Electric cars may be better for your budget

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish I could, but I don't have a garage (I live in a tiny townhouse) and my work doesn't have charging stations. Due to Covid, I also don't go "hang out " at any store long enough to charge there. I don't know where I'd charge my car.

DH used to take the electric car and park at Whole Foods then bike 5 miles to work or take a bus.

He was committed to the entire concept.

What a selfish d-bag.

Presumably you're kidding?

What kind of a person parks his car at an electric car charging spot meant for use by customers frequenting a business. Even if this happens to be a pay-for-charge spot, those things have parking time limits so that other people can get a turn, not for you to leave a car there for 8 hours while you are at work bragging about how committed you are at minimizing your impact. The worst kind of self-righteous people is those that abuse the system at the cost and inconvenience of others.

That PP didn't say her husband left it parked at the charger, which isn't how I read it. You could easily park, charge it, then move to another spot.

It takes hours to fully charge. On top of biking 5 miles, his commute would be half the day! It's pretty clear he left it in the whole foods parking lot.

[Anonymous]

I'm skeptical that this holds true if you keep a car 10+ years; after 8 years, most batteries of a frequently driven car will be dead and the car essentially worthless. Most gasoline cars will go 10 years easily over 150k miles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a plug in hybrid electric vehicle (can run on all electrical, all gas or combo of both). It is a small hatchback but I love it. Most of my errands are around town so I run on battery 85% of the time. It costs me $30 to fill my tank (premium gas) and I fill my tank approx. 4-5 times per year. On average I drive 9000 miles per year.

I wasn’t ready to go full hybrid as I did not want to stop and charge when driving long distances so the plug in hybrid is a very viable option until charging stations become more common (and cars are able to charge at an accelerated pace).

Did you mean full electric?

[Anonymous]

We have solar panels and an electric hybrid car. We have been going for long drives through out the pandemic and have felt pretty good about not ruining the environment and not paying through our noses for gas.

I love our hybrid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm skeptical that this holds true if you keep a car 10+ years; after 8 years, most batteries of a frequently driven car will be dead and the car essentially worthless. Most gasoline cars will go 10 years easily over 150k miles.

Car guy here. Also an Electrical Engineer. Also, a fan of ICE cars because I'm of that era. The cost of batteries as an overall component of vehicle cost has been dropping steadily over the past 10+ years. Generally, most car manufacturers are keeping it well below 25%. Tesla is somewhere below 20%, if I remember correctly. Lithium ion battery life, like most rechargeable battery types, is based on charge/discharge cycles. A quick search shows that Tesla specifies their battery to last 1500 charge/discharge cycles. If we estimate the capacity to drop to 50% at the end of 1500 cycles, the overall mileage out of the battery pack is still well over 200k miles, which is about the normal life expectancy of any normally driven car over 20 years. At 10 years, the battery would expect to have 100,000 miles driven, and be very far from worthless. And of course, remember that the batteries are only a small component of the overall cost. With far fewer chemical-mechanical components in the design, it's very likely that a new set of batteries at a cost of, say, 10,000 dollars, is a worthwhile expense since the car chassis itself is inherently durable aside from normal wear and tear items like shocks, brakes, tires, etc.

[Anonymous]

yes, less moving parts easier to maintain

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:yes, less moving parts easier to maintain

PP with EE here. Ironically, the real roadblock to making an electric car last longer is planned/enforced obsolescence on the part of the manufacturer. We already see that Tesla makes it next to impossible to repair their cars. Even features that came with the car is disabled when the car is sold, claiming that the feature was only a license to the first owner and not transferrable. Imagine never being able to fix a car because the manufacturer remotely programs the computers to simply refuse to be repaired after a period of time, mileage, or detection of certain fault conditions. Don't think this won't happen, or that consumers have recourse. Apple already does this with their electronic devices.

[Anonymous]

I often forget to charge my cell phone. I worry I won't remember to charge my car. I also take my family on several road trips. Refueling with gas adds 30 mins to the trip but takes 10 mins to do. I would be upset if I had to wait hours for a battery to recharge. I should be able to drive over 1000 miles with 2 drivers and not have to stop longer than 15 mins at a time. Can I achieve this with an all electric car? I'm really interested in an electric but dear it won't work for road trips.

[Anonymous]

Dear =fear

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I often forget to charge my cell phone. I worry I won't remember to charge my car. I also take my family on several road trips. Refueling with gas adds 30 mins to the trip but takes 10 mins to do. I would be upset if I had to wait hours for a battery to recharge. I should be able to drive over 1000 miles with 2 drivers and not have to stop longer than 15 mins at a time. Can I achieve this with an all electric car? I'm really interested in an electric but dear it won't work for road trips.

Super chargers are 30 min. DH saves about $1000 a month after buying his Tesla Y

[Anonymous]

I have a fairly new car and I drive 2500 miles a year. Small electric would've been perfect if I had somewhere to charge it. Maybe my condo will allow such charging soon. If Tesla does come out with the $25k car, I'll be the first to buy and Turo out my ice car.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I often forget to charge my cell phone. I worry I won't remember to charge my car. I also take my family on several road trips. Refueling with gas adds 30 mins to the trip but takes 10 mins to do. I would be upset if I had to wait hours for a battery to recharge. I should be able to drive over 1000 miles with 2 drivers and not have to stop longer than 15 mins at a time. Can I achieve this with an all electric car? I'm really interested in an electric but dear it won't work for road trips.

Super chargers are 30 min. DH saves about $1000 a month after buying his Tesla Y

Are superchargers only available in major cities? I've arrived in towns at 3am with no gas and in areas where I've said I need to out of here. I'll usually get a few gallons in the car and go. I would never want to have to wait to charge a car.

It sounds like the technology has a long way to go to be viable outside of major cities.

[Anonymous]

I think I found an article that sums of my fear.
I don't sleep 8 hours let alone have 6 to 8 hours to charge a car overnight during a road trip. I could argue I don't have time to charge a car just to commute. Our road trips are not about stopping at sheets for snacks and waiting for a car to charge. Once the charge times get down to 5 mins or less and every gas station has an ev station I think electric will be forthe budget reminder. Time is money also.
Thank you for the feedback on battery charging.
https://www.npr.org/2020/11/24/938156943/nice-car-but-how-do-you-charge-that-thing-let-us-count-the-ways

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think I found an article that sums of my fear.
I don't sleep 8 hours let alone have 6 to 8 hours to charge a car overnight during a road trip. I could argue I don't have time to charge a car just to commute. Our road trips are not about stopping at sheets for snacks and waiting for a car to charge. Once the charge times get down to 5 mins or less and every gas station has an ev station I think electric will be forthe budget reminder. Time is money also.
Thank you for the feedback on battery charging.
https://www.npr.org/2020/11/24/938156943/nice-car-but-how-do-you-charge-that-thing-let-us-count-the-ways

I think these fears are overblown for most people, but maybe a hybrid would be a better choice for you.
Many people in this area have two cars (could do one hybrid and one electric), have a garage to charge in, or have a charging station at or near work. Most people's trips, including road trips, would not exhaust the battery in one day. There is a lot of "but what if I get stranded" fear but those scenarios will never come up for the vast majority of drivers.

I think PP's repair concerns are much more serious, but we're probably at or near that point with many ICE cars too given the level of computer control.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We need an upgraded electrical panel so I am planning for one to support a car charger. We drive so little already, though, that it will be a while before we should replace our cars.

Can anybody point to research on crash safety? I don't know if the battery is actually a concern or if that was rumor.

You really don't need the super charger at home, and it isn't great for the battery to use one every time you charge. We plug in to the normal outlet every night. It is rare that the car gets below 70% charged anyway. We only use supercharges on long vacation drives, when we'll charge at a rest stop while eating a meal (an you don't need to charge to full when you stop, of course; just enough to get home and plug in for the night).