Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gas cars are going the way of the horse and buggy. So long gasoline.

Maybe in 50 years, maybe not. EVs are not as "clean" as you think they are, and they can be very expensive to repair after an accident. There are not enough fast charging stations, and the range on most EVs is pathetic. Also, most of them are not big enough to carry a family of 5 comfortably. I'll drive my gas powered SUV a few more years before I buy an EV. In fact, I am waiting on delivery of a new one as I write this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gas cars are going the way of the horse and buggy. So long gasoline.

Maybe in 50 years, maybe not. EVs are not as "clean" as you think they are, and they can be very expensive to repair after an accident. There are not enough fast charging stations, and the range on most EVs is pathetic. Also, most of them are not big enough to carry a family of 5 comfortably. I'll drive my gas powered SUV a few more years before I buy an EV. In fact, I am waiting on delivery of a new one as I write this.

Anonymous wrote:Gas cars are going the way of the horse and buggy. So long gasoline.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We don’t have the generating capacity (not too mention solar and wind) to meet market demands if everyone switches to an EV.

It’s just not there. Electricity doesn’t just exist because you want it to.

This is a good point. We need to overhaul our electrical grid to begin with. The infrastructure is failing and subject to terrorist attacks, electronic or otherwise.

I'm not opposed to EVs, although they don't fit my life needs right now. But if we don't have the infrastructure to support them, we are in trouble.

+1,000,000. I don’t understand why the EV enthusiasts don’t understand this. Ever heard of rolling blackouts in CA?

“Overhaul out electrical grid”? That’s sounds totally made up.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We don’t have the generating capacity (not too mention solar and wind) to meet market demands if everyone switches to an EV.

It’s just not there. Electricity doesn’t just exist because you want it to.

This is a good point. We need to overhaul our electrical grid to begin with. The infrastructure is failing and subject to terrorist attacks, electronic or otherwise.

I'm not opposed to EVs, although they don't fit my life needs right now. But if we don't have the infrastructure to support them, we are in trouble.

+1,000,000. I don’t understand why the EV enthusiasts don’t understand this. Ever heard of rolling blackouts in CA?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Montgomery County should focus on the things it can control and not the things it cannot.

It’s quite arrogant to believe that Montgomery County can influence production of EVs.

Want to promote EVs in the county? Why not mandate developers install electric car chargers in all new developments? Why not give property tax credits for business that install public charging stations?

There is a lot that the county can do to influence and facilitate EV uptake, particularly to make it easier to own an EV. Why not focus on that instead?

Because it's Marc Elrich. Great big ideas. No clue how to effectively execute them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

The value of ALL used cars has gone up. It's the economy, hun.

No kidding. Enjoy paying for gas too, sucker.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We don’t have the generating capacity (not too mention solar and wind) to meet market demands if everyone switches to an EV.

It’s just not there. Electricity doesn’t just exist because you want it to.

This is a good point. We need to overhaul our electrical grid to begin with. The infrastructure is failing and subject to terrorist attacks, electronic or otherwise.

I'm not opposed to EVs, although they don't fit my life needs right now. But if we don't have the infrastructure to support them, we are in trouble.

Anonymous wrote:

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 wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

The value of ALL used cars has gone up. It's the economy, hun.

Anonymous wrote:Montgomery County should focus on the things it can control and not the things it cannot.

It’s quite arrogant to believe that Montgomery County can influence production of EVs.

Want to promote EVs in the county? Why not mandate developers install electric car chargers in all new developments? Why not give property tax credits for business that install public charging stations?

There is a lot that the county can do to influence and facilitate EV uptake, particularly to make it easier to own an EV. Why not focus on that instead?

Anonymous wrote:We don’t have the generating capacity (not too mention solar and wind) to meet market demands if everyone switches to an EV.

It’s just not there. Electricity doesn’t just exist because you want it to.

Anonymous wrote: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.