Electric Cars -- anyone own one?

[moondog]

The only way electric cars will ever work is to standardize the size and shape of the battery pack and make it hot-swappable...just like your cordless drill.

Oops, moondog beat me to it...

Worked on cars and planes all my life. Had my own shop. I saw some of the stupid things engineers did and just shook my head. Nobody asked me though

 

[muleman69]

Imagine all these old outdated services on houses. Thats where folks will finally get fed up when they gotta pay $5000 to charge their car at home upgrading their electric service

Would not surprise me if our Green weenies in the White House cut everyone a big fat rebate check to cover most of the cost. This discussion has been a real eye opener to say the least.

 

[timeout]

Worked on cars and planes all my life. Had my own shop. I saw some of the stupid things engineers did and just shook my head. Nobody asked me though

Engineers don't get paid to worry about the difficulty of repairs. Was an auto mechanic in my first career. Some things are an absolute nightmare.

 

[KMart]

I'd love a Toyota Hilux from the 90s. Stick Shift, 22R Engine ... I'd even take a 4x2.

Just last week, I passed a car carrier parked on the side of the road. His load was about 6 pre 1980 Toyota Land Cruisers.. Looked like someones collection.
I got that tingly feeling running down my leg. So, I shifted my sitting position and took the pressure off that nerve and I was good to go.

 

[CharlieNC]

Where will the electricity come from? When the sun don't shine and the wind don't blow? More massive central battery banks? Certainly not fossil fuel backup! Nuclear, oh no. What does AOC think, but I guess her Tesla is charged for free at the Capitol building.

 

[Gappmast]

Electric Ford F-150 Lightning: Here's how much money it saves over gas

Window stickers for the Ford F-150 Lightning reveal how much it will cost to charge the full-size electric truck each year.

www.foxnews.com

Read the fine print, the above story is on the Fox website. The story says the cost savings are based on electricity at 14 cents per kilowatt hour. Where I live Southern California Edison rates are 25 cents on tier 1, 33 cents on tier 2, and 41 cents on tier 3 rates. Your already using up tier 1 and 2 with your normal house hold needs so any electric car charging will be on tier 3 at 41 cents per kilowatt hour. On tier 3 rates the electric truck isn't any cheaper to drive than my F150 with the 2.7 gas engine and I can fill up my gas truck anywhere in less than five minutes.

 

[DangerRanger]

lol @ op asking for opinion from owners

 

[KMart]

As far as electric car efficiency overall (and all the BS from the government) consider this:
Hydro-power and Nuclear produce about 27% of the electric power in the US and are tapped out not many new power plants of this type being proposed.
Wind and solar approximately 13% of the US electric generation.
The remainder (fossil fuel) mostly natural gas and coal account for the remaining 60%. Most new large scale electric power in the near future will likely be natural gas.
A fossil fuel generating plant is about 35% efficient (new natural gas plants can hit 40%) but then you have transmission losses (line and transformer losses) about 10% so by the time the energy even gets to the battery of an electric vehicle the overall efficiency is around 25%.
A good commercial diesel truck is about 38-40% efficient a gasoline car about 25%. So if we all had electric cars and trucks the country would probably have to burn even more fuel overall.
Its even worse with certain electric appliances. A high efficiency gas hot water heater is 90+ % efficient. By the time the electric gets to an electric hot water heater you have to burn about three times the amount of fuel. Same thing with electric stoves and cook-tops and I recently heard that the nut-balls in California government were considering a ban on gas appliances.
My numbers could be off slightly but it probably doesn't matter too much because even if 50% of us had electric vehicles with our present electric grid there would be one heck of a blackout!!!!!!!

Is AOC aware of this? This could be one of those "Be careful what you ask for" moments for her and her friends.

 

[Twicepop]

I used to work with a guy that was a volunteer fireman and a EMT for a small community. He expressed concerns for the safety of the occupants and the rescue personnel around these things in the event of an accident. These batteries most likely are extremely high amperage DC, somebody is going to get cooked or electrocuted in the event of a serious accident. Another concern was the clean up the chemicals in the batteries and those needed to extinguish a fire from one of these.

 

[jghoghunter]

I used to work with a guy that was a volunteer fireman and a EMT for a small community. He expressed concerns for the safety of the occupants and the rescue personnel around these things in the event of an accident. These batteries most likely are extremely high amperage DC, somebody is going to get cooked or electrocuted in the event of a serious accident. Another concern was the clean up the chemicals in the batteries and those needed to extinguish a fire from one of these.

I don't know what people don't understand. None of this matters to the green weenies. None of these questions or the answers to these questions fit their narrative. You will never hear an answer to any of them. [Perhaps one of their cars will catch on fire].

 

[One Eye Pete]

Where will the electricity come from? When the sun don't shine and the wind don't blow? More massive central battery banks? Certainly not fossil fuel backup! Nuclear, oh no. What does AOC think, but I guess her Tesla is charged for free at the Capitol building.

I don't know where the energy is going to come from for electric cars. But if they could power Air Force One with hot air I know where they could find a HUGE source.

 

[PatMiles]

Where will the electricity come from? When the sun don't shine and the wind don't blow? More massive central battery banks?

Got's to wonder what is going to happen if and when one of the central battery banks goes up in flames!

This is a single Tesla fire!

Report: Battery Fires Emitting Toxic Fumes Steer Some Consumers from Electric Vehicles

Battery fires in electric vehicles that smolder and emit toxic fumes may steer some U.S. consumers away from buying them, but not all.

www.breitbart.com

 

[wedgy]

If your use “fits” one, then they seem to be nice to own. My son owned a Toyota Prius hybrid. Him and his wife live about 25 miles from work. They can plug them in at their offices and have a second vehicle for driving distances. They had it for 5 or so years and never had a problem with it. Maybe they were in the group of “lucky ones”…….. I always said I’d never own one, but after seeing and ride in it for 5 years, I started thinking about getting one. My life style would fit one pretty well. Only concern that I had was what to do if the battery went bad and I had to replace it???

"A key power element in Toyota hybrid powertrains and built to last, the hybrid battery pack in your Toyota Prius is not cheap to replace with prices that can range from $3,000 to $8,000 when you purchase a new battery. Used Toyota hybrid batteries can range from $1,500 to $3,500 to replace."

A buddy's son bought a used prius for ~$9K and after 2 years the battery need to be replaced, toyota quoted $6K so he traded it in for $3k towards a new one. He's green

 

[CarlGeorge]

This article references a study that showed gas car fires happen at a rate of 1,530 per 100,000 vehicles. EVs had fires at a rate of 25 per 100,000 vehicles.

As others have said, EV fires are harder to put out so they do end up doing more damage per fire than gas car fires.

https://www.kbb.com/car-news/study-electric-vehicles-involved-in-fewest-car-fires/

 

[Kracken McGraw]

lol @ op asking for opinion from owners

Yes Sir, but it’s Biden’s fault, and the masses need to release some steam!

 

[DocCarbon]

Climate change is total BS and batteries are NOT the answer ! Neither is solar or wind generation . I'm sorry to hurt any of you touchy feely green minded mental midgets the wrong way but REALITY dictates the TRUTH .

Consider what materials are needed for a battery powered vehicle ,let alone Heavy industry or Semi's hauling our market goods . Before you destroy and industry ,you had better have another WORKABLE one in place .
Make sense to any of You ?.

What You are looking at is a once classified photo of the DIRTY secret , NO new green person or politician wants you or I to ever see . This is but #1 site of Hundreds of which you will NEVER know about .

What You are seeing is Older or broken Wind turbine blades being buried by a D-11 Cat Dozier !. Non recyclable Non usable. Now consider the distance an electric car can travel ,where it's Lithium comes from and who's invested in the biggest scam on the American Public ever devised ,the same Dunce who's ruining OUR Country for his family's own profit . Carbon and S Glass along with epoxy resins DON'T degrade well ,even over hundreds of years . I unfortunately helped formulate much of those material combinations ,while working aerospace . I also worked the autoclave in which some of those blades were made .

You want clean energy NUCLEAR is the way to fly , Be it fission until Fusion containment can be accomplished . Until that happens fossil fuels are our BEST BET . Ask Yourselves a question which has been on MY mind for some time . WHY does China have #1734 New COAL fired plants in the building or planning process and is Importing OUR coal ,as well as Russian Coal ?. ISN'T Climate change Global ???. Just more Russia Russia from the dopes in Our WH ,as they siphon off ALL OUR MONIES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[jghoghunter]

This is what I've been telling people, global change does not mean just the U.S.. Nuclear power is the way to go. I don't want to hear about, what do you do with the radioactive material when it's done and served its purpose. It's no different than that cat covering up those blades or what do we do with these batteries. China's building how many new coal plants? How's that helping the global environment. THAT'S RIGHT OUT OF SIGHT OUT OF MIND. I've said it here before this has absolutely nothing to do with the global environment. IT HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH CONTROLLING THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!!!!

 

[Murray Brook]

@jghoghunter
Not just the people of the US, every democracy has a boat load of these snowflakes that feel they know what is best for everyone.

 

[DangerRanger]

Yes Sir, but it’s Biden’s fault, and the masses need to release some steam!

Or people need to stop feeling like they need to post on every topic they see if it doesn’t apply to them.

this forum is honestly getting to the point where you can’t ask a serious question because your thread is going to get flooded by bullshit that has nothing to do with what you ask.

 

[wkdickinson]

Or people need to stop feeling like they need to post on every topic they see if it doesn’t apply to them.

this forum is honestly getting to the point where you can’t ask a serious question because your thread is going to get flooded by bullshit that has nothing to do with what you ask.

I have found this thread fascinating. Yes, lots opinions, but also a fair amount of experiences. Yours was the last post (at least so far) on page 5 of this thread. If you found the posts to be such BS, why waste that much time?