Anyone looking to buy an EV because of gas prices

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Well....I WANT an EV, but my reality is that I simply do not have access to infrastructure for regular charging.

I commute nearly 80 miles RT daily. That doesn't count any other driving (like kid activities). There is no charging at my work-there are actually no public chargers within many miles of work. I also travel primarily by car-I am not ready to go totally off gas yet and the higher range model EVs are simply beyond my budget.

My current car has 230K miles on it and gets about 26 mpg, so even used prius would double that-I may do that and buy new in the future. I also like the plug in hybrid idea and have thought about a used Kia Niro.

OMG the damage you are doing to the planet with your commute.

In any case the infra for charging isn't actually infra. Even with the length of your commute you could charge your car comfortably overnight plugging it into the wall.

So....what's the alternative? The city is very expensive so I live on the outskirts. I work in a public service job, so I serve the American public-can't work from home. So please stop throwing your priviledged stones. I am literally trying to lower my impact by figuring out the EV stuff and at some point buying one.

Actually owning a car is very expensive - most people spend somewhere between $7-10,000 a year per car on a rapidly depreciating asset. You would be better off spending that money on housing which is almost always an appreciating asset.

But you probably assume you need 1 car per adult in your house and that each adult needs to use that car for all of your trips.

We are car light family and have a 16 year old car we put about 5000 miles a year on - you are managing that mileage in less than 2 months and I bet it is just one of the cars you own and that doesn't even getting into how much of your life is wasted sitting in your SUV polluting the region and planet.

If you can afford that kind of mileage you can find a house closer in - it won't kill you to sacrifice some yard and square footage but the alternative choice is killing our planet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Well....I WANT an EV, but my reality is that I simply do not have access to infrastructure for regular charging.

I commute nearly 80 miles RT daily. That doesn't count any other driving (like kid activities). There is no charging at my work-there are actually no public chargers within many miles of work. I also travel primarily by car-I am not ready to go totally off gas yet and the higher range model EVs are simply beyond my budget.

My current car has 230K miles on it and gets about 26 mpg, so even used prius would double that-I may do that and buy new in the future. I also like the plug in hybrid idea and have thought about a used Kia Niro.

OMG the damage you are doing to the planet with your commute.

In any case the infra for charging isn't actually infra. Even with the length of your commute you could charge your car comfortably overnight plugging it into the wall.

So....what's the alternative? The city is very expensive so I live on the outskirts. I work in a public service job, so I serve the American public-can't work from home. So please stop throwing your priviledged stones. I am literally trying to lower my impact by figuring out the EV stuff and at some point buying one.

Actually owning a car is very expensive - most people spend somewhere between $7-10,000 a year per car on a rapidly depreciating asset. You would be better off spending that money on housing which is almost always an appreciating asset.

But you probably assume you need 1 car per adult in your house and that each adult needs to use that car for all of your trips.

We are car light family and have a 16 year old car we put about 5000 miles a year on - you are managing that mileage in less than 2 months and I bet it is just one of the cars you own and that doesn't even getting into how much of your life is wasted sitting in your SUV polluting the region and planet.

If you can afford that kind of mileage you can find a house closer in - it won't kill you to sacrifice some yard and square footage but the alternative choice is killing our planet.

PP here are you based in reality? You are on a very privileged planet. I will try to address a few of these crazy claims.

So the quote unquote SUV you claim I drive, is actually a Chevy HHR which is a small 4 cylinder wagon. So to live closer into where I work would probably cost me over a half a million dollars, I'm not local to this board I can only imagine if I was it would be more. I don't have a half a million dollars no matter how many cars I get rid of. And I have one car.

I am fully aware that I spend a lot of my life sitting in my car. I have to balance that with the fact that I also like having a job to pay for food housing and medical care for my kids. So it's a trade-off yeah. And I want to go electric and I'm trying to do that. I'm not sure of how privileged you come off sounding. That's great that you can live next to work and drive none. I mean that's awesome that's great, but probably a lot of the people who do jobs that help you in your life, don't have that privilege.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did the math and we're no even close to the break even point between gas and equivalent EV for my family based on our usage. Gas would have to triple for it to even be a conversation.

You didn’t factor in the cost of your pollution to everybody else. That’s what “public goods” or “bars” are. Gas cars contribute to global warming and the pollution causes asthma etc, but their owners don’t pay the costs.

I'm assuming that you never fly? Your share of one long haul flight is worse for the environment than my 4 cylinder

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did the math and we're no even close to the break even point between gas and equivalent EV for my family based on our usage. Gas would have to triple for it to even be a conversation.

You didn’t factor in the cost of your pollution to everybody else. That’s what “public goods” or “bars” are. Gas cars contribute to global warming and the pollution causes asthma etc, but their owners don’t pay the costs.

I'm assuming that you never fly? Your share of one long haul flight is worse for the environment than my 4 cylinder

Two wrongs don’t make a right. Your whataboutism is silly, especially as you probably fly too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually ran the numbers this morning and I would have to drive an EV 176,000 miles to make up for the difference in cost when trading in my existing car. Oh well…

+1 the math does not check out here.

$5 gallon gas
Current car gets 24 mpg
0.23 c per mile
$21k trade in value

EV
55k - 21k trade in = 34000k
$9 charge for 210 miles
4.3c per mile

34,000/19 c difference between cost per mile = 178,000
And yes, I did not calculate the savings in maintenance but I also didn’t add the costs to add a charger to my garage.

This is false equivalency - you are comparing your current car, which by your math would appear to be paid off, to purchasing a new vehicle. So of course it'll never make sense to purchase a new electric car instead of just keeping your current car. You need to compare purchasing a new gas car to a new electric vehicle to see how the costs compared.

To be fair, this is the reality for a lot of folks. The bottom line is that it makes ZERO financial sense to ditch a car that you already own to buy ANY new car.

I'm going to guess that in two years (or less) that gas prices will be back in the $3 range and amnesia will set in, as it always does. Folks will need (or get the itch for) a new car and choose with the mindset that gas will be cheap forever. That will be the time to consider buying an electric car.

It makes zero sense ecologically to ditch a working gas car they already own for a new EV, too -- maybe not zero, because of the lack of direct emissions from the EV, but generally speaking, it's almost always greener to keep using existing stuff. (I say that as the owner of an EV.) I would never advocate for someone to ditch their gas car so they could buy an EV. But I would very strongly recommend that if you get a new car, it should be electric.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Well....I WANT an EV, but my reality is that I simply do not have access to infrastructure for regular charging.

I commute nearly 80 miles RT daily. That doesn't count any other driving (like kid activities). There is no charging at my work-there are actually no public chargers within many miles of work. I also travel primarily by car-I am not ready to go totally off gas yet and the higher range model EVs are simply beyond my budget.

My current car has 230K miles on it and gets about 26 mpg, so even used prius would double that-I may do that and buy new in the future. I also like the plug in hybrid idea and have thought about a used Kia Niro.

If you can add charging at home, you should be fine with even an earlier-model used EV. You can charge every night, and you don't need 200+ miles of range.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually ran the numbers this morning and I would have to drive an EV 176,000 miles to make up for the difference in cost when trading in my existing car. Oh well…

+1 the math does not check out here.

$5 gallon gas
Current car gets 24 mpg
0.23 c per mile
$21k trade in value

EV
55k - 21k trade in = 34000k
$9 charge for 210 miles
4.3c per mile

34,000/19 c difference between cost per mile = 178,000
And yes, I did not calculate the savings in maintenance but I also didn’t add the costs to add a charger to my garage.

This is false equivalency - you are comparing your current car, which by your math would appear to be paid off, to purchasing a new vehicle. So of course it'll never make sense to purchase a new electric car instead of just keeping your current car. You need to compare purchasing a new gas car to a new electric vehicle to see how the costs compared.

To be fair, this is the reality for a lot of folks. The bottom line is that it makes ZERO financial sense to ditch a car that you already own to buy ANY new car.

I'm going to guess that in two years (or less) that gas prices will be back in the $3 range and amnesia will set in, as it always does. Folks will need (or get the itch for) a new car and choose with the mindset that gas will be cheap forever. That will be the time to consider buying an electric car.

It makes zero sense ecologically to ditch a working gas car they already own for a new EV, too -- maybe not zero, because of the lack of direct emissions from the EV, but generally speaking, it's almost always greener to keep using existing stuff. (I say that as the owner of an EV.) I would never advocate for someone to ditch their gas car so they could buy an EV. But I would very strongly recommend that if you get a new car, it should be electric.

Agree with all of this. There is almost no reason to purchase a gas car today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We just bought a new Rav4 Prime plug in hybrid. It’s incredible! It gets 40 miles all electric before the ICE engine kicks in and that means that it’s essentially an electric car unless on a road trip and then we don’t have to worry about charging stations or range. Best of both worlds.

I've had my Rav4 Prime for about a year and we really only fill up on road trips. The range is enough to be all electric for my commute and errands. Highly recommend it.

Pardon me for not being totally up on this...is this a think with other cars? Is it something special with the Rav4?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We just bought a new Rav4 Prime plug in hybrid. It’s incredible! It gets 40 miles all electric before the ICE engine kicks in and that means that it’s essentially an electric car unless on a road trip and then we don’t have to worry about charging stations or range. Best of both worlds.

I've had my Rav4 Prime for about a year and we really only fill up on road trips. The range is enough to be all electric for my commute and errands. Highly recommend it.

Pardon me for not being totally up on this...is this a think with other cars? Is it something special with the Rav4?

No, the Rav4 Prime is not special. The Rav4 Prime is a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). It has a battery, which lets one drive for about 40 miles on battery power alone, and also a traditional internal combustion engine that works in concert with the battery if you need to go further. Other examples include the Chrysler Pacifica hybrid, Ford Escape hybrid, Hyundai Ioniq hybrid, Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The average transaction price for an electric vehicle (EV) is $56,437, according to Kelley Blue Book — roughly $10,000 higher than the overall industry average of $46,329 that includes gas and EVs. In terms of pricing, an EV is equivalent to an entry-level luxury car.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/filling-gas-vehicle-cheaper-electric

+1 EVs also require charging, and you may need to retrofit your house to be able to charge at home. There are "free" charging stations dotted around, but if more and more people get EVs, there won't be enough "free" charging stations to keep up with the demand, let alone the demand on the power grid. How do we produce more electricity? Some of it is produced by fossil fuel. Tesla does provide the solar/charging service retrofit at home, but solars can shorten the life of a roof, and it costs more to replace the roof. Maintenance: Although EVs may require less maintenance than standard cars, if it does require maintenance, it costs more.

Not all cities have ubiquitous charging stations. If you go visit such a place for a week with your car, you'd have to allot some of your time to finding a charging station, and sitting there for a while waiting for it to charge.

All this to say: owning an EV is more than just saving on fuel for the car.

My next car will be a plugin hybrid, but I think in the next 3 to 5 years, we will see some advancement in the EV car technology, so I'm going to wait a bit.

Well when you buy an EV the feds give you $7500 tax break and local government(DC) does not charge taxes. This usually brings it to the same or lower cost of a gas vehicle. In addition one(fed or local can’t remember which) gave a tax break of $1,500 for a charging station install.

[Anonymous]

EV’s are just better and a lot more fun to drive. They are so quick.

[Anonymous]

Fun fact EV’s we’re the top selling car in 1897.

[Anonymous]

Buying a Tesla in 2 years. Not because of gas prices; I just want it. The stock has tripled and should keep going up. Need to sell 25-30 shares ( I have 100s) to buy one in few years. Will also sell my fairly new gas car I hate.