Electric Cars

[ghostrunner]

Was going to post in the Iran thread, but figured it's more general and people might be getting curious.

I'm on 2.5 years of having my Bolt, and it's the best car experience I've ever had. It's been pretty nice to not worry about gas, and I barely think about gas or going to gas stations. My wife is filling up at about $65 right now and she's started taking my car to work on days when I'm working from home.

Beyond that though -

Pros:

Soooo much quieter. When i listen to music/audiobooks/podcasts, I don't have to crank them up to hear certain parts or what's being said. This is far and away my favorite thing about it. If you're into engine noise, obviously it won't be that satisfying.

Acceleration is much faster than ICE cars, if that's important to you. If I'm first at a light, I'm pretty much always pulling away from everyone for the first 10 seconds. If you want to pass someone it comes in handy. I don't really care about this, but I know some people like it.

Charging at home - i charge once or twice a week depending on time of year and what's going on. So for me the extra demand on power really isn't that significant. Beyond just avoiding paying for gas and the gas station, it's just more convenient. You do probably need to get a Level 2 charger installed. In my case, Chevy paid for it. Not sure if any dealers are still doing that. I think the estimated cost was about $1k. I've heard of people getting by just plugging into a normal outlet every night, which gets me about 1/4 charged. In the winter I imagine it's worse, and it's hard to imagine doing that all the time.

So far, no maintenance. My understanding has been that tires are the main thing you have to watch and the original tires on mine are still fine. Haven't replaced the original tires yet. EVs are heavier than ICE cars because of the battery, which for me is almost the entire underside of the car. So if you're driving a lot, that can wear the tires faster.

I don't know if it's a combination of the quietness, acceleration and the weight, but to me it feels like it drives much better than my previous cars.


Cons:

Long trips are tough. It's better to have a second ICE car you can use for that. I can pick up my son in Cincy (about 120 miles aaway) in the summertime and come back if I make no other stops. But if i do have other stops, or in the winter, I'll stop somewhere with a Level 3 fast charger and charge for about 30-40 minutes. I've usually gotten lunch at the same time. I don't mind it, but I know that's a barrier for some people.

The charging infrastructure is still way behind where it needs to be and it's become a victim of politics. Even the more aggressive charging initiatives from the last admin weren't that great. Supposedly Tesla chargers can now charge my car and those are prolific by comparison

Cold winters means you have to charge more often because you don't get as far. The max for me during summer on one charge is about 260 miles. During winter it's more like 200.

Weight can put more demand on the battery, so if you do a lot of hauling you might have to charge more often.


The winter issue is really the only one i deal with. We usually take the ICE car for long trips, but those are manageable with an EV if you're patient and can plan it out.

[IMADreamer]

Love hearing your experience. My wife really likes the upcoming Rivian R3 and has been considering it when it comes out next year. We have ICE vehicles as backups for long trips but this would be for her to run around town in, back and forth to work, etc. It seems like a no brainer really considering she drives 7 miles a day. I have a cousin who is an engineer at Rivian and he's really pumped about the R3 as well so it's a strong consideration.

[ghostrunner]

Yeah, for daily in town driving it’s really perfect. And even further out it’s just a matter of plugging in more often. Your routine just has to fit within that 200-250 mile window.

What’s too bad is it’d be great for most apartment dwellers but charging might be a pain unless you find a complex set up for that. Though you can pay to fast charge once or twice a week if it’s convenient enough.

I still think mass transit would be preferable for me and most people, but until that happens…

[Popeye_Card]

If I had to do a lot of driving, I would entertain an electric car. They are pretty nice, all things considered. But since I have a really short commute and my vehicles are way more of a hobby than a tool, I still have to have the exhaust growl of IC engines.

[cardinalkarp]

We’ve really thought about getting one, but just can’t justify the cost of getting a new/used car. We don’t have any car payments at the moment, and the monthly payment for the car would end up costing more than the gas itself.

We drive 120 miles round trip per day which would mean we’d likely be charging it every night, which will eat up quite a bit of the solar we generate to power the house. I haven’t completely crunched the #’s, so it’s possible we might come out ahead (at least during April-October) since we produce excess energy that gets sold back to Ameren. But, I would imagine we would want the extended range version of any vehicle which would mean we’re likely looking at a 60-80 kWh battery in the car, and even partially charging it would eat up a lot (in perfect conditions during the longest days we’ll generate about 60 kWh per day, so it would eat up half that more than likely).

I would really like to look at hybrid vehicles, but again, I’m just not sure a car payment justifies the gain in mpg’s. Our cars devalue so quickly because the amount of mileage we put on them, anything we buy will be upside down in no time.

[WAR God]

Something like 90% of EV drivers reportedly won’t go back to ICE vehicles.

I’m one of them. EVs are just better all around. The acceleration is insane. Charging at home each night is easy peasy.

I don’t get into the cost of maintenance vs ICE and all that and I’m not convinced that it’s much cheaper unless you were driving something European and expensive before.

[ghostrunner]

I was lucky enough to get the rebate in 2003, which was a $7500 credit at the time. Current admin did away with that but even then the used ones are a pretty good deal.

One thing I’ll have to find out is whether a new battery will be feasible once I hit EOL for this one. I’m guessing not, so that’s a downside. Or I’ll just sell it first. However I assume used ones a good deal for that reason so it does seem like the value currently drops faster than an ICE car.