Why EV?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have 2 EV’s, both teslas. We drive a lot because we live in a mountain town next to a larger city, so everything is spread out. We have solar on our house. From April - October, about 90% of charging is done by solar for both cars. From Nov - March, it is much less, like 20-30%, but even so, it’s cheaper than gas. During those months, we rely more on charging on the free chargers at our workplace, which run on renewables or has a carbon offset (part of vail epic 100% renewable promise).

It feels great to have close to zero emissions from solar/ev combo for part of the year and for the rest of the year, we try our best. I can sit in a toasty parked car in the winter and blast the air conditioning in a parked car in the summer. I can preheat and precool the car. I can leave our dog in the car with the temp at 68 degrees in the middle of summer. The acceleration is awesome. I haven’t been to a gas station in 6 months. The only maintenance is tires, wipers, and air filters. No oil changes, brake pads, brake fluid, transmissions, transmission fluid, jumper cables, radiators, catalytic converters, coolant, spark plugs, fuel pump, water pump, fan belt, ignition, etc.

In April, I drove 1500 miles on my ev. Average gas cost for ice vehicle is 11.29 per 100 miles, so this would have cost me $170 in gas. Instead, I paid $9. Over the course of the year, I would have paid $2000+ in gas and instead I pay about $500 in electricity.

Curious about efficiency in different climates. I noticed the efficiency of our hybrid plummets in winter here in DC and assume that is the case for EVs. Have you noticed the difference?

[Anonymous]

It's my understanding that efficiency plummets for gas cars too, you just don't notice it. But yes, temperature makes a difference. Get an EV with a heat pump for greater efficiency.

We have a Nissan Leaf, too. Not glamorous, which I like. I don't worry about parking it anywhere and it drives like a dream. We had a Chevy Bolt, also a very good car. It's a shame EV manufacturers are moving more toward SUVs, which are less efficient. But Americans love their giant cars.

[Anonymous]

Are EVs good even if you do a majority of highway driving with few stops?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As an engineer, the reduction in moving parts and wear items appeals most to me.

Granted, batteries and electric motors DO wear out. The stators and armature bearings will eventually fail, and brakes and suspension components still wear out at the same rate as those components on fuel-powered vehicles. But not having a transmission is a huge advantage, because transmissions are the thing most likely to fail prematurely on a regular car. Second to that are cylinder head gaskets and the valvetrain, both of which are also absent in a EV.

Modern ICE vehicles are so reliable.

My 13 year old Honda has never needed a major repair, runs beautifully, with only quarterly maintenance.

I would enjoy an EV and it’s infinite torque curve, but I can’t afford a model that would have sufficient range to not give me anxiety. And few would last 13 years with needing battery replacement I think? There is some savings crossover point where EV is cheaper than ICE if the cars cost the same, but I can get a great ICE like a CIVIC for far less. And even the cost savings only lasts until battery replacement then it inverts.

So mechanically simpler is poetic, but doesn’t really translate to rationale. -Engineer

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have insight into how they hold their value?
Will anyone want to purchase a 5 year old ev?
Battery is a battery and as it gets older it’s full charge is going to be less than 100%
If your commute is so small, why not get a bike or an e-bike and use the bus, metro

If each person on a bus was in a private car, then the roads would be very congested !

I am curious as to what their resale value is, how do they dispose of an ev that is a total loss?
You cannot just buy a new battery, you need to be careful to follow manufacturer’s instructions on how to charge, for example it is not recommended to start charging and unplug in 15 minutes

I hate buying cars and would want one to be for family use for more than 7 years

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have insight into how they hold their value?
Will anyone want to purchase a 5 year old ev?
Battery is a battery and as it gets older it’s full charge is going to be less than 100%
If your commute is so small, why not get a bike or an e-bike and use the bus, metro

If each person on a bus was in a private car, then the roads would be very congested !

I am curious as to what their resale value is, how do they dispose of an ev that is a total loss?
You cannot just buy a new battery, you need to be careful to follow manufacturer’s instructions on how to charge, for example it is not recommended to start charging and unplug in 15 minutes

I hate buying cars and would want one to be for family use for more than 7 years

I just bought a 2017 Chevy Volt (it's a PHEV) and if I'm understanding the data my battery gives me, it's only degraded about 3% or so. Based on older ones (that car has been around for some time) I do believe that the battery should have several more years of health on it. Charging it is simple-open little door on plug, plug in charger. It goes 'beep'.

You can buy batteries for some cars-people replace Prius batteries all the time for a few thousand. My particular car is more from what I understand. I don't know if all ev's have batteries available. I don't know what the future holds as far as the car's battery. I'm hoping for the best, of course! But it's new roads here in the EV world. I'm saving SO MUCH on gas-I have a long commute and I use 2/3rds less gas than my old car! (remember, mine is a PHEV). If I keep this car as long as I hope to, it will literally pay for itself in gas savings over the years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have 2 EV’s, both teslas. We drive a lot because we live in a mountain town next to a larger city, so everything is spread out. We have solar on our house. From April - October, about 90% of charging is done by solar for both cars. From Nov - March, it is much less, like 20-30%, but even so, it’s cheaper than gas. During those months, we rely more on charging on the free chargers at our workplace, which run on renewables or has a carbon offset (part of vail epic 100% renewable promise).

It feels great to have close to zero emissions from solar/ev combo for part of the year and for the rest of the year, we try our best. I can sit in a toasty parked car in the winter and blast the air conditioning in a parked car in the summer. I can preheat and precool the car. I can leave our dog in the car with the temp at 68 degrees in the middle of summer. The acceleration is awesome. I haven’t been to a gas station in 6 months. The only maintenance is tires, wipers, and air filters. No oil changes, brake pads, brake fluid, transmissions, transmission fluid, jumper cables, radiators, catalytic converters, coolant, spark plugs, fuel pump, water pump, fan belt, ignition, etc.

In April, I drove 1500 miles on my ev. Average gas cost for ice vehicle is 11.29 per 100 miles, so this would have cost me $170 in gas. Instead, I paid $9. Over the course of the year, I would have paid $2000+ in gas and instead I pay about $500 in electricity.

Curious about efficiency in different climates. I noticed the efficiency of our hybrid plummets in winter here in DC and assume that is the case for EVs. Have you noticed the difference?

Yes it goes down in winter, but not by that much where we live. Even though it’s colder here than in dc, and the winter is way longer, we live at 8000 feet altitude so there is so much less drag, which makes a big difference.

As long as charging is easy and cheap, I think the reduced range would affect you most during winter road trips, but daily driving would probably be ok. Our garage is also heated to 60 degrees in the winter, which helps save the battery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:90% it’s status and virtue signaling. And I’m an environmentalist. Most people who own EV fly enough that their commute is noise (esp in new WFH paradigm)

Word

[Anonymous]

Np here. We have had an EV/hybrid since 2016.

The biggest plus for us is that we only need to worry about charging stops when we go on road trips, which is once a month or so. Having the ability to charge (fill up) at home is so nice! I don't miss having to go to the gas station at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do they do for long trips? How long do you have to stop to charge? Have you ever gotten stuck because others are charging at your planned stop?

Our EV has a range of 250 miles. We don't make long trips very often, or we use our other (non-EV) vehicle just because it's bigger and we're carrying luggage.

250 miles is about 4 hours of driving, and you can look for charging spots along the way -- they usually have them at convenience stores or the like off major highways. Our EV comes with free charging on the Electrity America network, and they tend to have their charging stations at Walmarts or shopping malls. Charging is about 20 minutes to charge the battery mostly full.

Hi, fellow ID.4 owner!

[Anonymous]

I have a 2022 Bolt EUV.

Got it for MSRP, around $32k. It qualifies for the $7500 federal rebate. There was also another $2k rebate offered through Uber (required to sign up as driver, but no requirement to do any trips/deliveries).

So all in, got the Bolt for $22,500, maybe $24,000 all in after tags/taxes/fees.

My rough equivalent cost per "gallon of gas" is about $0.50, assuming 30mpg for a gas engine.

We have a traditional gas powered car (Subaru Forester) for longer family trips. But for 95%+ of our driving, the Bolt is all we need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:90% it’s status and virtue signaling. And I’m an environmentalist. Most people who own EV fly enough that their commute is noise (esp in new WFH paradigm)

This sounds like a persuasive argument, but it's entirely made up.

Airplanes account for 8 percent of the transportation sector's carbon emissions: https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/fast-facts-transportation-greenhouse-gas-emissions

Light-duty vehicles, i.e., cars and SUVs, account for 58 percent of it.

In other words, very few people, no matter what kind of car they drive, fly enough for that to be a bigger source of carbon emissions than driving is.

[Anonymous]

We have an EV and like it. Charging has been totally fine on trips to NYC and Florida. By contrast, we have to plan more to make sure we have a place to charge on trips to very rural or remote areas to hike.

The worst charging situation we've run into was a ski trip to Wisp. It was super cold (below zero F), the drive was entirely uphill, the car was packed with 5 people, and we had a bubble on top with skis creating drag. There also wasn't charging at our destination or hotel, so we needed enough charge to get back to a charger. We ultimately had to stop twice to charge our long range Tesla Model Y, turning a 3 hour drive into a 4 hour drive. Not great. Now we take our PHEV minivan skiing, but the Tesla is great for everything else.

[Anonymous]

very fast, dont have to fill up ever and good tech