Electric car thread

[Meadow Skipper]

Wait! Wait!!! An electric Land Rover Defender is in the works. Save your spare change.
https://www.insidehook.com/daily_bri...lectric-hybrid

Well, yeah, it’s British, but...

[Platinum Pete]

Range anxiety in not a concern for me - my other family car is gasoline powered so that's the longer road trips (or otherwise concerned about range) vehicle. Trips from Portland to Seattle, up to Hood or out to the coast, and the like would all be fine with a Tesla or similar range EV.
Most families with more than one car could likely go electric for one of their cars without much pain. I keep trying to tell my parents this and they don't seem to get it, one car is your in-town golf cart and the other is your longer range vehicle.
A friend worked for the Lung Association in New Brunswick and they did a project monitoring car usage - it showed that 90% or more of trips in any car were less than 25 miles, which is easily in range for EVs and leaves plenty of opportunity for charging overnight. Then they had a car show where they convinced EV owners to bring their Teslas, Leafs, Bolts, etc to their lot and lots of people came to see the dozen or so electric cars - almost everyone said they wouldn't buy one because of range anxiety for the 3 times per year they drove a long distance. Most of those folks live in households with more than one car. What gives? Why can't people put the pieces together?

[plugboots]

Range anxiety in not a concern for me - my other family car is gasoline powered so that's the longer road trips (or otherwise concerned about range) vehicle. Trips from Portland to Seattle, up to Hood or out to the coast, and the like would all be fine with a Tesla or similar range EV.
Most families with more than one car could likely go electric for one of their cars without much pain. I keep trying to tell my parents this and they don't seem to get it, one car is your in-town golf cart and the other is your longer range vehicle.
A friend worked for the Lung Association in New Brunswick and they did a project monitoring car usage - it showed that 90% or more of trips in any car were less than 25 miles, which is easily in range for EVs and leaves plenty of opportunity for charging overnight. Then they had a car show where they convinced EV owners to bring their Teslas, Leafs, Bolts, etc to their lot and lots of people came to see the dozen or so electric cars - almost everyone said they wouldn't buy one because of range anxiety for the 3 times per year they drove a long distance. Most of those folks live in households with more than one car. What gives? Why can't people put the pieces together?

All the people who own Teslas do. Probably most of the people who own Leafs, i8s, Bolts/Volts, etc. do. Even people who don't put the pieces together buy these things then somehow can't understand the concept and try and drive them for 400 mile round trips with no plan to recharge.
I've put the pieces together, and I want my nice car to be the one I drive back and forth to my cabin, not my grocery getter.

[Sirshredalot]

All the people who own Teslas do. Probably most of the people who own Leafs, i8s, Bolts/Volts, etc. do. Even people who don't put the pieces together buy these things then somehow can't understand the concept and try and drive them for 400 mile round trips with no plan to recharge.
I've put the pieces together, and I want my nice car to be the one I drive back and forth to my cabin, not my grocery getter.

I've been driving a Leaf as my commuter car/grocery getter. It's cheap enough that it is not my "nice" car. It's also dirt fucking cheap to own and operate. Because of the steep depreciation curve, you can pick up used 3 year old lease returns with 30k on the odometer for 10 grand, give or take.

The total cost of ownership math gets really friendly, really fast. I've never had an oil change or a brake job. At 60k, I've gone through one set of tires and one cabin air filter. Oh, and a set of wiper blades. Stack that on top of the fuel savings and the cheap purchase price, and I figure it's mile-for-mile the cheapest thing I could drive.

By the time I hit 100k on it, the battery degradation will probably destine it for the great Panasonic recycling facility in the sky unless there are legit aftermarket battery pack refurb options by then. But that's fine. I'll just buy another one for 10 grand again.

[dunfree]

my neighbor does a 400 mile each way trip every other weekend with his X. says he doesn't mind the 30-60 minutes to recharge in the middle, times it with a meal. it'd drive me nuts.

replacing pads on an economy car is <$100 in parts. changing the oil <$25. not saying that's nothing but many cars are dirt cheap to own these days.

most exciting new electric car is the electric renault kwid >100 mile range for $9,000 new.

[Long duc dong]

my sisters father in law has a Tesla, he had to wait in no where's ville texas while it recharged on a trip from Houston to Austin and back with my sister and her son waiting with him, Austin is less than 200 miles from Houston.

yep, electric cars are great.

So based on that one incident electric cars suck? Brilliant logic. Way to go there R.A. Fisher.

I remember reading an online response relating to the question of whether or not lefties tend to have sloppy hand writing. This one genius commented that because he/she knew a lefty with neat handwriting the theory that lefties tend to have sloppy hand writing was false.

I know lots of people who have Teslas who have made longer trips VERY easily. Many of them do so on a regular basis with some planning. This incident is either a one off, in which case you should not make serious inferences based on it, or this guy is not much of a planner. That is putting it mildly.

Obviously there are kinks to be worked out. That does not mean the electric cars suck.

[plugboots]

Pretty sure my next car will be one. I wanted this car that is a year and a half old to be one but...

[Long duc dong]

my neighbor does a 400 mile each way trip every other weekend with his X. says he doesn't mind the 30-60 minutes to recharge in the middle, times it with a meal. it'd drive me nuts.

That would not bother me either, if I could time it with a meal and leave every Friday afternoon by 2 pm. The problem for me is on the weekends when I have to leave at 4 am on Saturday, the charging time could cut into my ski day, although if I could do partial charges it would not be that bad. Part of the problem is that I am in Newport Beach, so the traffic through LA means I really can't leave at 5 pm, if I can't leave by 2 I wait until the next morning. Waking up at 330 am sucks, waking up at 3 would be worse.

I think I will be able to make it all work in about 5 years, things just might not be quite there yet.

[frorider]

https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/20.../#more-1688326

There are actually 26 states that presently impose fees upon EV owners and, according to Consumer Reports, 11 charge more than the amount drivers of similar, gas-powered cars pay in gas taxes, with 3 charging more than twice the average amount. Another dozen states are considering adding fees, with CR’s own research stipulating that 10 would require electrics to pay more than they would if they were powered by gasoline.

[Timberridge]

Wait! Wait!!! An electric Land Rover Defender is in the works. Save your spare change.
https://www.insidehook.com/daily_bri...lectric-hybrid

Well, yeah, it’s British, but...

This is scary indeed. The Brits do not know how to wire stuff. I own a Range Rover. I am confounded by the electronics in that thing.

[jackstraw]

I own a Range Rover.

Ah, it's all adding up now.

[jhyatt]

Any experience here with plug-in hybrid AWD cars? I have excess solar capacity on my house and a 14 mile commute but then usually take kids to practice, etc. Outlander has a 14 mile all electric range, Crosstrek XV has a 17 mile all electric range. I want AWD and be able to tow something small (1500 pounds) short distances and use a hitch bike rack. I have 3 kids.
Then I want to drive ~250 miles each way to the mountains almost every winter weekend, and some midweek storms.
With both of these cars, if I do the ~15 miles/day all electric for free-ish (I sell back excess, but not for much), that saves me like .5 gallons of gas, or like $1.50/day. I commute 4 days/week so like $6/week or $24/month or $300/year (Subary says 350/year but that's the hybrid vs regular).
Regular base crosstrek starts at like 21k, hybrid at 35k (maybe 29k after tax break and maybe some others). So say it's 8k more, at 350/year that's 22.8 years! I just don't see the math working. It still has an ICE engine so I will still have to do oil changes etc.
Am I missing something?

[skaredshtles]

<snip>
Am I missing something?

Nope. Sounds like you've pretty much nailed it.

[jackstraw]

There is no doubt it does not make financial sense...yet. It's like buying healthy organic food in the 90's.

[MultiVerse]

Toyota's new RAV4 Hybrid is not a plug-in hybrid but it only costs $800 more than the AWD gas only RAV4. The $800 payback is fairly short when comparing 40 mpg combined versus 28 mpg combined. Plus, most reviews say the hybrid RAV4 is faster and drives better.

So yeah, prices will probably drop and then it will make financial sense for plug-ins too.

[plugboots]

My friends just bought the RAV4 hybrid. It was between that and the Prius hybrid, but they actually do need the higher clearance, so they picked the RAV4. They liked the Prius better.

[SkiCougar]

So based on that one incident electric cars suck? Brilliant logic. Way to go there R.A. Fisher.

I remember reading an online response relating to the question of whether or not lefties tend to have sloppy hand writing. This one genius commented that because he/she knew a lefty with neat handwriting the theory that lefties tend to have sloppy hand writing was false.

I know lots of people who have Teslas who have made longer trips VERY easily. Many of them do so on a regular basis with some planning. This incident is either a one off, in which case you should not make serious inferences based on it, or this guy is not much of a planner. That is putting it mildly.

Obviously there are kinks to be worked out. That does not mean the electric cars suck.

I did not say electric cars suck, in many ways; they are much better than gas powered cars but overall they are inferior.

since your panties are in a bunch here, i'll elaborate. electric cars work well for primarily being a close in commuter car that has recharging facilities at both the owner's home and work. for instance, I had a neighbor that had a tesla and he could only recharge it at work as our parking in our condo complex is dated enough that it does not have charging. so, that guy had to really plan ahead as he could not recharge at the place he was likely to be at the most, his home.

will there eventually be enough charging stations throught the usa that this is not an issue, yes; but for now it is and the limitation on load capacity is a big issue. maybe some do not mind waiting 30 to an hour to refuel, but most do not want to wait.

yes, until those issues are resolved; electric cars are inferior. electric cars have been able to be built for decades, if they were competitive with gas cars(AND WITHOUT SUBSIDIES); there would already be charging stations all over. Tesla would not be in business if the country wasn't helping to pay for the cars thru subsidies.

[PNWbrit]

This is scary indeed. The Brits do not know how to wire stuff. I own a Range Rover. I am confounded by the electronics in that thing.

Land Rover is Indian owned and the New Verydisco is made in Slovakia.

I think you'll be ok.

[jhyatt]

It's the plugin part that I was hoping would work. but 14-17 mile all electric range? that saves so little gas, half a gallon a day.
I am going to test a crosstrek plug in hybrid tomorrow anyway. hopefully the salesperson knows exactly how much tax credits I would get. It's not clear from the website.
FWIW my broinlaw has a model X and LOVES it. He does long road trips and does not mind stopping for like 30 minutes to charge/stretch/text. His point is that to get gas takes 5-10 minutes anway. It only really sucks when the superchargers are taken then you might have to wait an hour.
it's an awesome car but $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Nope. Sounds like you've pretty much nailed it.

[Timberridge]

Land Rover is Indian owned and the New Verydisco is made in Slovakia.

I think you'll be ok.

Great. So now when you call LR tech support, you get a guy named Vikram, who calls himself Vincent, and when you tell him that the lights go off when you put the wipers on all he says is "I understand your problem, have you tried turning the car off, waiting 20 secs, and then turning it on again?"

[PNWbrit]

Great. So now when you call LR tech support, you get a guy named Vikram, who calls himself Vincent, and when you tell him that the lights go off when you put the wipers on all he says is "I understand your problem, have you tried turning the car off, waiting 20 secs, and then turning it on again?"

Yep... pretty much.

So quite an improvement.

[BmillsSkier]

Land Rover is Indian owned and the New Verydisco is made in Slovakia.

I think you'll be ok.

Yeah but have you tried the new configurator on LR’s website? No matter what options you pick they all turn out the same.

[bagtagley]

https://www.greencarreports.com/news...-superchargers

[Kenny Satch]

So how many mile to the gallon does an Electric car get

When an EV can get 800 miles to a charge in cold weather me thinks I'll look into one then. For now a hybrid seems the only viable option in long distance driving.

[BmillsSkier]

So how many mile to the gallon does an Electric car get

When an EV can get 800 miles to a charge in cold weather me thinks I'll look into one then. For now a hybrid seems the only viable option in long distance driving.

Long distance in the cold with cheap operating costs? You've got options.

Try these, they basically run on kibble.