Electric Cars -- anyone own one?

[xr650rRider]

Takes gasoline/diesel prices to hit a painful threshold for people to blindly purchase EV's all without understanding the limitations.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Takes gasoline/diesel prices to hit a painful threshold for people to blindly purchase EV's all without understanding the limitations.

The people that are hurting the most cant just go out and buy a new car

 

[Brians356]

One of the things that intrigues me about a Tesla or any other plug in is how does the range get affected by having to run the air conditioner in the summer or the heater and defroster in the winter?

If you have to ask, you can't afford one.
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[xr650rRider]

The batteries have to be heated in cold weather and kept cool while discharging, charging, so during winter battery pack may provide enough heat to avoid resistance heater but summer time, A/C will always be a parasitic drain. The specs are always going to fall on the optimistic side.

 

[Brians356]

I would run it on gas and plug it in to free chargers.

There are no free chargers, someone pays for it.
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[Konocti's Wigwam]

I'm nearly there. I drive a 2007 Tacoma extra cab, 4.0 engine, 6 speed. Only 117K on it, still tight and runs like a striped ass ape. I told my wife the other day, I always wanted an old Toyota 4x4, hell.... I have one! 22R's were some of the best engines ever built, bar none.

I drive a 1998 Tacoma 2WD, I just swapped the 14" wheels and tires for 15" wheels and tires. This gets me 10% better distance which translates into 10% discount on gas at the pump. This is worth thinking about if you have 14" wheels, but you can probably oversize on more recent trucks also, just that the 15" for my year truck were on 6 cyl. engines, which you most likely have.

I'm in the middle of doing a drivetrain conversion on a '46 Chevy pickup. No smog required. Hopefully I can still get gas for it (and my other cars and trucks) in the future. The current admin seems intent to force us over to electric...It was pretty difficult to get my '46 registered in Cali. Since I bought it from out of state, they required me to jump through hoops, even taking a copy of my license plates to have some moron from Sacramento confirm it was a '46 license plate...indeed it is, pneumatic carrier for the Bureau of Equalization.

FWIW, in California there are only 2 years that you are only required to have a single license plate in the rear, that's 1945 and 1946 when the war was ending, steel was at such a shortage they only put plates on the rear those years. That also required an approval from the moron in Sacramento even though it was stated on the form. The DMV is comprised of morons, I'm convinced.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

There are no free chargers, someone pays for it.
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Yes they do, but ive seen a ton of cars plugged in to offices and hotels and restaurants that was free to the driver on the first level. Its about like a tax credit you pay for on the back end

 

[FNSafari]

If you have to ask, you can't afford one.
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Well amigo, I'm just curious. My post has nothing to do with affordability. Tks

 

[FNSafari]

“They” w

I did relate my experience early on in this post but nobody wanted to hear it.
A plug in hybrid is the only EV that makes sense to me. Now that the volt is gone toyota is making a prius plug in hybrid. That way i can drive 1000mi without charging if i have to. I can get stuck in traffic for 5hrs and not have to have a tow. I would run it on gas and plug it in to free chargers. The US is not ready for everybody to get plug in cars, no matter what the idiots say. They want everybody off of fossil but havent offered me a solution to keep your lights on as we do that (and thatll take many many years if they opened the checkbook today)

Those who are steering the ship right now don’t give a rats arse about any hardships their policies will befall us. None of it will apply to them. Bill Gates has four jets but is a champion fighting global warming. Ya right. He should be in jail with Gislaine Maxwell.

 

[Brians356]

Hopefully I can still get gas for it (and my other cars and trucks) in the future.

Hope is not a strategy. We all need to actively resist the stated plan to eliminate so-called "carbon" [sic] from energy sources. We can vote, at the ballot box but also with our feet as consumers - boycott as much as possible corporations that "virtue signal" their commitment to "save the planet" from fossil fuels. They know it's impossible to run a civilization without fossil fuels, it's just pandering.
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[Konocti's Wigwam]

Hope is not a strategy. We all need to actively resist the stated plan to eliminate so-called "carbon" [sic] from energy sources. We can vote, at the ballot box but also with our feet as consumers - boycott as much as possible corporations that "virtue signal" their commitment to "save the planet" from fossil fuels. They know it's impossible to run a civilization without fossil fuels, it's just pandering.
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I do vote, and my vote is just like everyone else's, one vote. Where I live I can't even trust the vote because the State encourages non-citizens to vote, in fact they reward them with free money and tell them they will not have to pay it back and can go ahead and cash it without fear of not being a citizen.

There are things that can't be changed, unfortunately. Take the Internet as an example, it suffers similar problems with restrictions on the freedoms. That was not the way it was intended, but it is the way it is going. the Internet is suffering from "TV syndrome" and it will destroy it in the end to greed.

I encourage everyone to vote, even if they do believe this left wing nutcase idealology, that is the way the system in America works...we can't control certain things, and if the left cheats, we can try to catch them but we can't stop them in all cases.

We're on good ground with the 2A, and hopefully getting back to our Constitution and how it was intended. Exciting times for the right to keep and bear arms in America in many moons...

 

[mr45man]

We have prius , about 40 mpg. 50 down hill .Charges its self when braking ,going down hill.
Great little car, I have only seen a volt maybe 5 times a year.Lots of Tesla's.
Would do a Tesla' if I could afford one.

 

[Brians356]

We have prius , about 40 mpg. 50 down hill

I've got a Honda Civic that gets 40 mpg around town, and 48+ highway - at 250k miles. No lie. It was EPA rated 55 highway when new, so you can look it up, a '92 Civic VX.

How do you verify your mileage "downhill"? (Don't tell me a dash gauge shows you.)
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[rr2030]

I recall eons ago (80 ish) , the Chevrolet Sprint (Suzuki) with 3 cylinder engine, manual transmission, genuinely obtained 50 MPG. No A/C, skinny person driving, vehicle just waxed.

 

[mr45man]

I've got a Honda Civic that gets 40 mpg around town, and 48+ highway - at 250k miles. No lie. It was EPA rated 55 highway when new, so you can look it up, a '92 Civic VX.

How do you verify your mileage "downhill"? (Don't tell me a dash gauge shows you.)
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From northern AZ , elevation 6800, to Phoenix elevation 1080.
We make that drive on occasion, fill up at beginning of trip and end.
The dash gauge is pretty close. Also when the car was new.

 

[Brians356]

From northern AZ , elevation 6800, to Phoenix elevation 1080.
We make that drive on occasion, fill up at beginning of trip and end.
The dash gauge is pretty close. Also when the car was new.

Good to know, good to know. Thanks.
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[Dave Berg]

One of the things that intrigues me about a Tesla or any other plug in is how does the range get affected by having to run the air conditioner in the summer or the heater and defroster in the winter? That info seems to be missing on the tesla website, only giving what I think is the best case range. Is that best case range determined in a dyno or in the real world? Range in the flatlands of west texas would be greater than in the mountains of west virginia one would think.

I can only speak to the Prius Prime, a plug-in hybrid that will run about 30 miles without the gasoline engine running.

In warm weather, which is most of the time here in Florida, the electric A/C (actually heat pump) does reduce the range available with the secondary battery. When the car is shut off at the end of a trip one of the things displayed is a driver rating on a 0-100% scale. This is broken down as to what the driver did that increased power consumption. Running the A/C is listed as a part of that but the difference seems to be less than 5% on short trips and even less on longer trips. It's not often that a lot of heat is needed here but the same heat pump produces warm air. There is a "tough guy" setting that lets you override that if you prefer to drive around cold but even cheaper.

As far as hill country vs flatlands there really isn't all that much difference. More juice to get up the hill but that's offset by regeneration going down the other side. The same logic applies to city vs highway mileage. The Prius (this is our third) gets better mileage in city driving than on the highway. Combination of regeneration when braking and less wind drag because of lower speeds in town.

I have a watt meter that the secondary battery charger plugs into and the numbers as to what the actual electricity costs are to drive this Prius Prime on a 25 mile trip. I'd post them here but based on some of the responses so far in this thread I really don't need to put up with that kind of crap.

 

[FNSafari]

I can only speak to the Prius Prime, a plug-in hybrid that will run about 30 miles without the gasoline engine running.

In warm weather, which is most of the time here in Florida, the electric A/C (actually heat pump) does reduce the range available with the secondary battery. When the car is shut off at the end of a trip one of the things displayed is a driver rating on a 0-100% scale. This is broken down as to what the driver did that increased power consumption. Running the A/C is listed as a part of that but the difference seems to be less than 5% on short trips and even less on longer trips. It's not often that a lot of heat is needed here but the same heat pump produces warm air. There is a "tough guy" setting that lets you override that if you prefer to drive around cold but even cheaper.

As far as hill country vs flatlands there really isn't all that much difference. More juice to get up the hill but that's offset by regeneration going down the other side. The same logic applies to city vs highway mileage. The Prius (this is our third) gets better mileage in city driving than on the highway. Combination of regeneration when braking and less wind drag because of lower speeds in town.

I have a watt meter that the secondary battery charger plugs into and the numbers as to what the actual electricity costs are to drive this Prius Prime on a 25 mile trip. I'd post them here but based on some of the responses so far in this thread I really don't need to put up with that kind of crap.

Thanks for your insightful reply!!

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Thanks for your insightful reply!!

Here is an article on charging a tesla. It really matters what kind of charger you use and how many miles you drive. Youll want at least a level 2 charger in your garage or itll take a week to charge on a regular cord. If you buy a tesla you can get unlimited supercharging if you prod your salesman just right. Thats a gamechanger

How much does it cost to charge a Tesla?

A detailed guide outlining how much it will cost you to charge up a Tesla as well as a calculator for charging costs of any electric vehicle.

electrek.co

 

[Mudeat]

Here is an article on charging a tesla. It really matters what kind of charger you use and how many miles you drive. Youll want at least a level 2 charger in your garage or itll take a week to charge on a regular cord. If you buy a tesla you can get unlimited supercharging if you prod your salesman just right. Thats a gamechanger

How much does it cost to charge a Tesla?

A detailed guide outlining how much it will cost you to charge up a Tesla as well as a calculator for charging costs of any electric vehicle.

electrek.co

Read with caution - technical errors.