Please take the Electric Vehicle pledge for Montgomery County

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:why don't you pressure the county to give a refundable tax credit that would make the EVs comparable in price to the alternative gas car that a consumer would buy? That would only be....what....$20K?

It’s interesting to contrast this with bicycles. The county spends millions a year to install bike lanes that get used by a few hundred people. They county will not invest a single dollar into promoting consumer EV uptake by residents, despite being the future of transportation. But will commit to spending hundreds of millions on EV buses? They’d get more bang for their buck taking the money from bike lanes and allocating it to EVs and then asking people to pledge to ride their bikes more often.

I find the push for EVs kind of goofy while they 1) can't be powered quickly, 2) don't have the greatest range, and 3) are still, by and large, very expensive cars. I mean, advocating for tax breaks for EVs is really advocating for tax breaks for the wealthy. Not a good look for an uber-progressive county.

At least bikes and use of buses is more affordable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you buying us the EV? If so, that would be great.

Clear cutting the rainforest to mine nickel and other precious metals to make the ev batteries and other electronics is not as cool as everyone here overlooks. See what nickel mining is doing to indigenous people and rainforests.

This.

No thanks. Electric vehicles benefit the companies that produce them. Whether they help the environment is still up for debate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:why don't you pressure the county to give a refundable tax credit that would make the EVs comparable in price to the alternative gas car that a consumer would buy? That would only be....what....$20K?

It’s interesting to contrast this with bicycles. The county spends millions a year to install bike lanes that get used by a few hundred people. They county will not invest a single dollar into promoting consumer EV uptake by residents, despite being the future of transportation. But will commit to spending hundreds of millions on EV buses? They’d get more bang for their buck taking the money from bike lanes and allocating it to EVs and then asking people to pledge to ride their bikes more often.

I find the push for EVs kind of goofy while they 1) can't be powered quickly, 2) don't have the greatest range, and 3) are still, by and large, very expensive cars. I mean, advocating for tax breaks for EVs is really advocating for tax breaks for the wealthy. Not a good look for an uber-progressive county.

At least bikes and use of buses is more affordable.

$170 million for a few hundred buses is affordable?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you buying us the EV? If so, that would be great.

Clear cutting the rainforest to mine nickel and other precious metals to make the ev batteries and other electronics is not as cool as everyone here overlooks. See what nickel mining is doing to indigenous people and rainforests.

This.

No thanks. Electric vehicles benefit the companies that produce them. Whether they help the environment is still up for debate.

Yep. Sitting this one out. Build more mass transit!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:why don't you pressure the county to give a refundable tax credit that would make the EVs comparable in price to the alternative gas car that a consumer would buy? That would only be....what....$20K?

It’s interesting to contrast this with bicycles. The county spends millions a year to install bike lanes that get used by a few hundred people. They county will not invest a single dollar into promoting consumer EV uptake by residents, despite being the future of transportation. But will commit to spending hundreds of millions on EV buses? They’d get more bang for their buck taking the money from bike lanes and allocating it to EVs and then asking people to pledge to ride their bikes more often.

I find the push for EVs kind of goofy while they 1) can't be powered quickly, 2) don't have the greatest range, and 3) are still, by and large, very expensive cars. I mean, advocating for tax breaks for EVs is really advocating for tax breaks for the wealthy. Not a good look for an uber-progressive county.

At least bikes and use of buses is more affordable.

Clearly you don't live in MoCo as many areas are not a accessible by bus or bike.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you buying us the EV? If so, that would be great.

Clear cutting the rainforest to mine nickel and other precious metals to make the ev batteries and other electronics is not as cool as everyone here overlooks. See what nickel mining is doing to indigenous people and rainforests.

Funny how the goody two shoes environmentalists never mention this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you buying us the EV? If so, that would be great.

Clear cutting the rainforest to mine nickel and other precious metals to make the ev batteries and other electronics is not as cool as everyone here overlooks. See what nickel mining is doing to indigenous people and rainforests.

Funny how the goody two shoes environmentalists never mention this.

To be fair, most people don't realize what goes into (and out of) making an EV.

It sounds great from for the environment by reducing Co2 emissions, but look behind the curtain. Most people don't know enough or care enough to look behind the curtain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you buying us the EV? If so, that would be great.

Clear cutting the rainforest to mine nickel and other precious metals to make the ev batteries and other electronics is not as cool as everyone here overlooks. See what nickel mining is doing to indigenous people and rainforests.

Funny how the goody two shoes environmentalists never mention this.

To be fair, most people don't realize what goes into (and out of) making an EV.

It sounds great from for the environment by reducing Co2 emissions, but look behind the curtain. Most people don't know enough or care enough to look behind the curtain.

You don’t know what you’re talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you buying us the EV? If so, that would be great.

Clear cutting the rainforest to mine nickel and other precious metals to make the ev batteries and other electronics is not as cool as everyone here overlooks. See what nickel mining is doing to indigenous people and rainforests.

Funny how the goody two shoes environmentalists never mention this.

To be fair, most people don't realize what goes into (and out of) making an EV.

It sounds great from for the environment by reducing Co2 emissions, but look behind the curtain. Most people don't know enough or care enough to look behind the curtain.

I've looked. It's why we have two EVs that we plan on driving for another 15 years. Even then their batteries will be recyclable. Enjoy your gasoline fumes in the pick lane, loser. I enjoy not emitting any and not paying for gas.

We don't even charge at home. Once a week I go to the charging station and park my car for forty minutes. Sometimes I go shopping. Sometimes I just read a book and drink some tea sitting in my climate-controlled car while it charges. Sure, it would be cheaper to charge overnight at home, but I find this more convenient for us.

I have no idea how anyone who's actually driven an electric car can go back to those pokey gas things. One pedal driving in DC traffic? So mellow. And with no engine noise you can hear your tunes or your audible or the transcript of the document you are trying to edit read back. Or, you know, the radio.

I'd say I'll see you at the stoplights, suckers... But the truth is, I don't. I'm zero to thirty while you're still pressing the accelerator to go at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you buying us the EV? If so, that would be great.

Clear cutting the rainforest to mine nickel and other precious metals to make the ev batteries and other electronics is not as cool as everyone here overlooks. See what nickel mining is doing to indigenous people and rainforests.

Funny how the goody two shoes environmentalists never mention this.

To be fair, most people don't realize what goes into (and out of) making an EV.

It sounds great from for the environment by reducing Co2 emissions, but look behind the curtain. Most people don't know enough or care enough to look behind the curtain.

I've looked. It's why we have two EVs that we plan on driving for another 15 years. Even then their batteries will be recyclable. Enjoy your gasoline fumes in the pick lane, loser. I enjoy not emitting any and not paying for gas.

We don't even charge at home. Once a week I go to the charging station and park my car for forty minutes. Sometimes I go shopping. Sometimes I just read a book and drink some tea sitting in my climate-controlled car while it charges. Sure, it would be cheaper to charge overnight at home, but I find this more convenient for us.

I have no idea how anyone who's actually driven an electric car can go back to those pokey gas things. One pedal driving in DC traffic? So mellow. And with no engine noise you can hear your tunes or your audible or the transcript of the document you are trying to edit read back. Or, you know, the radio.

I'd say I'll see you at the stoplights, suckers... But the truth is, I don't. I'm zero to thirty while you're still pressing the accelerator to go at all.

Thanks for confirming the moral self-righteousness and snobbery of the radical EV promoters.

[Anonymous]

Strangely it's usually the Takoma Park people with nine-year-old 'sensible' SUVs who object to electric cars the most, claiming they aren't fair to poor people or some nonsense.

We leased a Chevy spark EV for three years for $99/month. I dare you to find a cheaper car.

Do deals like that exist now? No. Does the Chevy spark EV exist? In fact yes, as a used car. And if you look you can buy one for 10k. Funnily enough, that was also the residual price at the end of our lease in 2019. At the time, we would have been underwater buying it for that. That's right, its value has gone up.

If there were consumer demand, automakers would build affordable electric cars again.

We leased a Nissan leaf too. Same deal. Our same model is still selling for the residual we would have paid six years ago. Leafs are a little funky because their batteries have only air cooling, so there were issues with battery life. These issues have been mostly resolved with the second generation, post 2018, version of cars. Ours is almost four years old at this point and the battery capacity hasn't changed. 150 miles of range. Not enough for you?. I understand. Newer leaf pluses have a range of 220 miles.

Still not enough range? Look to any other car manufacturer. At the moment, your other options have a lot of question marks and wait times but that's true of gas cars as well. I know people who swear by used Teslas... But I've seen the price on those spike like crazy this year and they aren't affordable. My money is on the Nissan Ariya due out in the fall. I realize this is a board full of people who consider themselves socially forward and too refined for Nissan, but they've done right.

Kia and Hyundai offerings also look good. The press in the EV6 is ecstatic. Less so for Ford and Volvo, but I don't know.

And then there's the Chevy Bolt. Hard not to address the elephant in the room about its recall... on the other hand, Chevy is replacing the batteries in every existing one and has resolved the issue that caused a few cars (I think 15?) to catch fire and burn. This is a better track record than many gas models.

Our second electric car is a Bolt. It's a joy to drive. It has 280 miles of range. It can go from 0 to 60 in about six seconds. Maybe five? Fast. It's not perfect. Due to the recall and some experience with GM and their dealers I'm not sure I recommend it. But we haven't taken their buyback, either. And they've offered. We do like the car that much.

But I know. You need that third row of seats. "For the children." Thanks to people like you all the carmakers are now making enormous electric cars that weigh as much as tanks and drive like boats. Since that's all you're used to steering, I doubt you'll notice a difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you buying us the EV? If so, that would be great.

Clear cutting the rainforest to mine nickel and other precious metals to make the ev batteries and other electronics is not as cool as everyone here overlooks. See what nickel mining is doing to indigenous people and rainforests.

Funny how the goody two shoes environmentalists never mention this.

To be fair, most people don't realize what goes into (and out of) making an EV.

It sounds great from for the environment by reducing Co2 emissions, but look behind the curtain. Most people don't know enough or care enough to look behind the curtain.

I've looked. It's why we have two EVs that we plan on driving for another 15 years. Even then their batteries will be recyclable. Enjoy your gasoline fumes in the pick lane, loser. I enjoy not emitting any and not paying for gas.

We don't even charge at home. Once a week I go to the charging station and park my car for forty minutes. Sometimes I go shopping. Sometimes I just read a book and drink some tea sitting in my climate-controlled car while it charges. Sure, it would be cheaper to charge overnight at home, but I find this more convenient for us.

I have no idea how anyone who's actually driven an electric car can go back to those pokey gas things. One pedal driving in DC traffic? So mellow. And with no engine noise you can hear your tunes or your audible or the transcript of the document you are trying to edit read back. Or, you know, the radio.

I'd say I'll see you at the stoplights, suckers... But the truth is, I don't. I'm zero to thirty while you're still pressing the accelerator to go at all.

Thanks for confirming the moral self-righteousness and snobbery of the radical EV promoters.

I don't see the point in being polite to someone pushing EV disinformation. Sorry. You won't buy an electric car regardless. That would require admitting you were wrong... And something tells me that's something you never, ever do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd like to see people pledging to get rid of their cars.

So how to propose we get around? Not counting metro. I 'm talking where you there is no nearby metro/bus etc. Have you given up your car?

I don't have a car. I understand we won't get rid of cars, but people inside the beltway can get around pretty well without owning one. Walk, bus, subway, e-bike, scooter, zipcar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd like to see people pledging to get rid of their cars.

So how to propose we get around? Not counting metro. I 'm talking where you there is no nearby metro/bus etc. Have you given up your car?

I don't have a car. I understand we won't get rid of cars, but people inside the beltway can get around pretty well without owning one. Walk, bus, subway, e-bike, scooter, zipcar.

Zipcar is a car. It's you admitting you can't do everything you need to do within the beltway.

I would have had to take 3 buses to go 3 miles to my kid's charter school. That made me learn to drive when I had been a pedestrian for all of my adult life. We stuck it out without cars in this city for a year. It was brutal. We couldn't do kid activities. A simple bus or metro usually took at least an hour each way. A crosstown bus to the bookstore was more than that in traffic.

The DMV is designed for cars. You can pretend that isn't true, but I dare you to take your kid to music lessons in Rockville from downtown silver spring without one. I dare you to go to a pediatrician on Connecticut Ave. I dare you to drag a screaming, vomiting toddler across town on the J bus in rush hour. I've done it all, so you should too.

I will never do it again. A cheap electric car is the best solution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd like to see people required to get rid of their cars.

FIFY