Electric cars may be better for your budget

[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 and at least 12 friends have had electric cars for years and this is the most ridiculous crap I've ever read.

[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.

These are completely unfounded fears. Talk to someone who actually owns one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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).

Thanks! This is helpful. In my situation we still need the panel upgrade as it's already insufficient but it's nice to know I don't need to buy the charger.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

I was under the impression that the less you drive the less worthwhile an electric is. I have a 20 year old cheap car with 45k miles and every time I do one of these calculators my ICE car comes out ahead in terms of cost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This is my experience. I drive about 38 miles each way, so about 80 miles a day if I only go to work and back. I do not have access to a plug in at work. I don't think there are any around where I live (if there are I don't know). For me, the cars with long enough range for my commute are out of my budget.

For now, I am looking at plug-in electric/gas hybrids. This technology seems to be the one that meets me where I'm at.

[Anonymous]

When Obama became POTUS in his first term, there were so many local, state, federal subsidies available for renewable energy that we got solar panels for our house. Just 6 months before when we had priced it, the cost was $32K. With Obama's subsidies it cost us 7K. My DH sliced and diced the numbers every which way and it was just too good a deal for us to let go. We have an East-West facing home which means that we get a lot of sunlight.

We produce so much electricity that it meets all are electic needs and every so often we get payments from PEPCO of a few dollars since the extra electricity gets sold to the PEPCO grid. I cannot begin to tell you how gleeful that makes my DH. We were paying hundreds of dollars in electric bill before that.

We also use plug-in hybrid cars and that means we do not pay for the electricity to charge our cars and we do not pay for gas. It has saved us thousands of dollars.

[Anonymous]

We have an electric we use around town (school drop-off, groceries, etc.. actually DW is out doing this now) and a regular car for longer family outings which is also more luxurious.

We only charge at home, and we just plug into a standard 110v outlet. That means it takes overnight to charge up, but that's fine for us.

You don't _need_ to charge at a proper charging station -- any electrical outlet will work -- it just takes longer. There's a lot more electrical outlets than gas stations out there, if you think of it that way.

Also, there is proposed legislation in MD (or was it Federal?) to make it easier to get chargers installed in condo buildings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Just like you don't fill your tank all the way if you are uncomfortable at the station, you also don't have to charge the car all the way to get out of there. Also, why are you waiting until arriving somewhere at 3 am to fill up -- top off earlier in a safer place. Plan ahead.

Also, a Tesla helps you plan. It tracks how far you are to the nearest chargers, how far you can go without charging, how much charge you need to reach your destination, etc. So you can plan better instead of arriving somewhere with an empty battery at 3 a.m. You don't treat a battery the same way you do a tank of gas either. You really have to adjust your thinking about what makes the car go. You don't drive it until it is dead and then recharge (though you could). Except for long trips, it's usually near full battery most of the time. Also, if you only stop to use a rest room or buy a cup of coffee, plug it in the Super charger while you do that even if you still have 70% left. By the time you pull out you are back up at 85%. You don't have to wait for it to charge all the way, though you might choose to. You also can just give it what you have time for and it takes you that much farther.

[Anonymous]

We have a hybrid plug-in. It takes a normal electric outlet to charge our car and it has become second nature for us to plug it in now. DH's work and my work also have charging stations in our parking garage so it us super convenient. We often take long multi-day car trips and with the hybrid, even running it on gas, it works out ridiculously cheap.

Another great perk - with our hybrid cars, we get the HOV designation and can drive on the HOV lanes. Cuts down our commute time quite a bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This is my experience. I drive about 38 miles each way, so about 80 miles a day if I only go to work and back. I do not have access to a plug in at work. I don't think there are any around where I live (if there are I don't know). For me, the cars with long enough range for my commute are out of my budget.

For now, I am looking at plug-in electric/gas hybrids. This technology seems to be the one that meets me where I'm at.

You don't have an outlet at your house? We plug our Tesla into the regular wall socket in the garage.