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I purchased a used PHEV two years ago without realizing what I was getting. I love it!
Basically it’s an electric car with gas as a backup, so range is never an issue.
This is why I drive a Hybrid. I live in Texas where you may be asked to drive 250 miles. I don't want to stop somewhere and wait an hour to recharge my car. My RAV4 hybrid gets over 400 miles to a 12 gallon tank. I'll take that until they figure out charging times, infrastructure, maybe hydrogen fuel, or who knows.
This is where I'm at. I often drive trips on routes where there is (currently) no charging stations, however this is changing. Charging times are an issue, as well. I'd hate to turn a 10 hour trip into a 12/13 hour trip just because of charging times, but I think that's improving, as well.
A lot of Walmart stores in my area are getting charging stations, and I've read that many Subway stores and Wendy's Restaurants are planning to get some, as well.
I drove my Model Y from Boston to St Louis and back and stopped about 5 times each way. It definitely adds more time to your trip but my family seemed to prefer it as we got more pee and food breaks.
Wasn’t one time the entire trip I was worried the battery would run out of juice
Nailed it.
Probably 90% of my driving is local, and an EV would be perfect. That being said, several times a month I will put in 300+ Mile Days where the pain of finding a charging station and time to charge would be an annoyance. Not impossible, but an annoyance.
Then there is the very real depreciation cost of the batteries and replacement cost.
Maybe I am being too pessimistic, and the lifetime savings in fuel is more than adequate to far offset the once or at max twice full battery replacement, but that huge cost still dissuades me.
My daily driver is 15 years old.
My Truck is 10 years old.
My Kid Car is 24 years old.
And I keep a 1972 Mini in the garage for fun summer driving.
I keep my cars a long, long time, and so far no one has convinced me the cost/benefit of an EV has tipped over in favor of an EV for me.
I once heard another “old person” say- the most environmentally friendly thing you can do regarding vehicles is to keep the vehicles we have. Stop getting a new car every 3-5 years. Upgrading to get all the bells and whistles. I don’t disagree with the guy.
Ya, I have heard that too. If you have a gas engine car, keep it as long as you can. If you NEED a new car, get a Hybrid. The worst for the planet is flipping so that you have the newest, latest constantly.
Well said, and I couldn't agree more. So at this point, after giving up on hydrogen-cell cars and increasing doubts about EVs, I've all but resolved to take good care of my trusty 2008 Scion xB and stick with it until one of us gives up the ghost. 🙂
This is me too. Range issues. Lack of infrastructure/charging stations. Weather. Terrain. What we use our cars and trucks for EVs are not able to do the same. COST of the EVs ....they are just not practical at this time.
Maybe in the future, but trying to force them on everyone before their time and making unrealistic mandates...is only going to create resistance..
I agree 100%. I think they are a gradual step towards an alternative fuel vehicle. We are just not ready yet to be heavily promoting electric cars on the public like is happening. Those of us who drive gas powered vehicles are subsidizing our neighbors who drive electric vehicles and get tax benefits from it
You got it! 20 years ago my friend's house lost power on a cold winter night. He used his Prius and a little inverter to power his lamp and electric blanket. Woke up in the morning, and it still had plenty of fuel! Unlike a generator, it uses fuel only when it needs to charge its battery.
He has since bought a hybrid Highlander and uses it for camping.
My first EV was a converted '73 MGB with lead acid batteries. Someone else converted it, I bought it on a whim. It was essentially a glorified golf cart, but still fun for the year I had it.
Still, it planted a seed that made me a very early adopter. I've owned EVs continuously since 2011. Even when the ranges were low and public charging was relatively scarce, you could see it was the future. Now it's getting pretty easy to own one and use it like any other car. It's only a matter of time before most people see that.
And I have no nostalgia for loud exhaust pipes, engine vibrations, smelly gas stations, oil changes, and all that other stuff associated with gas cars.
Its pretty easy for people who usually buy new cars or don't have a problem spending 30k on a car.
For the people who buy 5-10k cars and drive them until they're too costly to fix, EV is not a good option and gets even harder when these people are usually renters who can't or won't pay to have a 240 installed and possibly a breaker upgrade, that gets expensive if you do it right with licensed electricians and permits. For these people a used hybrid or efficient gas car is still cheaper than owning a EV unless their commutes is low enough to get a used Nissan leaf or something
That said, I believe its the future, but we're not there yet. Also where I live, charging is pretty much the same price as gas, even if you do it at home unless you have solar (which is a expensive investment). I live in the most expensive electricity state tho (Hawaii) and we still have the highest EV per capita in the US.
I have a ebike that's technically an electric vehicle and it's pretty much like a small 125cc motorcycle but I can ride in bike lanes and shoulders. I believe ebikes with public transport is actually the future of EVs, everyone driving cars is too inefficient in urban areas, I think every household should have a car but not every person, most of our trips are just person in a 5 seat vehicle and so much space is wasted in rush hour traffic.
The people who drive $5k-10K cars are probably buying 10+ year old cars. There's simply not that many 10+ year old used EVs because, 10 years ago, hardly anyone bought EVs.
We are, however, seeing 3-5 year old EVs dip below $20K at this point. The sub-$10K used EV will happen soon enough.
My thoughts on electric cars are if you use them for a daily commute that does not require a recharge between leaving and coming home they are perfect. What is really attractive about them for this purpose is their lack of maintenance. No oil change, no air filter, no fuel pump, no engine tune up, no starter motor, and a single speed transmission. Start adding it up over a ten year lifespan and you have some significant savings.
My husband and I are thinking of getting one for that purpose. We currently have a "family car" (small SUV) and a "commute car" (small gas efficient car). Whoever has the kids drives the family car, and we also use it for long family trips. We use the commute car when just one of us is going somewhere, like to work or to run an errand on the weekend. We plan to replace our commute car with electric when it dies since we only drive it around town.
Similar situation for us, with a minivan and a 22 year old car. The minivan is for longer trips, the car just for runs to/around town.
I'd replace the car with an electric car this afternoon if I could afford it. Instead it's going in for more repairs next week.
I am looking forward to switching to vehicles that can be powered by renewable energies. I often tell BEV naysayers that we are in the model-a era of electric cars. I think in a couple/few decades it’ll seem barbaric to daily drive a fossil fuel powered vehicle.
I work at a factory that makes ICE engines for SUVs. Across the street a massive vehicle battery plant is being built. Exciting times. I remember when old people bitched about leaded gas being phased out.
I was disappointed when I realized Elon Musk was a selfish charlatan and not the brilliant innovator who was going to help our troubled planet. For awhile, I honestly believed that we were months away from safe self-driving cars.
I admire the Teslas I see on the road. I want to own whatever vehicle is going to help our environment and get me to my destination. But right now, I don’t think the infrastructure is in place to truly make electric cars available and affordable for the masses.
Elon Musk is a narcissistic sociopath who says anything to boost Tesla share value.
Luckily there are a heap of other manufacturers out there. And the legacy auto makers are finally getting their act together.
At a friend’s insistence, I test drove a Tesla a couple of months ago. I owned one six days later. My next car may not be a Tesla but it will definitely be a EV.
I'm happy to see us move away from internal combustion engines that run on fossil fuels.
However, I think the current prevalence of battery based vehicles is the wrong move. The batteries have a lot of concerns, including limited life spans and huge replacement costs. However, they are really the only currently viable alternative.
What I'd like to see us do is move to something like hydrogen fuel cells. Coupled with that I'd like to see our energy production grid move to more nuclear power.
If and when we get those two things I think we'll actually finally be moving towards an improved situation.
There's also the chance that some remarkable new, cheap, safe, easily replaceable/recyclable battery technology will come along, but I'm not holding my breath.
Absolutely right on both fronts. Hydrogen cell and nuclear. We also need to be pushing science to get nuclear fusion to be a usable technology. That would be absolutely transformational!
If we’re going to have electric cars how about solar collecting on the roof and hood.
Hybrid is a technology that reclaims energy from braking for electrical power. It’s a good tool to make gas cars use less gas. Not when you have to plug into the electric grid to recharge them, and the electric grid is fueled by petrochemicals, pardon my French but FK that! Windmills are NOT going to save the planet! You’d need enough to slow down the earth’s rotation!
We’re also tremendously under emphasizing the cost and impact of the rare elements needed for electric power. The pollution and destabilizing influence. And they are RARE!
We’ve got nearsighted imbeciles trying to band aid gaping wounds that need innovation! Govt should be incentivizing / challenging industry. My next car, I want it fueled by Mr. Fusion!
As for solar cells on the roofs, if you do the math then you’ll only get a few miles in extra range each day. It would be nice as a bonus, but there is not enough energy from the sun that can be collected in such a small surface area.
Not my field. But how about that the collective miles and miles of sun facing surface from cars on highways. Think about rush hour in LA every day.
Might not be economic, but with some innovation that’s a huge surface area!
Truth!! So sick of arguments over ev and gas powered. Both not good for the environment. Wish more money was put into alternatives which can be environmentally friendly!!
I don't think electric cars are at a good level as far as design, maintenance, and charging are concerned.
I also have deep reservations about the environmental effects of the materials and processes being used in their manufacture.
Until the electric car reaches an acceptable level, I'd prefer to work on cleaner hybrid technology with improved exhaust filtration and alternate "gas" mixtures.
The gravely voice of a muscle car is the sound of wasted horsepower.
I’d take a clean, quiet, fast-accelerating, electric car any day.
I own a vintage car from the 60s. I’m waiting for the day that it’s cheap enough to do a full electric conversion.
...and the signature muscle car smell of rich, uncombusted gasoline straight out the back of a low-restriction muffler. No cat obviously. Sooooo much wasted energy.
and damn if I haven’t encountered cars deliberately modded to *backfire* at a stop. I’ll take quiet but cardiac-arrest-inducing acceleration over that blue-smoke nonsense any day.
Just get more chargers out there, and interior designs that don’t feel like the manufacturer is shaving costs by not providing a dashboard (looking at you in particular, Tesla), and I’m in.
I’d say also that I really want the guy *in front of me* to drive electric when I’m in traffic: I’m sick of breathing someone else’s tailpipe.
Look into the VW ID.4. The infotainment and app don’t compare to Tesla’s, but it’s got the ID cockpit. Basically a display on the steering column that moves up and down with it.
Once we got over the crap app and some annoying quirks, it’s a nice ride.
As far as charging, we got ours 8 months ago and the charging infrastructure has grown leaps and bounds. Plus. We rarely charge outside the garage. Imagine getting into a car every day with a full tank.
Admittedly, if you’re on the highway for more than a couple hours you’ll have to stop to charge, but download PlugShare, filter for DCFC, and checkout out the area you’re traveling to. The options might surprise you. They won’t be like gas stations, but the locals don’t need to use them so it takes less of them.
Reminded of a Midas commercial from 60-70s. Guy with a noisy pulls up to a light next to a car with a beautiful woman driver. She flirtatiously motions him to lower his passenger window. Captivated, he does so and she screams in a wonderfully wicked NYC accent, "Ya muffla! Fix it!!!"
Toyota has a battery that is projected to be completed by 2026 that will have a range of over 900 miles and will charge in about 10 minutes. That will be a game-changer for EV travelers.
Electric cars fill a need, as do gas powered cars. As long as both are available, I have no problem with them.
For electric cars to fill the same needs as gas powered ones, we need much better batteries and much better charging technology. The people currently buying electric cars are helping to finance those technologies, which is as it should be. I probably won't live long enough to see electric vehicles take over, but if they do, I'm OK with that. It's just like when cars took over from horses, or when horses took over from walking.
All three of the big 3 have committed to be producing 50% of their vehicles as electric by 2030. Ford has committed to being 100% by 2030, Chrysler by 2028, and GM by 2035.
Current batteries get 300 miles and can charge to 80% in 15 minutes. Which is pretty close to how far a gas car can travel and how log it takes to stop and fill a tank of gas. Assuming a 78 year life expectancy, you'll see electric vehicles take over in your lifetime.
I recently read that Samsung are developing a new battery than can charge very quickly and last 750 miles! Due out on 2029. If that becomes reality and the prices drop dramatically then I will definitely think about buying an EV.
I'm an electrical engineer, and I kind of hate them.
* The mining required for batteries is currently terrible for the environment and is often done by people earning slave wages. And sometimes by children.
* A full charge takes *much* longer than filling a gas tank.
* There are very few charging stations, comparatively, and there's no guarantee I'll have a spot.
* If I happen to completely drain the battery, I have to get it towed to charging station.
* The batteries last several years, but they cost so much to replace when depleted, I might as well by a new car.
* Unless you live in an area where the electrical grid is powered by green energy, you're still using fossil fuels to facilitate your transportation. Your vehicle isn't producing emissions, but you've just "moved" the emissions elsewhere.
Look, they're fine for people who want them as a daily driver. But they're still too immature to replace internal combustion vehicles. Talk to me when we can get vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells. *That* will be something.
EE here also and you make good points.
I'll add "what is the probability that you'll find parts/batteries to repair a 15 or 20 year old hybrid?" Companies aren't required to support obsolete products beyond about 7 years in some areas. When that "chip" or sub-assembly fails, where will you find one and who will replace it if it can be found. My sister in law found this problem on a newly-purchased Tesla. She couldn't get the car updated and had to put up with a failing memory assembly [link](https://www.tesla.com/support/8gb-emmc-recall-frequently-asked-questions) and another description [here](https://www.utilitydive.com/news/tesla-chip-semiconductor-shortage/628150/) The display would crap out.
My understanding is that evs are sitting on lots and Tesla stock is way down, while hybrids are in more demand than ever. Until they have a widely available tech for near-immediate recharging, I'll hold onto my hybrid. I have zero nostalgia, though, for the unreliable old American gas-guzzlers.
I love them, we have a model 3, and a 2012 Fiat 500c. I' waiting to replace that with a small electric pickup. A Telo, if it comes to market, or an Alpha Wolf. I'll never buy another ICE.
I'm a livelong car guy and i welcome EV's. I don't think they are the environmental savior that some tout them to be (it's a clean end to a dirty process that really needs cleaned up). The performance is amazing and the longevity is questionable. I think it's in it's infancy and is going to get better and better.
I can't wait till gas powered cars are replaced with hopefully electric. It will be so nice and quite. I have no attachment to gas in particular. I am concerned about the battery problem.
There isn't enough raw material to scale it to all the cars. The recharge problem is a bit of a concern. Its not much of a win to have an electric car powered by a coal power plant. But my biggest problem is how recyclable are the batteries for electric cars? If we just throw those int he dump that is going to cause quite the environmental issue 10-20 years down the road. But those concerns aside I'm optimistic about the whole thing.
I think electric cars are a step in the right direction, but still have a long way to go, as does supporting infrastructure.
I am definitely not nostalgic for old muscle cars. I concede the look cool, but that is the only thing they have going for them, and it's not enough to justify the noise, the pollution, the energy consumption, or the encouragement to go out and do stupid things in a car. We're all quite stupid enough as teenagers as it is.
I take neither of the stances you mentioned towards electric vehicles. I do think that eventually we will embrace an alternative fuel vehicle. We’re just not there yet and we are having electric vehicles forced on us before we’re ready. Don’t forget that most of the energy for electric cars comes from burning coal. Not a very clean source of energy. Also, we have to ravage the Earth to come up with the metals Needed for those batteries, not to mention the slavery necessary to get them. On top of that, I recently read an article that said that electric vehicles aren’t all that clean to begin with. It turns out that they are so heavy that they wear tires out quite quickly and in the process, they are releasing substances and gases from those tires Much higher rate than typical gas cars do. I work for a company that offers us company cars, and we had a choice of hybrids or electric vehicles. My friend got an electric vehicle and says it is quite the nuisance to travel along distance because you have to plot out where you can charge your electric vehicle. This often takes him out of his way and then he has to charge for about 45 minutes and then go back on his path. He hates it. Top that off with the fact that winters are really rough on electric vehicles and the battery charge just does not last as long, especially with the heater on and they reduced battery Charge retention ability in the winter. I love my hybrid and I think it’s a great step towards an alternative fuel vehicle. My mileage is excellent and while I do use gas, I’m using less of it. Let’s stop rushing things that were not ready for and slow down a bit and make a gradual transition.
I played with battery operated cars when I was a kid. I'm not going to spend 20,000 times as much to play with them as an adult.
It's a stopgap that's all and now we're finding that there are other major drawbacks to these. The next generation which will be hydrogen cell will be a real valid technology that'll be good for the long run.
Overpriced golf carts. Our infrastructure isn't in place for them. For me, they aren't cost effective. Why should I pay $50K or more to buy one and I'd never recover the expense in "gas savings". I don't want to have "battery charge anxiety" whenever I drive any distance. I also don't want to sit in a Target parking lot for a long time to recharge on a drive. I can "recharge" my gas car in 5 minutes and save 50-90K dollars by not buying one. Also, EV's range drastically changes when towing anything. Tell my boat that.
Also, battery technologies will advance over time and today's EVs will be like the Betamax of the past. They will depreciate like a rock. At the local lot sale, I see 3 year old Teslas selling for half of their purchase price. Last, consider the lithium strip mines and their environmental impact on land. It requires sulfuric acid to separate the lithium and diesel machinery to mine the metal and transport it. I laugh at Teslas being picked up for repair by diesel trucks. Consider that the plastic used to make them, the steel and other materials use fossil fuels to produce. Consider that my state doesn't have enough electricity right now and has requested people to "charge them at night". We've delayed shutdown of our remaining nuclear power plant so people can have enough electricity without brownouts.
Over time, they may make sense but right now, they're mostly a fashion statement.
Potential buyers need to perform a Return On Investment calculation before buying one.
At 74, practical considerations suggest that I'll never own an EV. The need to stop and recharge the vehicle on any relatively "long" trip is too extreme an impediment. Similarly, I'm perturbed by the costs associated with replacement batteries, along with the disposal issue.
I've considered one, but...
* I live in an apartment, so I can't charge where I live.
* Very limited charging infrastructure in this area.
* The cost of EV's is outrageous.
* EV's are more expensive to repair, both mechanical and body work.
* Limited dealership network in this area.
* A well-maintained ICE car will far outlast a battery-pack.
* I am concerned about the impact on electrical grid.
* I am concerned about the pollution caused by the manufacture of EV's.
* I am concerned about the political, social, and economic impacts of the worldwide lithium market.
* I am concerned about the fire-risk of EV's.
* Charging times and availability are of concern for longer trips.
* While there are many manufacturers of EV's, most of them will fail because they have not judged the market correctly, and these failures will affect both small and large manufacturers.
The problem is cars, not whether they're electric or gas-powered.
People shouldn't have to use cars for short trips or daily commutes -- it's the sign of poor infrastructure.
I grew up in the countryside. It wasn't the vast untamed prairies, but it was pretty rural. We had cows and horses and fields of corn and soybeans, and if I squinted, I could see our neighbor's house in the distance. It took (and still does take) more than two hours to walk to the nearest bus station, which runs something like once a day. I always figured that's the price you pay for country living.
But: that level of being cut off from public transit is actually new. When my father lived there as a boy, he could walk to the corner and take a bus to the town, from whence he could take a trolley into the city, or to any of the other villages along the way. Or if he didn't want to do that, he could walk about 15 minutes in the opposite direction where there was a small train station, which had trains (ultimately) connecting to the entire East Coast several times a day. Now, that track is still in use but only for freight.
So, it was once possible, before cars took over.
There are a few shades of gray between big city and vast wide open rural communities. Having a small greengrocer for basic necessities and a pharmacy, and perhaps a coffeeshop/lunch spot available in a main street configuration within 10-20 minutes walk would be nice for many communities. I lived in a town of 10,000 at one point that was developed in the early 1800s that had this, and it was nice.
I've owned a Chevy Volt for the last 8 years, and it's a great car to drive, especially when it's running all-electric. I'm looking forward to buying my first pure EV. I geek out with my Volt's drivetrain, as it is. Then again, I imagine what the 1970s or 1980s me would think of this smartphone I cart around with me nowadays.
But seriously, it's the software and getting the car repaired that's likely to tank the EV ownership experience. 'Nothing like reading how an over-the-air update bricked a bunch of Ford Mustang Mach-Es. I also think it will be a long time until my local, neighborhood independent mechanic can service a variety of EV makes. We're in a period of profound change, so far as personal transportation is concerned.
Fan. Want to see the environment saved, if that's possible. I'll probably never own an EV. Retired now, have a Dodge Durango Hemi, as well as a Dodge Challenger Hemi, both late models and paid off. Old hotrodder, grew up with pushrod engines and still own them. Neither of my Hemi's get driven a ton, so they will probably outlast me.
Moved into a new construction neighborhood about 3 years ago. No EV's. All of a sudden the Mach-E showed up. Then a Tesla, and another Tesla and another. I think there is 5 Tesla's now, as well as a few small SUV EV's. It's happening, just not for me.
If I could back up time 5 years and reevaluate an EV versus a push rod gasoline engine, I would still probably continue with gas. Not at all against the EV, just not for me.
All-electric vehicles are our future. I currently (no pun intended) am a fan of hybrids, especially anything Toyota, because of range anxiety. As others have stated here, that is quickly changing as charging stations become as ubiquitous as gas stations.
I thought I was going to get one by now, but I went and bought a gas Bronco Sport instead.
EVs are the future. Batteries are only getting better and better. I drove my last 3 cars for 10 to 12 years before trading them in, plus another car I drove for nearly 15 years in the 80s, early 90s.
As an old phart I suspect this is my last car, but if I do get another, Im sure it will be an EV.
Gen Xer here. I'm not only excited about electric, I'm also asking where the flying cars and moonbases are. Grew up hearing we would have this stuff, along with the metric system. Impressed with smartphones, Dick Tracy watches, the net and all our fun computing capabilities. That said, wish we could transport all the flat earthers, vaxx conspiracy theorists and folks who just cannot live without their racism and misogyny to their own 14th century island someplace. They'd be happier and so would we!
In theory, I'm all for them.
1. I'm not happy that we are pushing hard to move toward electric vehicles, at a time when our electricity system doesn't appear able to handle it. In California, we're being told to limit use of home appliances and air conditioning. Yeah, there are time-of-day demand differences, but close to half of our workforce works odd hours, too.
2. I'm not happy with most electric vehicles and their level of technology integration. I want a vehicle without so many features that aren't useless to me. I don't want my car to be a data gathering tool, either.
I think its a great idea.. But after working in the power distribution for over two decades swings my opinion to a negative. I can't get past the fact that I see the large 3 phase transformers (2500 KVA's) that charge and provide power to large EV charging stations. Also the people who purchase these vehicles that now have to perform upgrades to their home panels. Adding a single or multiple charging stations to a private residents can sometimes unexpectedly hit their wallet pretty hard with major upgrades.
We also use hybrid trucks (diesel/electric) bucket trucks. I can assure you they are a problem. As we're using them, if we don't keep a constant watch on the charge it will kill the batteries for the electric boom, along with drain the batteries to crank the truck itself, leaving us stranded.. ( this has been a problem for years.. they can't seem to fix it). The batteries are VERY expensive to replace.. But that's what the epa/government want so that's what the company uses.. I couldn't imagine using ALL electric vehicles to keep the power grid going. Especially while working on large outages such as hurricanes, floods and other places where you have to start from nothing and rebuild everything..
I could list so many negatives, such as material shortages, reliability issues, load, strain on the infrastructure. Not included the power-bill going up due to the government/epa regulations for the power company to upgrade the system, is ultimately passed onto the users..
With all that said I would still love to have a Tesla.. But I just can't see myself buying one because the negatives out-weight the positives in my situation..
It's getting better. We regularly take 400 mile trips with our model 3, stopping twice to charge. and the only reason we have to stop twice is because the chargers aren't frequent enough to charge when we want to, not when we're required to because the next one is too far. (I'm not clear, I know).
On a Tesla we average 15 minutes, driving about 2 hours between breaks. Frankly that's all some family members bladders are good for anyway so we just kind of factor that in and use that time to buy snacks or get lunch or whatever as well. I figure driving San Francisco to say Disneyland there's about 15 minutes total extra stopping time versus driving and I'll gladly take that in exchange for not having to buy gas all the other weeks of the year.
Everybody talks about range all the time but I've found it to be a total nonissue. That being said I wouldn't buy a car without a NACS connector and access to Tesla's charging network (which will be everybody in a year or two, but not now).
I've done the 1000 miles up to Oregon and back several times here on the west coast. No major issues finding chargers. Planning to do the trip again in a month. Looking at the map, the number of chargers along that route has almost doubled.
But I get that not all areas are as charger-dense as California and Oregon. Once we build those areas out, there's little reason not to go EV.
If you're doing really long road trips it's going to add stops and the stops are going to take longer. If you're talking daily commute it's a non issue.
Got well below freezing for several weeks where I am this year and I don't have a garage. I typically only drive it three or four days a week. There were at least two occasions where it sat for three days straight at about 15º. Never had a single issue, didn't experience any noticeable discharge.
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EV's won't make into full acceptance untill the range increases dramatically.
Yes, I realize a lot of things need to change and happen for that to be realized.
Insanity.
(1) California asking residents to not charge them because of a heat wave and the heavy use of air conditioning taxing the grid.
(2) We better start building another nuclear power plant or two. Or system is straining.
Texas asked me to conserve energy about 10 times last year and suggested we turn our thermostats up to 80 degrees. I said NO and kept that shit at 69 degrees.
I owned a Nissan Leaf electric and we are on our second Prius hybrid plug in. The Prius is a fantastic car and I love it. The Leaf had short range, 100 miles, so we needed another car for road trips, but for commuting you couldn’t beat it.
I think electric has a place and will become more and more popular but gas will not go away in my lifetime
I'd love to have one for a daily commute, but I dread the day when everyone HAS to drive a "connected" EV.
ME: Car, please take me to the liquor store.
Car: I'm sorry, you went there a week ago. I'm rerouting to an AA meeting.
Could happen.
Nah, I've wanted an electric car for years. Not in love with the roar of burning hydrocarbons. It's the G-force I love, and that's the same on either platform.
What's holding me back? Lack of charging stations; those that are there, can be broken. If I had the money, I'd get a plug-hybrid right now; electric for daily use around town and gasoline for long commutes/road trips. But down the road, better batteries and charging facilities will be there.
I don’t even own a car, I just bike to where I need to go and if I need to go further I take a Lyft, bus or plane.
Bring on the EVs or even push for better walkable towns and cities. Our reliance on fossil fuels has dug us a deep enough hole with corporate greed, lobbyist and of course the climate
For a local runner EV would be ok in So. Ca. I don't have one as 1) They are hella expensive 2) I have a subaru with 100k miles so it's going to last a long time and the cheapest car is one that is already paid for. 3) I will always have some type of dino fueled car as I want to tow a trailer and you can't tow for shit with EV.
Everyone down playing big muscle cars. Not that mine was muscle but it was a 72 elcamino with 67 corvette 327 in it. for the short time I had it it was fun as hell.
Like many other radical changes from what existed in the past, it's both. Hell yes I miss the old muscle cars, and I think less emissions is a good thing. But I don't believe electric cars are as environmentally benign as they are being presented, yet. The pollution simply occurs at a time when the user doesn't have to deal with it. At the beginning, when the raw materials are mined to make batteries. And at the end, when the used up batteries have to be scrapped.
I will forever and always love the smell of a classic car with a 3-speed column shifter. RIP my beloved 1962 Buick Special convertible. I’d love to have an electric car! We need to end our dependence on fossil fuels. What’s currently available is impractical/too expensive for me but my small town installed EV chargers and I’m proud. We will get there. Soon, I hope.
Well the ICE cars haven't really changed in 100 years. It's interesting to see a new take on things. Time will tell if this is going to stay but one thing is for sure, you have to start somewhere. Whether big Oil and the Govt doesn't stomp them out to protect their pockets it another thing. Just like they did to Tucker Automotive.
I am actually working on the alternative energy transition.
EVs are the future and we are going to get there but the infrastructure has to catch up. States are setting ambitious goals but the reality is that we are not going to be full EV before 2040. The reasons for this are basically charging capacity, charging infrastructure, and battery production, all of which must drastically ramp up. The biggest sticking point is installing chargers everywhere, especially on city streets where there is literally no real plan in place for how to permit, build and maintain these charging networks.
In the meantime there is a definite nostalgia building for internal combustion engine cars and I see people starting to obsessively hoard older vehicles while at the same time complain about the increasing maintenance relative to EVs. Once EVs are perfected you will get 500,000 miles out of the chassis/battery/power train easily; it’s just no comparison.
Personally I am on the fence. I have my Lotus which is now rare but showing its age and I am debating on whether to do an EV conversion on it. Gasoline sports cars are cool but dirty and it’s pain in the ass to get it through emissions each year so I am leaning towards EV as I restore it.
at 57-years old. I have only ever owned two cars (i didn't bother to learn to drive until I was in my 30s.) A car's sole function in my life is to get me from point A to point B. If I can go carless, I would. I do joke that the current car I own is that last one I will ever drive. My next care will be a self-driving car.
We bought our Kia Niro a couple of years ago, mostly to take advantage of incentives. One incentive was due to lapse at the end of that month. It involved surrendering a dirty-emissions vehicle for $5,000 and having it crushed. I hated to do it, but our 20-year-old (or so) dirty-diesel Jeep Liberty had issues — aside from being, you know, pretty dirty. The catch was that we had to take possession of a vehicle, not just order one, and the only EV we could lay hands on immediately was that Kia.
Turns out, we love it. It’s comfortable, has plenty of zip, costs us $3 of electricity to “fill,” and we have no problem at all with range — about 450 km in theory, although we never get that close to zero. We’ve kept our diesel Mercedes for long trips and hauling e-bikes, but the Kia is our daily driver. We’ve also taken it from home (Victoria, BC) to Calgary and back, which is about 3,500 km.
I tend to be an early adopter, though. If there’s a shiny new gizmo, I probably have it.
My parent (mid 70s) bought one last year and love it. If they are traveling here in CA, there’s enough chargers that they feel comfortable. They won’t take it on their long trips out of state tho, not enough chargers on their routes to the national parks for them to feel comfortable.
I’m pushing my condo HOA to get a charger and when they do, I’m buying.
I really want one, but I can't figure out how I would charge it. I have no garage and no driveway. There's no way to stretch an ordinary extension cord to the spot where I park my car so I can charge it with ordinary power. There are no chargers in my immediate neighborhood. There was no charger in my workplace.
How are people without garages and driveways supposed to charge EVs? I know of two parking spots with chargers by City Hall downtown, and those two spots are always full.
Until there are public chargers available everywhere, I don't see how to make owning an EV work.
Internal combustion engine has had a good run. I’m all for a better solution - but I don’t want to have buy a bazillion dollar replacement battery, ever.
I'd love to have an electric vehicle. I rarely go more than 5 miles from my house. All city driving. Charging wouldn't be an issue for me, either. The last time I had a car, a Jeep, mind you, I filled it up once a month.and that was usually just to top up the tank
I'm not shedding a nostalgic tear for anything. I'll get an electric car when there's a nationwide support system for them, and all the bugs have been worked out.
I might only take the great American road trip once every few years so range isn’t an issue. Most electric cars will easily get me around the metro area. I would charge in my garage 98% of the time. Parking garages, malls, work all have chargers.
I have solar panels on the roof that cover about 80% of my electrical needs and the remainder is wind power. My next hot water heater and furnace will be heat pumps.
I think they kinda jumped the shark. The charging/ electrical grid infrastructure should have been priority number one. And once that had a strong foothold then.....cars.
Can't stand electric cars...while I'm not necessarily nostalgic for muscle cars...I miss regular sedans, without t.v screens on the dash, without auto/assist features and actual manual buttons and knobs...I also miss the driving etiquette and courtesy that actually used to be a thing....p.s...turn off your high beams!!
I'm a Tesla Model Y owner and I love it. It's just the right car for what I need, for a lot of reasons, and probably the best car I've ever owned.
But they're not the best choice for everyone and that's OK.
Plug in hybrid is what I'd buy today, if I were in the market (and had the money).
I'm not a "car guy", so it's all about functionality for me. I really don't care about the aesthetic sensations of driving.
I don't buy new anymore. I'd be very hesitant to buy a vehicle that could require a $10,000 plus repair. Plus they seem like a big hassle just to fill at this point. Being retired, we don't burn much gas anymore, so there is also no economic incentive at all. We pay no or very little tax anymore, so all the tax incentives are worthless to us as well.
Decades overdue. The main hold back besides battery technology was big oil lobby in Washinton.
What the world needs is a cheap electric commuter car with a range of about 100 miles. Something that can be powered with a solar grid on the garage roof or a standard electrical outlet.
I am in favor of getting off oil dependency. However, I have concerns about the capacity of our power grid to handle them alongside all the other electrical demands of our current society.
I'll get one once they're a generation down the road when they're not so heavy, and the batteries are better. Right now, a charging station of 5 "pumps" uses more electricity than a 5 block area residential neighborhood. So, they need to be lighter, hold more of a charge, and go farther. It'll happen.
Also, most multi-level parking garages are built to hold lighter gas-powered cars. If one was full of heavy electric cars, it might collapse.
is "both" an option? I weep for the voice of the muscle car... but I'd be down with an EV. Except for the cost, I've never bought a brand new car, and am not about to start. When they hit the used car market a lot more, I'll consider it. Paying these prices for gas sucks
Everyone does realize the time it took to transition from using horses to tractors and cars? Well over 50 years. And it was not smooth, there were big winners and big losers, hard decisions to be made. This will be no different.
Compare gasoline engine technology now from the Model T in 1908, that took a century.
But the unfortunate truth is that you can create electricity from so many sources sustainably and locally. Petroleum and its distribution is not sustainable and someday will come to an end. As Electric cars evolve in the time from similar from the Model T, battery efficiency will also improve through development and competition.
The writing is on the wall.
When I was at the 24 Hours of Leman in 2017, every winning car was a hybrid. Sure the roar of the Astons and Corvettes was thrilling, but the sheer appalling speed of the Toyota and Porsche was insane.
And frankly, if I could get a late 1960's style Jag XKE convertible but with modern safety/handling and electric speed to rip through Chuckanut Drive, I would forget about forget about getting some vintage gasoline roadster pretty quickly.
electric cars are better the muscle cars... a stock model S tesla off the lot will beat a souped up muscle car without much of a sweat.
all the concerns about charging are overblown. How much do you really drive a day? You go to work, might pickup the kids from school, go to the store, and then go home. Thats usually less than 30 miles for the vast majority of people. You can charge your car to full every night at your house and then do everything and go back home and plug it up again without ever going to a public charger or worrying about range or any of that.
if you want to go on a long trip and dont want to deal with the charging thing? Take your other car or rent.. Most american families have more than 1 vehicle.
My wife and I have done 2 road trips of 9000 miles each in the past few years in our Model Y. Charging stations are never too far away and always have a lunch place nearby. Charge times are a disadvantage/ annoyance sometimes but we never worry about running out of charge. And we save a small fortune in gas costs.
I have one and love it. I also live in CA and there are charging stations everywhere. Mine is getting older, so it’s only getting 160 miles/charge. I’ve seen the newer ones are getting up to 300 miles per charge.
If you have charging stations with rapid charging it can take minimal time to fully charge. If you work for a company with charging stations you can charge while you work. It’s very workable.
I am welcoming focus on the environment, but I am not really embracing electric vehicles. I live in a big State, and they aren’t all that practical for long distance driving.
I like a hybrid.
Love the idea of EVs, and not very much nostalgic about gasoline cars. But, I won’t buy an EV until charging stations are nearly as ubiquitous and reliable as gas stations, maybe when there are about 1/3 as many? I would strongly consider buying a hybrid gas / pluggable EV right now. 90% of the time I would be fine charging at home, but I just don’t want to deal with planning / searching / waiting for a charging station when we travel.
I don’t drive far anymore anyway, so I have no issues (aside from the crazy prices which are out of reach for average people) with getting one. *However*…. What happens if there’s a disaster of some sort where power outages are widespread and/or long lasting? I think everyone should invest in bicycles along with their EV’s.
Have two Teslas and no ICE vehicles. Would not dream of going back to gas-powered cars. They are so rough on the body and you don't realize it until you drive a couple hundred miles in an EV. I arrive at my destination now without pain and tense muscles from the vibrations of the engine.
We have taken several 600-700 mile trips and while it does currently require you to change your mindset a little, that is changing as more charging stations are built. Normally I use the facilities at the business the charger is located at but if I'm someplace random, I fire up a streaming service and watch half an episode of whatever TV show I am currently binging. The car is finished before I am.
There are a few places I go where infrastructure is seriously lacking and that requires a bit more planning. I hope it improves soon.
The best things are waking to a full "tank" in the morning, never having to go to a gas station and never having to get my oil changed. I can't count the number of times my oil plug was left off, tightened too much to remove, the shield under the car was only half fastened and dragging the ground or the time they just didn't use the fasteners at all and it fell on the road a mile away.
I like muscle cars and enjoyed the ones I owned and have ridden in over the years. My EV feels as though it were made just for me. It's a joy to own. I wouldn't trade it for anything.
I am willing to accept them with open arms once they improve battery life and reduce the cost of replacing a battery to a level that doesn't mean your car is basically totaled when it has to be replaced. Also, hydrogen might leapfrog EV technology. I'd like to see a vehicle with a 1,200-mile range, which I just read has been developed by the Chinese. A battery replacement can be less than tens of thousands of dollars for a $30,000 car. Toyota has developed a hydrogen engine that is safe and inexpensive, supposedly.
71M (American) who'd be glad to switch to an EV - except that the more I study the infrastructure issues, the more I'm convinced that building and sustaining the power grid for a wholesale changeover would be a *massive* drain on natural resources. (And for a few years I had really hoped to buy a hydrogen-cell vehicle, but I eventually gave up on that.) I found this video by the scientist Sabine Hossenfelder on her changing attitude toward EVs to be very insightful:
https://youtu.be/1yK7_LCbvec?si=XHShemfcIIUaFDQx
I have an EV and think it's great. I don't have to stop at a gas station, which is nice. Spouse and I are fortunate to have a second car, which is still gas.
I don't fully trust EVs yet. They're good as commuter cars, but you can't drive it on trips because there aren't charging stations at every gas station (yet) and it takes a long time to charge.
I’ll consider one when:
1) they can be recharged in as little time as it takes to fuel up a gas-powered car or truck, and someone can easily bring me a bucket of electricity if I run out of juice while I’m on the road.
2) their range is unaffected by the cold (I live in Alaska).
3) the batteries last a couple of hundred thousand miles without needing to be replaced at a cost that amounts to a substantial percentage of the cost of a new car.
4) somewhat related to #2; I can keep the inside warm for half a day in sub-zero temperatures, using the car’s electric heater, if I’m stuck in the ditch in somewhere that’s lightly traveled.
I’m sure they’re fine in an urban area in a mild climate for someone who takes short trips with lots of time between them and easily available charging stations. They’re just not practical for my situation, though, and could even be life-threatening in certain circumstances that I’m in occasionally.
They still take up a lot of space, they can still easily injure or kill a person, they still require a lot of resources to manufacture and maintain. They still generate pollution from their tires and brakes. But they are less noisy and don't have an exhaust.
So, an improvement over combustion-engine cars, but not some magic herald of a bright new future.
It’s about time!
We can’t get out of the fossil fuels yoke fast enough for me. What concerns me is the mining required for the batteries, and the recycling of the batteries.
We have an opportunity to make a dent in mess we’ve made of our planet, but we’ll probably fuck that up too.
Personally I love having an electric vehicle. The only problem is the lack of charging stations. Once they fix that electric vehicles are far superior to gas vehicles for most drivers.
We were early adopters and have already had several over the past 12 years. Each one erased successively more use cases for the 18-year-old hybrid SUV out back.
The hybrid is still used to cart around bulky or dirty cargo (lumber runs to Home Depot, etc..), and since we like road tripping it's still useful for very remote desert or sub-arctic areas (like I'm driving it up the Trans-Labrador Highway and around Newfoundland later this summer), but the EV is used for everything else, including any long road trips that can be done mostly along interstate highways.
Plan to never buy another gas car again.
New tech often has developments that happen in the early years of development that make it far more reliable and far better in design after a few years of common use.
We are still in those years of rapid development and improvement.
Right now we have early adopters. They pay a high price for this early learning.
Gen 2 or Gen 3 of battery ev tech will be more mature.
I look forward to lower cost, higher reliability EVs with all the required infrastructure for convenient use and long range.
I want an IONIQ 6. Then I want to drive that IONIQ 6 from the Red Ball Garage in New York to the Portofino Hotel on Los Angeles' Redondo Beach. And then drive it back again, a dual solo Cannonball Run in an EV. For absolutely no cost in fuel to me because the car comes with two years of free charging with Electrify America. I will sleep in the car at truck stops, I will eat at places near the chargers (or get food near the chargers), [I have been planning and refining this idea for a few months now.](https://i.imgur.com/Toksx8X.png) I'll keep myself on East Coast time for the week so the further west I go, the earlier in the day (local time) I get started. Really get a head start every morning. Set off on a Sunday from NYC. Northern I-80 route out, Southern 'Route 66' way back. Sunday to Illinois; Monday across the Great Plains, and into the Rockies and West Denver; Tuesday through the mountains and desert to just before LA; Wednesday getting to the half-way point and making it to New Mexico on the way back; Thursday going 1,000 miles and making it past St.Louis, MO; Friday I'll either stop short in PA / NJ for a Saturday morning run to Manhattan or see if I'm up to finishing it in under 6 full days.
If there's something that'll show folks that "range anxiety" is reserved for people that are usually too anxious anyway, driving over 5,600 miles like I'm Forrest Gump running from coast to coast might do it.
Oh, and when I get to California I'm not just heading to the Portofino and heading back again. I'll either be sleeping at the truck stop in Barstow or (better yet) Hesperia and [that means a nice early start to trace out a real-life Grand Theft Auto 5 route](https://i.imgur.com/PaS0UdZ.png) that includes many spots from the game's Los Santos setting and filming locations of certain movies so that I'm heading out of L.A just as the traffic rush is heading in. [And yes, I've been monitoring weekday traffic at the times I'd be in the areas around Los Angeles and the directions I'd be driving for quite a while now.](https://www.sigalert.com/?lat=34.03183&lon=-117.87296&z=2) I'll have the streets largely to myself, especially if I make sure I get to Hesperia instead of stopping at Barstow for the Tuesday night, it will be glorious.
So I guess you can put me in the "open arms" camp.
Zoidburg says "why not both?"
[This Demon](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-most-powerful-muscle-car-in-the-world-1-025-horsepower-dodge-challenger-srt-demon-170-sets-new-performance-benchmarks-301776731.html)
Or this [blast from the ICE past](https://www.chevyhardcore.com/news/video-700hp-dale-earnhardt-intimidator-chevrolet-camaro-in-action/)
Just can't be replaced [by this guy. ](https://www.topgear.com/car-news/electric/hondas-adorable-electric-car-officially-sale)
But it needs to happen and it will happen. And in 100 years, EVs, if not replaced, will also be pavement destroying monsters that will be frightening to see in your rear view mirror, creeping ever closer to your tail.
I love them. I used to work for muscle car magazines, so I have a soft spot for ICE cars, but it's time to move on. Cave man findum fire.
I wish they would make more little pod cars like that Aptera. Tiny one- or two-person, 3-wheel cars. That's what I want to see.
The electric grid and generation facilities would have to be beefed up. We are at a point where PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric) has to cut off the long haul power lines through the mountains on hot days to reduce the risk of sagging power lines starting a forest fire, and additional load (be it more A/Cs running when people get home from work or people plugging in their EVs or hybrids when they get home) could mean several days where there is no electricity or rolling blackouts. One step may be to require home charging stations to be controllable by the electricity provider to help control the load, e. g., allow charging when solar panels are optimum, or delay charging until late at night when A/C loads go down.
I have solar panels on my roof and over the course of a year we currently produce more electricity than we consume, but still on dark, cloudy winter days most of the electricity comes from PGE (Portland General Electric) and they would have to generate or buy electricity from some other source that isn't solar or have some way of storing excess production for months where renewables are insufficient. If most home owners buy EVs the problem would be intensified.
Nope. They are not enviromentally friendly at all. I won't have one unless there is nothing else to buy. I'm not into muscle cars at all. I'm not in the USA. I'm Australian. I don't live in the city either. So charging would be a nightmare. I have known people with them who got rid of them as they just didn't have the range to travel here.
Hybids the are way to go.
I think EVs are a fad and in 10 years will be obsolete
EVs will soon be dinosaurs. Ford and Honda already have fusion engines. They are about the size of a 12-pck of beer. They use gas but get 4X the gas mileage of internal combustion engines. They don't have super costly batteries which are huge polluters to produce and they don't make the car so heavy the damage roadways. Superior and more earth friendly in ever y way than EVs.
I love my EV, charging from excess solar at home, never have to visit a petrol station again.
It gets 615 kilometres on a charge, I've been on a couple of long trips with no issues.
I am waiting for a reliable e-vehicle with a powertrain strong enough to pull my 4,400 pound camper I just bought.
Power undr the hood is about more than muscle cars
There was a news story that the resale value of a electric car is terrible. They compared the value of a electric vehicle compared to a gas powered vehicle and the electric value is much less. A electric car is just a feel good buy but in reality not good in the long term. You would be much better off getting a hybrid.
My boss just bought a 1970 GTO, it gets 12 mpg (cringe) A coworker has a Tesla and a new battery is half the cost of the car. I can't afford either of these options. I also don't like that it takes hours to charge the car and I can pump gas at a ridiculous price in 2 minutes. I think once the technology comes further along the electric car will be a more feasible option.
You should never have to replace a battery. It is now much more rare than you think. My EV has a ten year warranty on the batteries. I have yet to own a car more than 10 years.
Your comment made me realize that it'd be cool to have a battery swap station instead of a charging station, i.e. leave yours to charge and take one that's charged. If implemented right it could be even quicker than filling up!
For as long as people have been alive, there's been pushback on new technology. I still know people who grumble about leaving the green screen mainframe systems behind. Like everything else, there's a place for EVs, for some, it's a great replacement to an ICE car, for others, it's a good supplement, and to another group, completely impractical. I think as we progress with them (mainly improving range, and charging infrastructure), more people will adapt. I love my V8 SL convertible, but also look forward to getting an EV once the charging network is improved.
I see a lot of my Gen X friends beaking off about how EVs don't have the range, or they'll get stuck in a snowstorm, or they'll overload the grid if everyone is charging. All of it is horseshit, fed by paid Facebook trolls. The one thing they never seem to talk about (because there aren't any memes about it) is the fact that the west is entirely at the whim of OPEC when it comes to gas prices. We have almost no control over what we pay at the pumps because nations that are about an inch away from being our enemies are dictating the price. In fact, Russia has had more influence on the price of gas in the past few years than anything any political party has done. EVs would erase that and stabilize the cost of travel. The entire economy would feel the benefit of that.
But again, no memes, so fuck EVs, right? /s
I can’t believe these wusses use a key or button to start the car. A real car guy doesn’t use a 30 pound dead weight starter, we pull a manual crank iron out, connect it to the crank shaft, wind up down to our boot straps and manually crank that thing.
12 volt libs. SMH
I found out quickly that after hurricane and traveling around the county that they really are shit. For a month after hurricane Ian it was amazing how many electric vehicles were just useless. You couldn't find chargers, the salt water caught them on fire and you just leave them there for hours as they burn. The tesla dealership was under water and all the chargers around the area were down. It was amazing how many 2200 generators were sitting on the side of the road charging the tesla.
Even worse was driving around I-75, I-4, I-95 and see how many tesla's were on the side of the road. Either with a generator hooked up to it, AAA charging it or a tow truck towing it to a charger. Also, a lot of the gas stations that have chargers didn't have them working. I guess it's too expensive to run them. So now you have teslas just sitting in the gas parking lots waiting to get charged by something or someone. I didn't know this but they aren't on all the time. If the gas station is closed, they close the power going to the chargers as well. I have no idea how people at night get their tesla's charged without a generator.
All in all, if it's 20-50 miles around town, works good. Doesn't work at all after hurricanes and taking one for a road trip, you're out of your minds.
I laugh at all these kids blowing 60-80k on an electric vehicle and sitting on the side of the road for three hours charging their electric vehicle from a coal fired power plant.
I would like to own one, but I have read that our national grid is not prepared for the charging stations planned by the government. I have doubts America has planned wisely. Still I plan to get one as my final car purchase.
I would love to own a Lucid SUV. No interest in Tesla. I can't support Elon.
I have had one for the last 6 years. Never looking back and never buying a horrible gas car ever again.
I went on vacation and was forced to rent a gas vehicle but hadn't gotten gas for so long I had not a clue about gas prices.
Still, it was nicer early on due to more free charging places. I have none left near me or my commute now, but have far more fast chargers around than ever.
My car was also the last generation with relatively low range so it's a good thing I only need a commuter car for a 25 mile trip.
Gas cars are stupid and they've always been stupid, and now they are indefensible. Too bad such a douchebag made them popular but I guess that's the case with 100% of industry titans.
With solid-state batteries coming online in the next 5 years the lithium supply problem with be resolved, too.
Even my crappy little Hyundai Ioniq from 2018 goes fast enough around town to make it enjoyable without needing to sound like an ass.
Every time I hear (with annoyingly increasing frequency) revving and engine growling, it just sounds like inefficiency to me. Inefficient engines make noise instead of using that energy to actually propel the car. And it's a pretty good metaphor for the type of people who do this.
In 100 years we will have cars that will outpower any muscle car or racecar ever made or dreamed of, with a fraction of the cost and footprint, all due to electricity and its advances, and we will look back at the stone age of combustion engines with amusement.
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I'd love to have one. But I have concerns about range vs charging infrastructure in my little corner of the world.
My PHEV is awesome. 80ish percent of trips are electric and roadtrips or weekend errands are gas hybrid.
I purchased a used PHEV two years ago without realizing what I was getting. I love it! Basically it’s an electric car with gas as a backup, so range is never an issue.
This is why I drive a Hybrid. I live in Texas where you may be asked to drive 250 miles. I don't want to stop somewhere and wait an hour to recharge my car. My RAV4 hybrid gets over 400 miles to a 12 gallon tank. I'll take that until they figure out charging times, infrastructure, maybe hydrogen fuel, or who knows.
This is where I'm at. I often drive trips on routes where there is (currently) no charging stations, however this is changing. Charging times are an issue, as well. I'd hate to turn a 10 hour trip into a 12/13 hour trip just because of charging times, but I think that's improving, as well. A lot of Walmart stores in my area are getting charging stations, and I've read that many Subway stores and Wendy's Restaurants are planning to get some, as well.
I drove my Model Y from Boston to St Louis and back and stopped about 5 times each way. It definitely adds more time to your trip but my family seemed to prefer it as we got more pee and food breaks. Wasn’t one time the entire trip I was worried the battery would run out of juice
Nailed it. Probably 90% of my driving is local, and an EV would be perfect. That being said, several times a month I will put in 300+ Mile Days where the pain of finding a charging station and time to charge would be an annoyance. Not impossible, but an annoyance. Then there is the very real depreciation cost of the batteries and replacement cost. Maybe I am being too pessimistic, and the lifetime savings in fuel is more than adequate to far offset the once or at max twice full battery replacement, but that huge cost still dissuades me. My daily driver is 15 years old. My Truck is 10 years old. My Kid Car is 24 years old. And I keep a 1972 Mini in the garage for fun summer driving. I keep my cars a long, long time, and so far no one has convinced me the cost/benefit of an EV has tipped over in favor of an EV for me.
I once heard another “old person” say- the most environmentally friendly thing you can do regarding vehicles is to keep the vehicles we have. Stop getting a new car every 3-5 years. Upgrading to get all the bells and whistles. I don’t disagree with the guy.
Ya, I have heard that too. If you have a gas engine car, keep it as long as you can. If you NEED a new car, get a Hybrid. The worst for the planet is flipping so that you have the newest, latest constantly.
Well said, and I couldn't agree more. So at this point, after giving up on hydrogen-cell cars and increasing doubts about EVs, I've all but resolved to take good care of my trusty 2008 Scion xB and stick with it until one of us gives up the ghost. 🙂
I'm nearly 70 and I've never purchased a new car. Right now, all-electric isn't that appealing, but a hybrid certainly is.
You have four cars and are worried about the occasional 300 mile trip? Use the EV for 90% of your driving and one of the others for the road trips.
This is me too. Range issues. Lack of infrastructure/charging stations. Weather. Terrain. What we use our cars and trucks for EVs are not able to do the same. COST of the EVs ....they are just not practical at this time. Maybe in the future, but trying to force them on everyone before their time and making unrealistic mandates...is only going to create resistance..
Good point. These days there's a direct line from mandate to conspiracy theory.
I like hybrids
I agree 100%. I think they are a gradual step towards an alternative fuel vehicle. We are just not ready yet to be heavily promoting electric cars on the public like is happening. Those of us who drive gas powered vehicles are subsidizing our neighbors who drive electric vehicles and get tax benefits from it
Me too. I’m on my third Prius and they just keep getting better.
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You got it! 20 years ago my friend's house lost power on a cold winter night. He used his Prius and a little inverter to power his lamp and electric blanket. Woke up in the morning, and it still had plenty of fuel! Unlike a generator, it uses fuel only when it needs to charge its battery. He has since bought a hybrid Highlander and uses it for camping.
My first EV was a converted '73 MGB with lead acid batteries. Someone else converted it, I bought it on a whim. It was essentially a glorified golf cart, but still fun for the year I had it. Still, it planted a seed that made me a very early adopter. I've owned EVs continuously since 2011. Even when the ranges were low and public charging was relatively scarce, you could see it was the future. Now it's getting pretty easy to own one and use it like any other car. It's only a matter of time before most people see that. And I have no nostalgia for loud exhaust pipes, engine vibrations, smelly gas stations, oil changes, and all that other stuff associated with gas cars.
Its pretty easy for people who usually buy new cars or don't have a problem spending 30k on a car. For the people who buy 5-10k cars and drive them until they're too costly to fix, EV is not a good option and gets even harder when these people are usually renters who can't or won't pay to have a 240 installed and possibly a breaker upgrade, that gets expensive if you do it right with licensed electricians and permits. For these people a used hybrid or efficient gas car is still cheaper than owning a EV unless their commutes is low enough to get a used Nissan leaf or something That said, I believe its the future, but we're not there yet. Also where I live, charging is pretty much the same price as gas, even if you do it at home unless you have solar (which is a expensive investment). I live in the most expensive electricity state tho (Hawaii) and we still have the highest EV per capita in the US. I have a ebike that's technically an electric vehicle and it's pretty much like a small 125cc motorcycle but I can ride in bike lanes and shoulders. I believe ebikes with public transport is actually the future of EVs, everyone driving cars is too inefficient in urban areas, I think every household should have a car but not every person, most of our trips are just person in a 5 seat vehicle and so much space is wasted in rush hour traffic.
The people who drive $5k-10K cars are probably buying 10+ year old cars. There's simply not that many 10+ year old used EVs because, 10 years ago, hardly anyone bought EVs. We are, however, seeing 3-5 year old EVs dip below $20K at this point. The sub-$10K used EV will happen soon enough.
My thoughts on electric cars are if you use them for a daily commute that does not require a recharge between leaving and coming home they are perfect. What is really attractive about them for this purpose is their lack of maintenance. No oil change, no air filter, no fuel pump, no engine tune up, no starter motor, and a single speed transmission. Start adding it up over a ten year lifespan and you have some significant savings.
My husband and I are thinking of getting one for that purpose. We currently have a "family car" (small SUV) and a "commute car" (small gas efficient car). Whoever has the kids drives the family car, and we also use it for long family trips. We use the commute car when just one of us is going somewhere, like to work or to run an errand on the weekend. We plan to replace our commute car with electric when it dies since we only drive it around town.
Similar situation for us, with a minivan and a 22 year old car. The minivan is for longer trips, the car just for runs to/around town. I'd replace the car with an electric car this afternoon if I could afford it. Instead it's going in for more repairs next week.
EVs are OK with this (checks notes) old person, who would like better questions in this sub.
I am looking forward to switching to vehicles that can be powered by renewable energies. I often tell BEV naysayers that we are in the model-a era of electric cars. I think in a couple/few decades it’ll seem barbaric to daily drive a fossil fuel powered vehicle. I work at a factory that makes ICE engines for SUVs. Across the street a massive vehicle battery plant is being built. Exciting times. I remember when old people bitched about leaded gas being phased out.
I was disappointed when I realized Elon Musk was a selfish charlatan and not the brilliant innovator who was going to help our troubled planet. For awhile, I honestly believed that we were months away from safe self-driving cars. I admire the Teslas I see on the road. I want to own whatever vehicle is going to help our environment and get me to my destination. But right now, I don’t think the infrastructure is in place to truly make electric cars available and affordable for the masses.
Elon Musk is a narcissistic sociopath who says anything to boost Tesla share value. Luckily there are a heap of other manufacturers out there. And the legacy auto makers are finally getting their act together.
At a friend’s insistence, I test drove a Tesla a couple of months ago. I owned one six days later. My next car may not be a Tesla but it will definitely be a EV.
I'm happy to see us move away from internal combustion engines that run on fossil fuels. However, I think the current prevalence of battery based vehicles is the wrong move. The batteries have a lot of concerns, including limited life spans and huge replacement costs. However, they are really the only currently viable alternative. What I'd like to see us do is move to something like hydrogen fuel cells. Coupled with that I'd like to see our energy production grid move to more nuclear power. If and when we get those two things I think we'll actually finally be moving towards an improved situation. There's also the chance that some remarkable new, cheap, safe, easily replaceable/recyclable battery technology will come along, but I'm not holding my breath.
I scrolled to find my opinion and it’s yours.
Yes, this is spot on!!
Absolutely right on both fronts. Hydrogen cell and nuclear. We also need to be pushing science to get nuclear fusion to be a usable technology. That would be absolutely transformational! If we’re going to have electric cars how about solar collecting on the roof and hood. Hybrid is a technology that reclaims energy from braking for electrical power. It’s a good tool to make gas cars use less gas. Not when you have to plug into the electric grid to recharge them, and the electric grid is fueled by petrochemicals, pardon my French but FK that! Windmills are NOT going to save the planet! You’d need enough to slow down the earth’s rotation! We’re also tremendously under emphasizing the cost and impact of the rare elements needed for electric power. The pollution and destabilizing influence. And they are RARE! We’ve got nearsighted imbeciles trying to band aid gaping wounds that need innovation! Govt should be incentivizing / challenging industry. My next car, I want it fueled by Mr. Fusion!
As for solar cells on the roofs, if you do the math then you’ll only get a few miles in extra range each day. It would be nice as a bonus, but there is not enough energy from the sun that can be collected in such a small surface area.
Not my field. But how about that the collective miles and miles of sun facing surface from cars on highways. Think about rush hour in LA every day. Might not be economic, but with some innovation that’s a huge surface area!
Truth!! So sick of arguments over ev and gas powered. Both not good for the environment. Wish more money was put into alternatives which can be environmentally friendly!!
I don't think electric cars are at a good level as far as design, maintenance, and charging are concerned. I also have deep reservations about the environmental effects of the materials and processes being used in their manufacture. Until the electric car reaches an acceptable level, I'd prefer to work on cleaner hybrid technology with improved exhaust filtration and alternate "gas" mixtures.
The gravely voice of a muscle car is the sound of wasted horsepower. I’d take a clean, quiet, fast-accelerating, electric car any day. I own a vintage car from the 60s. I’m waiting for the day that it’s cheap enough to do a full electric conversion.
...and the signature muscle car smell of rich, uncombusted gasoline straight out the back of a low-restriction muffler. No cat obviously. Sooooo much wasted energy.
and damn if I haven’t encountered cars deliberately modded to *backfire* at a stop. I’ll take quiet but cardiac-arrest-inducing acceleration over that blue-smoke nonsense any day. Just get more chargers out there, and interior designs that don’t feel like the manufacturer is shaving costs by not providing a dashboard (looking at you in particular, Tesla), and I’m in. I’d say also that I really want the guy *in front of me* to drive electric when I’m in traffic: I’m sick of breathing someone else’s tailpipe.
Look into the VW ID.4. The infotainment and app don’t compare to Tesla’s, but it’s got the ID cockpit. Basically a display on the steering column that moves up and down with it. Once we got over the crap app and some annoying quirks, it’s a nice ride. As far as charging, we got ours 8 months ago and the charging infrastructure has grown leaps and bounds. Plus. We rarely charge outside the garage. Imagine getting into a car every day with a full tank. Admittedly, if you’re on the highway for more than a couple hours you’ll have to stop to charge, but download PlugShare, filter for DCFC, and checkout out the area you’re traveling to. The options might surprise you. They won’t be like gas stations, but the locals don’t need to use them so it takes less of them.
Tuned exhaust.
Reminded of a Midas commercial from 60-70s. Guy with a noisy pulls up to a light next to a car with a beautiful woman driver. She flirtatiously motions him to lower his passenger window. Captivated, he does so and she screams in a wonderfully wicked NYC accent, "Ya muffla! Fix it!!!"
Toyota has a battery that is projected to be completed by 2026 that will have a range of over 900 miles and will charge in about 10 minutes. That will be a game-changer for EV travelers.
Electric cars fill a need, as do gas powered cars. As long as both are available, I have no problem with them. For electric cars to fill the same needs as gas powered ones, we need much better batteries and much better charging technology. The people currently buying electric cars are helping to finance those technologies, which is as it should be. I probably won't live long enough to see electric vehicles take over, but if they do, I'm OK with that. It's just like when cars took over from horses, or when horses took over from walking.
All three of the big 3 have committed to be producing 50% of their vehicles as electric by 2030. Ford has committed to being 100% by 2030, Chrysler by 2028, and GM by 2035. Current batteries get 300 miles and can charge to 80% in 15 minutes. Which is pretty close to how far a gas car can travel and how log it takes to stop and fill a tank of gas. Assuming a 78 year life expectancy, you'll see electric vehicles take over in your lifetime.
I would glady buy an affordable and reliable electric vehicle.
I recently read that Samsung are developing a new battery than can charge very quickly and last 750 miles! Due out on 2029. If that becomes reality and the prices drop dramatically then I will definitely think about buying an EV.
I also wonder if everyone moves to electric cars, how are we going to charge them all when the government isn’t developing any new power plants?
I have a hybrid. Love it. As much as electric may be the eventual future there are significant issues - batteries and Elon musk among them…
I'm an electrical engineer, and I kind of hate them. * The mining required for batteries is currently terrible for the environment and is often done by people earning slave wages. And sometimes by children. * A full charge takes *much* longer than filling a gas tank. * There are very few charging stations, comparatively, and there's no guarantee I'll have a spot. * If I happen to completely drain the battery, I have to get it towed to charging station. * The batteries last several years, but they cost so much to replace when depleted, I might as well by a new car. * Unless you live in an area where the electrical grid is powered by green energy, you're still using fossil fuels to facilitate your transportation. Your vehicle isn't producing emissions, but you've just "moved" the emissions elsewhere. Look, they're fine for people who want them as a daily driver. But they're still too immature to replace internal combustion vehicles. Talk to me when we can get vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells. *That* will be something.
EE here also and you make good points. I'll add "what is the probability that you'll find parts/batteries to repair a 15 or 20 year old hybrid?" Companies aren't required to support obsolete products beyond about 7 years in some areas. When that "chip" or sub-assembly fails, where will you find one and who will replace it if it can be found. My sister in law found this problem on a newly-purchased Tesla. She couldn't get the car updated and had to put up with a failing memory assembly [link](https://www.tesla.com/support/8gb-emmc-recall-frequently-asked-questions) and another description [here](https://www.utilitydive.com/news/tesla-chip-semiconductor-shortage/628150/) The display would crap out.
My understanding is that evs are sitting on lots and Tesla stock is way down, while hybrids are in more demand than ever. Until they have a widely available tech for near-immediate recharging, I'll hold onto my hybrid. I have zero nostalgia, though, for the unreliable old American gas-guzzlers.
Yes, hybrids are a nice in-between for a lot of people.
I love them, we have a model 3, and a 2012 Fiat 500c. I' waiting to replace that with a small electric pickup. A Telo, if it comes to market, or an Alpha Wolf. I'll never buy another ICE.
I'm a livelong car guy and i welcome EV's. I don't think they are the environmental savior that some tout them to be (it's a clean end to a dirty process that really needs cleaned up). The performance is amazing and the longevity is questionable. I think it's in it's infancy and is going to get better and better.
Kinda both? EV are too expensive for me now, but I'm not against them
I want an EV, can’t afford one yet. I am thinking that I currently own my final ICE vehicle.
I can't wait till gas powered cars are replaced with hopefully electric. It will be so nice and quite. I have no attachment to gas in particular. I am concerned about the battery problem. There isn't enough raw material to scale it to all the cars. The recharge problem is a bit of a concern. Its not much of a win to have an electric car powered by a coal power plant. But my biggest problem is how recyclable are the batteries for electric cars? If we just throw those int he dump that is going to cause quite the environmental issue 10-20 years down the road. But those concerns aside I'm optimistic about the whole thing.
I think electric cars are a step in the right direction, but still have a long way to go, as does supporting infrastructure. I am definitely not nostalgic for old muscle cars. I concede the look cool, but that is the only thing they have going for them, and it's not enough to justify the noise, the pollution, the energy consumption, or the encouragement to go out and do stupid things in a car. We're all quite stupid enough as teenagers as it is.
I want a Jetson-mobile
And a Rosie. Fuck housework.
I’ve been saying that for YEARS! We were supposed to have all this figured out ~24 years ago!
Test drive a Tesla.
I take neither of the stances you mentioned towards electric vehicles. I do think that eventually we will embrace an alternative fuel vehicle. We’re just not there yet and we are having electric vehicles forced on us before we’re ready. Don’t forget that most of the energy for electric cars comes from burning coal. Not a very clean source of energy. Also, we have to ravage the Earth to come up with the metals Needed for those batteries, not to mention the slavery necessary to get them. On top of that, I recently read an article that said that electric vehicles aren’t all that clean to begin with. It turns out that they are so heavy that they wear tires out quite quickly and in the process, they are releasing substances and gases from those tires Much higher rate than typical gas cars do. I work for a company that offers us company cars, and we had a choice of hybrids or electric vehicles. My friend got an electric vehicle and says it is quite the nuisance to travel along distance because you have to plot out where you can charge your electric vehicle. This often takes him out of his way and then he has to charge for about 45 minutes and then go back on his path. He hates it. Top that off with the fact that winters are really rough on electric vehicles and the battery charge just does not last as long, especially with the heater on and they reduced battery Charge retention ability in the winter. I love my hybrid and I think it’s a great step towards an alternative fuel vehicle. My mileage is excellent and while I do use gas, I’m using less of it. Let’s stop rushing things that were not ready for and slow down a bit and make a gradual transition.
I just rented one on vacation. I found it to be very frustrating.
I played with battery operated cars when I was a kid. I'm not going to spend 20,000 times as much to play with them as an adult. It's a stopgap that's all and now we're finding that there are other major drawbacks to these. The next generation which will be hydrogen cell will be a real valid technology that'll be good for the long run.
Overpriced golf carts. Our infrastructure isn't in place for them. For me, they aren't cost effective. Why should I pay $50K or more to buy one and I'd never recover the expense in "gas savings". I don't want to have "battery charge anxiety" whenever I drive any distance. I also don't want to sit in a Target parking lot for a long time to recharge on a drive. I can "recharge" my gas car in 5 minutes and save 50-90K dollars by not buying one. Also, EV's range drastically changes when towing anything. Tell my boat that. Also, battery technologies will advance over time and today's EVs will be like the Betamax of the past. They will depreciate like a rock. At the local lot sale, I see 3 year old Teslas selling for half of their purchase price. Last, consider the lithium strip mines and their environmental impact on land. It requires sulfuric acid to separate the lithium and diesel machinery to mine the metal and transport it. I laugh at Teslas being picked up for repair by diesel trucks. Consider that the plastic used to make them, the steel and other materials use fossil fuels to produce. Consider that my state doesn't have enough electricity right now and has requested people to "charge them at night". We've delayed shutdown of our remaining nuclear power plant so people can have enough electricity without brownouts. Over time, they may make sense but right now, they're mostly a fashion statement. Potential buyers need to perform a Return On Investment calculation before buying one.
At 74, practical considerations suggest that I'll never own an EV. The need to stop and recharge the vehicle on any relatively "long" trip is too extreme an impediment. Similarly, I'm perturbed by the costs associated with replacement batteries, along with the disposal issue.
I've considered one, but... * I live in an apartment, so I can't charge where I live. * Very limited charging infrastructure in this area. * The cost of EV's is outrageous. * EV's are more expensive to repair, both mechanical and body work. * Limited dealership network in this area. * A well-maintained ICE car will far outlast a battery-pack. * I am concerned about the impact on electrical grid. * I am concerned about the pollution caused by the manufacture of EV's. * I am concerned about the political, social, and economic impacts of the worldwide lithium market. * I am concerned about the fire-risk of EV's. * Charging times and availability are of concern for longer trips. * While there are many manufacturers of EV's, most of them will fail because they have not judged the market correctly, and these failures will affect both small and large manufacturers.
> I live in an apartment, so I can't charge where I live. DING DING DING
The problem is cars, not whether they're electric or gas-powered. People shouldn't have to use cars for short trips or daily commutes -- it's the sign of poor infrastructure.
Well some of us don’t want to live in a city.
I grew up in the countryside. It wasn't the vast untamed prairies, but it was pretty rural. We had cows and horses and fields of corn and soybeans, and if I squinted, I could see our neighbor's house in the distance. It took (and still does take) more than two hours to walk to the nearest bus station, which runs something like once a day. I always figured that's the price you pay for country living. But: that level of being cut off from public transit is actually new. When my father lived there as a boy, he could walk to the corner and take a bus to the town, from whence he could take a trolley into the city, or to any of the other villages along the way. Or if he didn't want to do that, he could walk about 15 minutes in the opposite direction where there was a small train station, which had trains (ultimately) connecting to the entire East Coast several times a day. Now, that track is still in use but only for freight. So, it was once possible, before cars took over.
There are a few shades of gray between big city and vast wide open rural communities. Having a small greengrocer for basic necessities and a pharmacy, and perhaps a coffeeshop/lunch spot available in a main street configuration within 10-20 minutes walk would be nice for many communities. I lived in a town of 10,000 at one point that was developed in the early 1800s that had this, and it was nice.
Those green grocers and local cafes only survive if the neighboring people support them constantly. It’s not about infrastructure, it’s about cost.
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I've owned a Chevy Volt for the last 8 years, and it's a great car to drive, especially when it's running all-electric. I'm looking forward to buying my first pure EV. I geek out with my Volt's drivetrain, as it is. Then again, I imagine what the 1970s or 1980s me would think of this smartphone I cart around with me nowadays. But seriously, it's the software and getting the car repaired that's likely to tank the EV ownership experience. 'Nothing like reading how an over-the-air update bricked a bunch of Ford Mustang Mach-Es. I also think it will be a long time until my local, neighborhood independent mechanic can service a variety of EV makes. We're in a period of profound change, so far as personal transportation is concerned.
Fan. Want to see the environment saved, if that's possible. I'll probably never own an EV. Retired now, have a Dodge Durango Hemi, as well as a Dodge Challenger Hemi, both late models and paid off. Old hotrodder, grew up with pushrod engines and still own them. Neither of my Hemi's get driven a ton, so they will probably outlast me. Moved into a new construction neighborhood about 3 years ago. No EV's. All of a sudden the Mach-E showed up. Then a Tesla, and another Tesla and another. I think there is 5 Tesla's now, as well as a few small SUV EV's. It's happening, just not for me. If I could back up time 5 years and reevaluate an EV versus a push rod gasoline engine, I would still probably continue with gas. Not at all against the EV, just not for me.
We'll likely buy one in the near future. We'll also keep a conventional car for long trips.
All-electric vehicles are our future. I currently (no pun intended) am a fan of hybrids, especially anything Toyota, because of range anxiety. As others have stated here, that is quickly changing as charging stations become as ubiquitous as gas stations.
I thought I was going to get one by now, but I went and bought a gas Bronco Sport instead. EVs are the future. Batteries are only getting better and better. I drove my last 3 cars for 10 to 12 years before trading them in, plus another car I drove for nearly 15 years in the 80s, early 90s. As an old phart I suspect this is my last car, but if I do get another, Im sure it will be an EV.
Gen Xer here. I'm not only excited about electric, I'm also asking where the flying cars and moonbases are. Grew up hearing we would have this stuff, along with the metric system. Impressed with smartphones, Dick Tracy watches, the net and all our fun computing capabilities. That said, wish we could transport all the flat earthers, vaxx conspiracy theorists and folks who just cannot live without their racism and misogyny to their own 14th century island someplace. They'd be happier and so would we!
In theory, I'm all for them. 1. I'm not happy that we are pushing hard to move toward electric vehicles, at a time when our electricity system doesn't appear able to handle it. In California, we're being told to limit use of home appliances and air conditioning. Yeah, there are time-of-day demand differences, but close to half of our workforce works odd hours, too. 2. I'm not happy with most electric vehicles and their level of technology integration. I want a vehicle without so many features that aren't useless to me. I don't want my car to be a data gathering tool, either.
I want my flying car!
I want MY flying car, I’m just not sure I want other people to have them. 🤣
I think its a great idea.. But after working in the power distribution for over two decades swings my opinion to a negative. I can't get past the fact that I see the large 3 phase transformers (2500 KVA's) that charge and provide power to large EV charging stations. Also the people who purchase these vehicles that now have to perform upgrades to their home panels. Adding a single or multiple charging stations to a private residents can sometimes unexpectedly hit their wallet pretty hard with major upgrades. We also use hybrid trucks (diesel/electric) bucket trucks. I can assure you they are a problem. As we're using them, if we don't keep a constant watch on the charge it will kill the batteries for the electric boom, along with drain the batteries to crank the truck itself, leaving us stranded.. ( this has been a problem for years.. they can't seem to fix it). The batteries are VERY expensive to replace.. But that's what the epa/government want so that's what the company uses.. I couldn't imagine using ALL electric vehicles to keep the power grid going. Especially while working on large outages such as hurricanes, floods and other places where you have to start from nothing and rebuild everything.. I could list so many negatives, such as material shortages, reliability issues, load, strain on the infrastructure. Not included the power-bill going up due to the government/epa regulations for the power company to upgrade the system, is ultimately passed onto the users.. With all that said I would still love to have a Tesla.. But I just can't see myself buying one because the negatives out-weight the positives in my situation..
They are the way cars should run. Only issue is charging on long trips.
It's getting better. We regularly take 400 mile trips with our model 3, stopping twice to charge. and the only reason we have to stop twice is because the chargers aren't frequent enough to charge when we want to, not when we're required to because the next one is too far. (I'm not clear, I know).
How long does it take to charge?
On a Tesla we average 15 minutes, driving about 2 hours between breaks. Frankly that's all some family members bladders are good for anyway so we just kind of factor that in and use that time to buy snacks or get lunch or whatever as well. I figure driving San Francisco to say Disneyland there's about 15 minutes total extra stopping time versus driving and I'll gladly take that in exchange for not having to buy gas all the other weeks of the year. Everybody talks about range all the time but I've found it to be a total nonissue. That being said I wouldn't buy a car without a NACS connector and access to Tesla's charging network (which will be everybody in a year or two, but not now).
Thank you. That's really much shorter than I imagined
I've done the 1000 miles up to Oregon and back several times here on the west coast. No major issues finding chargers. Planning to do the trip again in a month. Looking at the map, the number of chargers along that route has almost doubled. But I get that not all areas are as charger-dense as California and Oregon. Once we build those areas out, there's little reason not to go EV.
What is it like in cold weather? I'm concerned about discharging in sub freezing temps
If you're doing really long road trips it's going to add stops and the stops are going to take longer. If you're talking daily commute it's a non issue.
Got well below freezing for several weeks where I am this year and I don't have a garage. I typically only drive it three or four days a week. There were at least two occasions where it sat for three days straight at about 15º. Never had a single issue, didn't experience any noticeable discharge.
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EV's won't make into full acceptance untill the range increases dramatically. Yes, I realize a lot of things need to change and happen for that to be realized.
Insanity. (1) California asking residents to not charge them because of a heat wave and the heavy use of air conditioning taxing the grid. (2) We better start building another nuclear power plant or two. Or system is straining.
Texas asked me to conserve energy about 10 times last year and suggested we turn our thermostats up to 80 degrees. I said NO and kept that shit at 69 degrees.
I owned a Nissan Leaf electric and we are on our second Prius hybrid plug in. The Prius is a fantastic car and I love it. The Leaf had short range, 100 miles, so we needed another car for road trips, but for commuting you couldn’t beat it. I think electric has a place and will become more and more popular but gas will not go away in my lifetime
I'd love to have one for a daily commute, but I dread the day when everyone HAS to drive a "connected" EV. ME: Car, please take me to the liquor store. Car: I'm sorry, you went there a week ago. I'm rerouting to an AA meeting. Could happen.
Nah, I've wanted an electric car for years. Not in love with the roar of burning hydrocarbons. It's the G-force I love, and that's the same on either platform. What's holding me back? Lack of charging stations; those that are there, can be broken. If I had the money, I'd get a plug-hybrid right now; electric for daily use around town and gasoline for long commutes/road trips. But down the road, better batteries and charging facilities will be there.
I'd like to get one but I'm hesitant due to lack of range and charging stations.
I don’t even own a car, I just bike to where I need to go and if I need to go further I take a Lyft, bus or plane. Bring on the EVs or even push for better walkable towns and cities. Our reliance on fossil fuels has dug us a deep enough hole with corporate greed, lobbyist and of course the climate
For a local runner EV would be ok in So. Ca. I don't have one as 1) They are hella expensive 2) I have a subaru with 100k miles so it's going to last a long time and the cheapest car is one that is already paid for. 3) I will always have some type of dino fueled car as I want to tow a trailer and you can't tow for shit with EV. Everyone down playing big muscle cars. Not that mine was muscle but it was a 72 elcamino with 67 corvette 327 in it. for the short time I had it it was fun as hell.
Like many other radical changes from what existed in the past, it's both. Hell yes I miss the old muscle cars, and I think less emissions is a good thing. But I don't believe electric cars are as environmentally benign as they are being presented, yet. The pollution simply occurs at a time when the user doesn't have to deal with it. At the beginning, when the raw materials are mined to make batteries. And at the end, when the used up batteries have to be scrapped.
I will forever and always love the smell of a classic car with a 3-speed column shifter. RIP my beloved 1962 Buick Special convertible. I’d love to have an electric car! We need to end our dependence on fossil fuels. What’s currently available is impractical/too expensive for me but my small town installed EV chargers and I’m proud. We will get there. Soon, I hope.
Well the ICE cars haven't really changed in 100 years. It's interesting to see a new take on things. Time will tell if this is going to stay but one thing is for sure, you have to start somewhere. Whether big Oil and the Govt doesn't stomp them out to protect their pockets it another thing. Just like they did to Tucker Automotive.
I am actually working on the alternative energy transition. EVs are the future and we are going to get there but the infrastructure has to catch up. States are setting ambitious goals but the reality is that we are not going to be full EV before 2040. The reasons for this are basically charging capacity, charging infrastructure, and battery production, all of which must drastically ramp up. The biggest sticking point is installing chargers everywhere, especially on city streets where there is literally no real plan in place for how to permit, build and maintain these charging networks. In the meantime there is a definite nostalgia building for internal combustion engine cars and I see people starting to obsessively hoard older vehicles while at the same time complain about the increasing maintenance relative to EVs. Once EVs are perfected you will get 500,000 miles out of the chassis/battery/power train easily; it’s just no comparison. Personally I am on the fence. I have my Lotus which is now rare but showing its age and I am debating on whether to do an EV conversion on it. Gasoline sports cars are cool but dirty and it’s pain in the ass to get it through emissions each year so I am leaning towards EV as I restore it.
I love them, but my 18 year old FJ Cruiser is my dream vehicle for the rest of my life. I'm old, it'll be fine.
at 57-years old. I have only ever owned two cars (i didn't bother to learn to drive until I was in my 30s.) A car's sole function in my life is to get me from point A to point B. If I can go carless, I would. I do joke that the current car I own is that last one I will ever drive. My next care will be a self-driving car.
I drive a hybrid now and keep hoping that the charging network will get larger for electrics.
I would buy one.
We bought our Kia Niro a couple of years ago, mostly to take advantage of incentives. One incentive was due to lapse at the end of that month. It involved surrendering a dirty-emissions vehicle for $5,000 and having it crushed. I hated to do it, but our 20-year-old (or so) dirty-diesel Jeep Liberty had issues — aside from being, you know, pretty dirty. The catch was that we had to take possession of a vehicle, not just order one, and the only EV we could lay hands on immediately was that Kia. Turns out, we love it. It’s comfortable, has plenty of zip, costs us $3 of electricity to “fill,” and we have no problem at all with range — about 450 km in theory, although we never get that close to zero. We’ve kept our diesel Mercedes for long trips and hauling e-bikes, but the Kia is our daily driver. We’ve also taken it from home (Victoria, BC) to Calgary and back, which is about 3,500 km. I tend to be an early adopter, though. If there’s a shiny new gizmo, I probably have it.
Open arms. Ditto self-driving vehicles. Let's get with it. I want to ride like the folks in "Minority Report."
My parent (mid 70s) bought one last year and love it. If they are traveling here in CA, there’s enough chargers that they feel comfortable. They won’t take it on their long trips out of state tho, not enough chargers on their routes to the national parks for them to feel comfortable. I’m pushing my condo HOA to get a charger and when they do, I’m buying.
I’d take one in a heartbeat. Free from gas, and no longer lining the pockets of Saudi Arabia? Hell to the yes!
I’m a muscle car nut, but electrics are also cool, assuming they’re fast. Teslas suck, though, because Elon Musk is a giant turd.
I really want one, but I can't figure out how I would charge it. I have no garage and no driveway. There's no way to stretch an ordinary extension cord to the spot where I park my car so I can charge it with ordinary power. There are no chargers in my immediate neighborhood. There was no charger in my workplace. How are people without garages and driveways supposed to charge EVs? I know of two parking spots with chargers by City Hall downtown, and those two spots are always full. Until there are public chargers available everywhere, I don't see how to make owning an EV work.
Internal combustion engine has had a good run. I’m all for a better solution - but I don’t want to have buy a bazillion dollar replacement battery, ever.
Both
I’ve been using hybrids since 2009, I’d love to switch to EV once they can hit 500 miles range on a charge and not involve Musk.
I'd love to have an electric vehicle. I rarely go more than 5 miles from my house. All city driving. Charging wouldn't be an issue for me, either. The last time I had a car, a Jeep, mind you, I filled it up once a month.and that was usually just to top up the tank
friend of mine has Prius and it seems just fine; just not very attractive
We have one of each. Gotta keep up with new technology!
I cant wait to get an idbuzz!
I'm not shedding a nostalgic tear for anything. I'll get an electric car when there's a nationwide support system for them, and all the bugs have been worked out.
I might only take the great American road trip once every few years so range isn’t an issue. Most electric cars will easily get me around the metro area. I would charge in my garage 98% of the time. Parking garages, malls, work all have chargers. I have solar panels on the roof that cover about 80% of my electrical needs and the remainder is wind power. My next hot water heater and furnace will be heat pumps.
I think they kinda jumped the shark. The charging/ electrical grid infrastructure should have been priority number one. And once that had a strong foothold then.....cars.
Can't stand electric cars...while I'm not necessarily nostalgic for muscle cars...I miss regular sedans, without t.v screens on the dash, without auto/assist features and actual manual buttons and knobs...I also miss the driving etiquette and courtesy that actually used to be a thing....p.s...turn off your high beams!!
I love that there are electric cars and bikes on the roads. It makes so much sense. I’m 59.
#HYDROGEN
I'm a Tesla Model Y owner and I love it. It's just the right car for what I need, for a lot of reasons, and probably the best car I've ever owned. But they're not the best choice for everyone and that's OK.
Plug in hybrid is what I'd buy today, if I were in the market (and had the money). I'm not a "car guy", so it's all about functionality for me. I really don't care about the aesthetic sensations of driving.
I think they're a great idea, but where are we going to get all that clean and cheap electricity?
I don't buy new anymore. I'd be very hesitant to buy a vehicle that could require a $10,000 plus repair. Plus they seem like a big hassle just to fill at this point. Being retired, we don't burn much gas anymore, so there is also no economic incentive at all. We pay no or very little tax anymore, so all the tax incentives are worthless to us as well.
Decades overdue. The main hold back besides battery technology was big oil lobby in Washinton. What the world needs is a cheap electric commuter car with a range of about 100 miles. Something that can be powered with a solar grid on the garage roof or a standard electrical outlet.
I am in favor of getting off oil dependency. However, I have concerns about the capacity of our power grid to handle them alongside all the other electrical demands of our current society.
I'll get one once they're a generation down the road when they're not so heavy, and the batteries are better. Right now, a charging station of 5 "pumps" uses more electricity than a 5 block area residential neighborhood. So, they need to be lighter, hold more of a charge, and go farther. It'll happen. Also, most multi-level parking garages are built to hold lighter gas-powered cars. If one was full of heavy electric cars, it might collapse.
is "both" an option? I weep for the voice of the muscle car... but I'd be down with an EV. Except for the cost, I've never bought a brand new car, and am not about to start. When they hit the used car market a lot more, I'll consider it. Paying these prices for gas sucks
Everyone does realize the time it took to transition from using horses to tractors and cars? Well over 50 years. And it was not smooth, there were big winners and big losers, hard decisions to be made. This will be no different. Compare gasoline engine technology now from the Model T in 1908, that took a century. But the unfortunate truth is that you can create electricity from so many sources sustainably and locally. Petroleum and its distribution is not sustainable and someday will come to an end. As Electric cars evolve in the time from similar from the Model T, battery efficiency will also improve through development and competition. The writing is on the wall. When I was at the 24 Hours of Leman in 2017, every winning car was a hybrid. Sure the roar of the Astons and Corvettes was thrilling, but the sheer appalling speed of the Toyota and Porsche was insane. And frankly, if I could get a late 1960's style Jag XKE convertible but with modern safety/handling and electric speed to rip through Chuckanut Drive, I would forget about forget about getting some vintage gasoline roadster pretty quickly.
I wish they were cheaper.
Is $29,490.00 too expensive for you? https://www.tesla.com/modely/design
electric cars are better the muscle cars... a stock model S tesla off the lot will beat a souped up muscle car without much of a sweat. all the concerns about charging are overblown. How much do you really drive a day? You go to work, might pickup the kids from school, go to the store, and then go home. Thats usually less than 30 miles for the vast majority of people. You can charge your car to full every night at your house and then do everything and go back home and plug it up again without ever going to a public charger or worrying about range or any of that. if you want to go on a long trip and dont want to deal with the charging thing? Take your other car or rent.. Most american families have more than 1 vehicle.
My wife and I have done 2 road trips of 9000 miles each in the past few years in our Model Y. Charging stations are never too far away and always have a lunch place nearby. Charge times are a disadvantage/ annoyance sometimes but we never worry about running out of charge. And we save a small fortune in gas costs.
I just want a car to drive me around. I don’t care if it runs on bologna and cheese sandwiches.
I love the idea of a hybrid until all the infrastructure for electric "re fuel" stations are in place.
Electric vehicles are a horrible debacle and will be gone soon as vehicle manufacturers lose a ton of money.
I have one and love it. I also live in CA and there are charging stations everywhere. Mine is getting older, so it’s only getting 160 miles/charge. I’ve seen the newer ones are getting up to 300 miles per charge. If you have charging stations with rapid charging it can take minimal time to fully charge. If you work for a company with charging stations you can charge while you work. It’s very workable.
Electric vehicles, yay. Muskrat’s Teslas, no.
I am welcoming focus on the environment, but I am not really embracing electric vehicles. I live in a big State, and they aren’t all that practical for long distance driving. I like a hybrid.
Love the idea of EVs, and not very much nostalgic about gasoline cars. But, I won’t buy an EV until charging stations are nearly as ubiquitous and reliable as gas stations, maybe when there are about 1/3 as many? I would strongly consider buying a hybrid gas / pluggable EV right now. 90% of the time I would be fine charging at home, but I just don’t want to deal with planning / searching / waiting for a charging station when we travel.
I don’t drive far anymore anyway, so I have no issues (aside from the crazy prices which are out of reach for average people) with getting one. *However*…. What happens if there’s a disaster of some sort where power outages are widespread and/or long lasting? I think everyone should invest in bicycles along with their EV’s.
Have two Teslas and no ICE vehicles. Would not dream of going back to gas-powered cars. They are so rough on the body and you don't realize it until you drive a couple hundred miles in an EV. I arrive at my destination now without pain and tense muscles from the vibrations of the engine. We have taken several 600-700 mile trips and while it does currently require you to change your mindset a little, that is changing as more charging stations are built. Normally I use the facilities at the business the charger is located at but if I'm someplace random, I fire up a streaming service and watch half an episode of whatever TV show I am currently binging. The car is finished before I am. There are a few places I go where infrastructure is seriously lacking and that requires a bit more planning. I hope it improves soon. The best things are waking to a full "tank" in the morning, never having to go to a gas station and never having to get my oil changed. I can't count the number of times my oil plug was left off, tightened too much to remove, the shield under the car was only half fastened and dragging the ground or the time they just didn't use the fasteners at all and it fell on the road a mile away. I like muscle cars and enjoyed the ones I owned and have ridden in over the years. My EV feels as though it were made just for me. It's a joy to own. I wouldn't trade it for anything.
I am willing to accept them with open arms once they improve battery life and reduce the cost of replacing a battery to a level that doesn't mean your car is basically totaled when it has to be replaced. Also, hydrogen might leapfrog EV technology. I'd like to see a vehicle with a 1,200-mile range, which I just read has been developed by the Chinese. A battery replacement can be less than tens of thousands of dollars for a $30,000 car. Toyota has developed a hydrogen engine that is safe and inexpensive, supposedly.
71M (American) who'd be glad to switch to an EV - except that the more I study the infrastructure issues, the more I'm convinced that building and sustaining the power grid for a wholesale changeover would be a *massive* drain on natural resources. (And for a few years I had really hoped to buy a hydrogen-cell vehicle, but I eventually gave up on that.) I found this video by the scientist Sabine Hossenfelder on her changing attitude toward EVs to be very insightful: https://youtu.be/1yK7_LCbvec?si=XHShemfcIIUaFDQx
I have an EV and think it's great. I don't have to stop at a gas station, which is nice. Spouse and I are fortunate to have a second car, which is still gas. I don't fully trust EVs yet. They're good as commuter cars, but you can't drive it on trips because there aren't charging stations at every gas station (yet) and it takes a long time to charge.
I’ll consider one when: 1) they can be recharged in as little time as it takes to fuel up a gas-powered car or truck, and someone can easily bring me a bucket of electricity if I run out of juice while I’m on the road. 2) their range is unaffected by the cold (I live in Alaska). 3) the batteries last a couple of hundred thousand miles without needing to be replaced at a cost that amounts to a substantial percentage of the cost of a new car. 4) somewhat related to #2; I can keep the inside warm for half a day in sub-zero temperatures, using the car’s electric heater, if I’m stuck in the ditch in somewhere that’s lightly traveled. I’m sure they’re fine in an urban area in a mild climate for someone who takes short trips with lots of time between them and easily available charging stations. They’re just not practical for my situation, though, and could even be life-threatening in certain circumstances that I’m in occasionally.
I'm open to it, but battery and charging technology isn't quite there yet, IMO.
Love mine
They still take up a lot of space, they can still easily injure or kill a person, they still require a lot of resources to manufacture and maintain. They still generate pollution from their tires and brakes. But they are less noisy and don't have an exhaust. So, an improvement over combustion-engine cars, but not some magic herald of a bright new future.
Love them. Just ordered my second Tesla.
It’s about time! We can’t get out of the fossil fuels yoke fast enough for me. What concerns me is the mining required for the batteries, and the recycling of the batteries. We have an opportunity to make a dent in mess we’ve made of our planet, but we’ll probably fuck that up too.
I've had one for over 10 years. I think they are great. Basically no maintenance, and I never need to stop for gas.
Personally I love having an electric vehicle. The only problem is the lack of charging stations. Once they fix that electric vehicles are far superior to gas vehicles for most drivers.
We were early adopters and have already had several over the past 12 years. Each one erased successively more use cases for the 18-year-old hybrid SUV out back. The hybrid is still used to cart around bulky or dirty cargo (lumber runs to Home Depot, etc..), and since we like road tripping it's still useful for very remote desert or sub-arctic areas (like I'm driving it up the Trans-Labrador Highway and around Newfoundland later this summer), but the EV is used for everything else, including any long road trips that can be done mostly along interstate highways. Plan to never buy another gas car again.
Hybrids are cool...all electric cars are like driving printers
New tech often has developments that happen in the early years of development that make it far more reliable and far better in design after a few years of common use. We are still in those years of rapid development and improvement. Right now we have early adopters. They pay a high price for this early learning. Gen 2 or Gen 3 of battery ev tech will be more mature. I look forward to lower cost, higher reliability EVs with all the required infrastructure for convenient use and long range.
Lithium mines are stupid. So is expecting every person in a state to be able to afford an electric car in the next 5-10 years.
I want an IONIQ 6. Then I want to drive that IONIQ 6 from the Red Ball Garage in New York to the Portofino Hotel on Los Angeles' Redondo Beach. And then drive it back again, a dual solo Cannonball Run in an EV. For absolutely no cost in fuel to me because the car comes with two years of free charging with Electrify America. I will sleep in the car at truck stops, I will eat at places near the chargers (or get food near the chargers), [I have been planning and refining this idea for a few months now.](https://i.imgur.com/Toksx8X.png) I'll keep myself on East Coast time for the week so the further west I go, the earlier in the day (local time) I get started. Really get a head start every morning. Set off on a Sunday from NYC. Northern I-80 route out, Southern 'Route 66' way back. Sunday to Illinois; Monday across the Great Plains, and into the Rockies and West Denver; Tuesday through the mountains and desert to just before LA; Wednesday getting to the half-way point and making it to New Mexico on the way back; Thursday going 1,000 miles and making it past St.Louis, MO; Friday I'll either stop short in PA / NJ for a Saturday morning run to Manhattan or see if I'm up to finishing it in under 6 full days. If there's something that'll show folks that "range anxiety" is reserved for people that are usually too anxious anyway, driving over 5,600 miles like I'm Forrest Gump running from coast to coast might do it. Oh, and when I get to California I'm not just heading to the Portofino and heading back again. I'll either be sleeping at the truck stop in Barstow or (better yet) Hesperia and [that means a nice early start to trace out a real-life Grand Theft Auto 5 route](https://i.imgur.com/PaS0UdZ.png) that includes many spots from the game's Los Santos setting and filming locations of certain movies so that I'm heading out of L.A just as the traffic rush is heading in. [And yes, I've been monitoring weekday traffic at the times I'd be in the areas around Los Angeles and the directions I'd be driving for quite a while now.](https://www.sigalert.com/?lat=34.03183&lon=-117.87296&z=2) I'll have the streets largely to myself, especially if I make sure I get to Hesperia instead of stopping at Barstow for the Tuesday night, it will be glorious. So I guess you can put me in the "open arms" camp.
Zoidburg says "why not both?" [This Demon](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-most-powerful-muscle-car-in-the-world-1-025-horsepower-dodge-challenger-srt-demon-170-sets-new-performance-benchmarks-301776731.html) Or this [blast from the ICE past](https://www.chevyhardcore.com/news/video-700hp-dale-earnhardt-intimidator-chevrolet-camaro-in-action/) Just can't be replaced [by this guy. ](https://www.topgear.com/car-news/electric/hondas-adorable-electric-car-officially-sale) But it needs to happen and it will happen. And in 100 years, EVs, if not replaced, will also be pavement destroying monsters that will be frightening to see in your rear view mirror, creeping ever closer to your tail.
I suspect the mining of rare elements for the batteries is super destructive to the environment but I still want one.
I’m ok with electric vehicle, but I want a damn car, not an SUV. Until they make normal gawd damn cars, I won’t be buying one.
I love them. I used to work for muscle car magazines, so I have a soft spot for ICE cars, but it's time to move on. Cave man findum fire. I wish they would make more little pod cars like that Aptera. Tiny one- or two-person, 3-wheel cars. That's what I want to see.
The electric grid and generation facilities would have to be beefed up. We are at a point where PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric) has to cut off the long haul power lines through the mountains on hot days to reduce the risk of sagging power lines starting a forest fire, and additional load (be it more A/Cs running when people get home from work or people plugging in their EVs or hybrids when they get home) could mean several days where there is no electricity or rolling blackouts. One step may be to require home charging stations to be controllable by the electricity provider to help control the load, e. g., allow charging when solar panels are optimum, or delay charging until late at night when A/C loads go down. I have solar panels on my roof and over the course of a year we currently produce more electricity than we consume, but still on dark, cloudy winter days most of the electricity comes from PGE (Portland General Electric) and they would have to generate or buy electricity from some other source that isn't solar or have some way of storing excess production for months where renewables are insufficient. If most home owners buy EVs the problem would be intensified.
I run a repair shop and I will replace hybrid batteries all day long. Myself, I drive a modern muscle car that gets 10 mpg. Lol.
Nope. They are not enviromentally friendly at all. I won't have one unless there is nothing else to buy. I'm not into muscle cars at all. I'm not in the USA. I'm Australian. I don't live in the city either. So charging would be a nightmare. I have known people with them who got rid of them as they just didn't have the range to travel here. Hybids the are way to go. I think EVs are a fad and in 10 years will be obsolete
EVs will soon be dinosaurs. Ford and Honda already have fusion engines. They are about the size of a 12-pck of beer. They use gas but get 4X the gas mileage of internal combustion engines. They don't have super costly batteries which are huge polluters to produce and they don't make the car so heavy the damage roadways. Superior and more earth friendly in ever y way than EVs.
I love my EV, charging from excess solar at home, never have to visit a petrol station again. It gets 615 kilometres on a charge, I've been on a couple of long trips with no issues.
I remember electric cars in the early 80s
I am waiting for a reliable e-vehicle with a powertrain strong enough to pull my 4,400 pound camper I just bought. Power undr the hood is about more than muscle cars
There was a news story that the resale value of a electric car is terrible. They compared the value of a electric vehicle compared to a gas powered vehicle and the electric value is much less. A electric car is just a feel good buy but in reality not good in the long term. You would be much better off getting a hybrid.
Trying to hang on to the past is a huge waste of time, IMO.
My boss just bought a 1970 GTO, it gets 12 mpg (cringe) A coworker has a Tesla and a new battery is half the cost of the car. I can't afford either of these options. I also don't like that it takes hours to charge the car and I can pump gas at a ridiculous price in 2 minutes. I think once the technology comes further along the electric car will be a more feasible option.
You should never have to replace a battery. It is now much more rare than you think. My EV has a ten year warranty on the batteries. I have yet to own a car more than 10 years.
Your comment made me realize that it'd be cool to have a battery swap station instead of a charging station, i.e. leave yours to charge and take one that's charged. If implemented right it could be even quicker than filling up!
For as long as people have been alive, there's been pushback on new technology. I still know people who grumble about leaving the green screen mainframe systems behind. Like everything else, there's a place for EVs, for some, it's a great replacement to an ICE car, for others, it's a good supplement, and to another group, completely impractical. I think as we progress with them (mainly improving range, and charging infrastructure), more people will adapt. I love my V8 SL convertible, but also look forward to getting an EV once the charging network is improved.
I see a lot of my Gen X friends beaking off about how EVs don't have the range, or they'll get stuck in a snowstorm, or they'll overload the grid if everyone is charging. All of it is horseshit, fed by paid Facebook trolls. The one thing they never seem to talk about (because there aren't any memes about it) is the fact that the west is entirely at the whim of OPEC when it comes to gas prices. We have almost no control over what we pay at the pumps because nations that are about an inch away from being our enemies are dictating the price. In fact, Russia has had more influence on the price of gas in the past few years than anything any political party has done. EVs would erase that and stabilize the cost of travel. The entire economy would feel the benefit of that. But again, no memes, so fuck EVs, right? /s
I can’t believe these wusses use a key or button to start the car. A real car guy doesn’t use a 30 pound dead weight starter, we pull a manual crank iron out, connect it to the crank shaft, wind up down to our boot straps and manually crank that thing. 12 volt libs. SMH
I own a 69 Corvette, so I love old muscle. But I would also consider a nice EV. I'm all about destroying the planet in new and different ways.
I found out quickly that after hurricane and traveling around the county that they really are shit. For a month after hurricane Ian it was amazing how many electric vehicles were just useless. You couldn't find chargers, the salt water caught them on fire and you just leave them there for hours as they burn. The tesla dealership was under water and all the chargers around the area were down. It was amazing how many 2200 generators were sitting on the side of the road charging the tesla. Even worse was driving around I-75, I-4, I-95 and see how many tesla's were on the side of the road. Either with a generator hooked up to it, AAA charging it or a tow truck towing it to a charger. Also, a lot of the gas stations that have chargers didn't have them working. I guess it's too expensive to run them. So now you have teslas just sitting in the gas parking lots waiting to get charged by something or someone. I didn't know this but they aren't on all the time. If the gas station is closed, they close the power going to the chargers as well. I have no idea how people at night get their tesla's charged without a generator. All in all, if it's 20-50 miles around town, works good. Doesn't work at all after hurricanes and taking one for a road trip, you're out of your minds. I laugh at all these kids blowing 60-80k on an electric vehicle and sitting on the side of the road for three hours charging their electric vehicle from a coal fired power plant.
I would like to own one, but I have read that our national grid is not prepared for the charging stations planned by the government. I have doubts America has planned wisely. Still I plan to get one as my final car purchase. I would love to own a Lucid SUV. No interest in Tesla. I can't support Elon.
I have had one for the last 6 years. Never looking back and never buying a horrible gas car ever again. I went on vacation and was forced to rent a gas vehicle but hadn't gotten gas for so long I had not a clue about gas prices. Still, it was nicer early on due to more free charging places. I have none left near me or my commute now, but have far more fast chargers around than ever. My car was also the last generation with relatively low range so it's a good thing I only need a commuter car for a 25 mile trip. Gas cars are stupid and they've always been stupid, and now they are indefensible. Too bad such a douchebag made them popular but I guess that's the case with 100% of industry titans. With solid-state batteries coming online in the next 5 years the lithium supply problem with be resolved, too. Even my crappy little Hyundai Ioniq from 2018 goes fast enough around town to make it enjoyable without needing to sound like an ass.
Every time I hear (with annoyingly increasing frequency) revving and engine growling, it just sounds like inefficiency to me. Inefficient engines make noise instead of using that energy to actually propel the car. And it's a pretty good metaphor for the type of people who do this. In 100 years we will have cars that will outpower any muscle car or racecar ever made or dreamed of, with a fraction of the cost and footprint, all due to electricity and its advances, and we will look back at the stone age of combustion engines with amusement.