Electric Cars -- anyone own one?

[riverside jeep]

That abomination of a truck will be the laughing stock of the Home Depot parking lot. And probably the only place it will go, because it's worthless for anything "truck" except hauling 2x4s

But they can be 18 footers!

 

[jackieschmidt]

Thanks for the feedback. Your use case fits perfectly into the EV attribute set, and I bet it isn't your only vehicle.

Also, I think you'll notice the charging, especially in those 3 months we call winter, and you call "not hot and humid, just humid"

And pay not attention to the MPGe. It is marketing BS intended to make EVs look cost competitive (basically assumes 33.7 kW-hr of energy in a gallon of fuel and makes the conversion). It is a useless comparison.

One of th factors involved with my going to this EV was I was wearing my nice GMC Denali Truck doing nothing more than taking the 90+ mile commute every day. I have better uses for it.

My Wife drives a Cadillac SUV.

And of course I have my ‘67 Chevelle that has the engine in my Avatar. It is the antithesis of the EV.

 

[bsekf]

We are shopping for our "probably" last car. The Subaru Forester is at the top of the list. Most of our driving is <50 miles. I keep coming back to a Plug in Hybrid. KIA and Toyota have AWD SUV's that meets our price range and usage. I have 40 amps of 220 in our garage. We live in WNY, so cold in winter and need AC in the summer. The KIA has a 10 year power train warranty but I don't know if that covers a battery replacement.

My real-world questions: how much will it really cost to keep the battery topped of? Is charging that big a battery inside a garage safe? Is the EV range accurate? What other drawbacks are there? I do hear some hybrid owners complaining their gas goes stale.

 

[joshb]

I would never buy an all electric car! My wife had a Prius, years ago. Good car. The gas never went “stale”. The old Prius had it’s own “generator “ on board so you aren’t stuck out in the cold.

 

[butchlambert]

Stale gas in a hybrid, I think not unless you don't drive it. My oldest Son has 2 hybrid Toyota Highlanders. They are very dependable, but not much savings on fuel economy. Some of you may remember Shelley Davidson. His Prius had way over 100,000 miles when he went to gunsmith Heaven. It was fantastic on economy, trouble free, and was very peppy.

 

[lb-ft]

I do own an electric stove.

Does that count?

 

[ebb]

I would be willing to give up my ICE car if I could replace it with a battery powered Jetoptera.

 

[JTinTexas]

I applaud Jackie for stepping out and giving an EV an honest try, and hope he gives us a one year update on the experience and provide us some data that we can trust. I have gone through much of my life with the belief that most of the decisions we make are at the end of the day academic if we are committed to learning both the good and the bad regarding those decisions and applying the lessons learned.

Last fall I came real close to buying an EV for short trips and errands into town. My requisite was that the car be fun to drive and reasonable from an purchase perspective. If wanted to go to the shooting range I could take my wife's Caddilac SUV, if I wanted to do a road trip I would take the Vette. Congress nixed the EV for me when they appear to have cancelled the tax credit for the Mini Cooper EV (which was relative inexpensive and supposedly fun to drive). Ended up getting a Mazda Miata which met both my criteria. After 2500 miles I have averaged 35 mpg and it has been a ball to drive. (Full disclosure, this is my second Miata, and I knew what to expect).

 

[TrxR]

Wyoming Legislators Want to Ban EVs by 2035

The Cowboy State is pushing back against the move toward electrification.

www.autoweek.com

thought this was interesting

 

[Liven The Dream]

My whole House Barn etc. is Electric in Fly over Oregone.
Love Wyoming Mother-in-Law Home Steed er Family. The Ban EV makes me love it more.
Taken our Hydro out by Dynamite of late.
By 2031 we should be running on Hot Air and Fart Power.

Local News last night talking about Money for Charging Station up and Down Hwy 97 ?
If not from around Oregone Hwy 97 was called the Drug Runners road. Cal-Wa.

Drug Runners must be getting EV's ?

 

[NorCalMikie]

 

[Brians356]

Oops. Well, nice knowin' y'all.


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[NorCalMikie]

But the world will end in less than 10 years so why sweat the small stuff.

 

[Brians356]

I watched some of the IMSA 12 Hours Of Sebring race yesterday on TV. The top class, Grand Touring Prototype (GTP), consists of hybrid powertrains. One of the TV commentators mentioned special safety rules for GTP cars. There’s a lot of high voltage moving between batteries and Motor Generator Unit (MGU), and if everything isn’t as isolated as it should be, it could be unsafe for a grounded crew member to touch the car. On both sides of the cars' windscreens are lights indicating the status of the high-voltage (HV) system. Solid green lights indicate "all is well" but no lights or red color indicate "Danger, Will Robinson!" when it could be extremely dangerous for personnel to touch the car.

HV service work is prohibited in the regular pit boxes, with cars required to go to designated HV “quarantine areas” to undertake hybrid-related repairs. My hunch is there's also a concern for battery "thermal runaway" fires and explosions. Lithium-ion batteries sparked more than 200 fires in New York City last year alone, killing six people and injuring nearly 150. Last week at least seven people were injured in a five-alarm fire in the Bronx which required the attention of 200 firefighters. Officials believe the incident stemmed from a lithium-ion battery of a scooter.
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[M-61]

360 apartment and house fires in NYC this year probably caused by lithium ion batteries.
It is illegal in NYC apartment houses to bring your LI-ion battery bike into the basement. ( very common parking place for bikes and scooters.)
The apartment houses have signs attached that state this.

 

[Dave Way]

Nope and the fact that electrics are all we will have available in the future, was enough to twist my arm to buy this.



I guess I don’t like change.

 

[Brians356]

Nope and the fact that electrics are all we will have available in the future, was enough to twist my arm to buy this.

Don't buy the dire predictions. There's zero chance EVs will even comprise a quarter of the cars in the US in your lifetime.
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[Propbndr]

For all ev lovers

 

[Dave Way]

Don't buy the dire predictions. There's zero chance EVs will even comprise a quarter of the cars in the US in your lifetime.
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But there’s a one hundred percent chance that 2024 is the last year for gasoline powered Camaros.

 

[Brians356]

But there’s a one hundred percent chance that 2023 is the last year for gasoline powered Camaros.

"Just ... follow the money."

The question is: How many regular 2023 Camaros would they have sold if they hadn't announced its imminent demise? Then compare that to how many electric 2024 and 2025 Camaros they sell. The Camaro has been up against Mustang, Challenger, Demon ... What sacrifice is GM really making by ending the Camaro as we know it?
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