate how they're making EVs stylish and sporty, and they have a fantastic charging network, but I don't think one can purchase a new Tesla for under $39,000.

I chat with Tesla owners at the charging stations when I get a chance. I've heard a few complaints about them, but nobody I speak with has been upset with their purchase.

 

[El Whedo]

I'm a homebody. I rarely leave my village. When I travel around my village I walk everywhere. So no need for anything but LPC's or a bicycle at home.

But when I travel (mostly for work... stocking up at jewelry supply stores or dropping off at galleries) it's usually a 3+ hour trip each way in the mountains and half of the year with snow/ice.

Any vehicle I drive is gonna have to have 4WD, or all wheel drive. It's also gonna have to have a manual tranny and be able to drive for 3-6 hours straight.

I drive an '06 Subaru Outback with AWD, a close ratio manual 5 speed, and lots of inside storage. I average MPG in the low to mid 30's. When it started losing compression and MPG and there were too many small repairs, I replaced the motor with a new shortblock from Subaru and built it up with all new parts. It's probably good for another quarter million miles.

I believe in solar. I have a travel/emergency setup I built with 450W of panels, 660WH of storage, and a inverter and adjustable DC powersupply. I also have redneck engineered a solar hotwater supply for my garage/workshop.

I believe in electric vehicles. I just don't see the need for one personally when I have a basically brand new (16 year old) stationwagon. Maybe in the future when there are electric vehicles that would suit my needs. If I lived in a city I'd definitely buy one.

 

[PCABrewing]

40 years? Forty years ago we barely had computers.

Well, they weren't as widely used as today but they definitely were in use AND controlling test labs at Argonne National Laboratory.
The batteries that were being tested there were the seed of the batteries in use today for EV's. Big difference is that they operated at a several hundred degrees.
They also had a car that they had converted to electric as a prototype test bed for EV development. This is back in the last half of the 1970s.
The technology hasn't evolved as quickly as you might think.
There is also the work on Hydrogen fuel cells that has been going on just as long.
Maybe about the time the charging network gets built-out fuel cells could come to the forefront.
Political focus can change the trajectory of technology, for better or worse.

 

[Airborneguy]

Hydrogen has one major downside: you have to go somewhere else to get it.

After living the EV life, I’ll never buy another vehicle that I cannot fuel at home. Losing that amazing convenience is a non-starter for me.

 

[Kent88]

After living the EV life, I’ll never buy another vehicle that I cannot fuel at home. Losing that amazing convenience is a non-starter for me.

It really is an amazing convenience!

 

[PCABrewing]

Hydrogen has one major downside: you have to go somewhere else to get it.

Well, most of my trips are local, so I could do just fine with the home charging mode.

But when I do go farther it is usually 3-700 miles, many times into a country (rural) setting where I would not be likely to find a charging station (for now). In those cases, I am stuck with the same issue of "have to go somewhere else to get it".

 

[Airborneguy]

It will be interesting to see if the car companies (and the market) can support two technologies going forward, or if one - most likely electric - can indeed fit all needs eventually.

I roadtrip often (I’m sort of on one now). I know there’s tradeoffs, but people tend to make decisions based on worst case/edge case rather than as Kent said, what they actually need their purchase to do the vast majority of the time.

For me, it fits 99% of my driving needs BETTER than ICE, so I am willing to accept the longer stops on roadtrips.

 

[PCABrewing]

It will be interesting to see if the car companies (and the market) can support two technologies going forward, or if one - most likely electric - can indeed fit all needs eventually.

I roadtrip often (I’m sort of on one now). I know there’s tradeoffs, but people tend to make decisions based on worst case/edge case rather than as Kent said, what they actually need their purchase to do the vast majority of the time.

For me, it fits 99% of my driving needs BETTER than ICE, so I am willing to accept the longer stops on roadtrips.

Hey I've got an idea inspired by the "Faster with Finnegan show on Motortrend"
I can pretty-much always find diesel. Maybe I pull a trailer with a little diesel generator on it so I can recharge anywhere (except in California).

 

[day_trippr]

Like this?

 

[Kent88]

I know there’s tradeoffs, but people tend to make decisions based on worst case/edge case rather than as Kent said, what they actually need their purchase to do the vast majority of the time.

For me, it fits 99% of my driving needs BETTER than ICE, so I am willing to accept the longer stops on roadtrips.

Exactly, people focus on the outliers, and get really grouchy when it doesn't live up to those outliers this very moment. I know some who saw how EVs couldn't handle their outliers years ago and refuse to look at the charging network around them or check out the range of new vehicles, they just keep insisting that EVs are terrible and always will be.

 

[Airborneguy]

It’s maddening. In my usual circles, I’m a major outlier for having bought one. I deal with the naysayers daily. I’ve taken to thanking them for paying my roadtaxes.

 

[bleme]

Kind of OT, but we have quite a few Teslas in my area. I see about a dozen a day on my 30 minute drive. We also have a lot of really terrible drivers but I realized the other day that I have never been cut off by a Tesla. I never see them weaving in and out of traffic on the freeway. I've never had one refuse to let me merge from an on-ramp. I've never seen one cut across 3 lanes to make a turn. I can't say that about ANY other make of car. I'd have to say that Tesla drivers are, in general, the most courteous drivers on the road...