Who has or is planning to get an electric car / EV Talk

[dmr727]

It'll be a couple more years before we get a new car, but when we do the plan is for it to be electric. Right now we park on the street so an electric won't work, but we'll likely move to the burbs once my wife is done with her job here in NYC. Once that happens she'd like a Tesla S. Although the way the industry has been progressing it'll be interesting to see the myriad options in a few years.

Personally we'd both love to do without a car altogether, but that's not realistic for our jobs and where we'll likely be living. In fact we'll probably end up having two, so I like the idea of a solar powered house with a couple of electric vehicles charging in the garage.

 

[Apple fanboy]

It'll be a couple more years before we get a new car, but when we do the plan is for it to be electric. Right now we park on the street so an electric won't work, but we'll likely move to the burbs once my wife is done with her job here in NYC. Once that happens she'd like a Tesla S. Although the way the industry has been progressing it'll be interesting to see the myriad options in a few years.

Personally we'd both love to do without a car altogether, but that's not realistic for our jobs and where we'll likely be living. In fact we'll probably end up having two, so I like the idea of a solar powered house with a couple of electric vehicles charging in the garage.

I could never go without a car. Bought my first car before I was old enough to drive. Where we live you get two busses a day in the village.
I think I’ll probably buy one more ICE and then see where things are after that. But I’m in no rush, so who knows.

 

[dmr727]

I think I’ll probably buy one more ICE and then see where things are after that. But I’m in no rush, so who knows.

It's definitely nice to see more and more options, and like you we're not in any rush either, so it'll be interesting to see where the industry is in the 3-5 year timeframe. We're not necessarily ruling out ICE either, but I think that'll only happen if I go into full midlife crisis mode and buy something stupid for myself like a Porsche.

 

[mmomega]

Currently have 1 of each in the driveway.
A 6.7liter turbo diesel Ford. Mine 10 yrs old now.
A 4.7liter twin turbo gasser Merc. Wife's 4 yrs old now.
A 100KWh Tesla. Mine 2 yrs old now.

I have a Cybertruck on order but will not be getting rid of the diesel for quite some time. The Cybertrcan't tow a 5th wheel and with it being paid off and still in good condition, it isn't going anywhere.

Wife is talking about selling hers in a year or two and either keeping my current Model X or getting a newer version at that time.

My son and I just did a 2,500 mile road trip in a week before summer in the Tesla and it went just fine.

 

[44267547]

Currently have 1 of each in the driveway.
A 6.7liter turbo diesel Ford. Mine 10 yrs old now.
A 4.7liter twin turbo gasser Merc. Wife's 4 yrs old now.
A 100KWh Tesla. Mine 2 yrs old now.

I have a Cybertruck on order but will not be getting rid of the diesel for quite some time. The Cybertrcan't tow a 5th wheel and with it being paid off and still in good condition, it isn't going anywhere.

Wife is talking about selling hers in a year or two and either keeping my current Model X or getting a newer version at that time.

My son and I just did a 2,500 mile road trip in a week before summer in the Tesla and it went just fine.

I know you’re a known Tesla owner from the car thread, how have your experiences has been in terms of reliability and build quality the course of your ownership?

 

[mmomega]

I know you’re a known Tesla owner from the car thread, how have your experiences has been in terms of reliability and build quality the course of your ownership?

Reliability has been good for me. I had an issue with a door seal and their service guy was out the next day and swapped it out in the driveway.
Had someone hit me after about 4 months of ownership, their insurance paid for it but the local Tesla service center didn't repair any panels, they swapped everything out with new pieces and I had it back within the week. They had to swap hood, front bumper, passenger headlight, front fender, wheel lining, new wheel and tire.

The only maintenance level costs I have paid for was a new set of tires before my recent trip, registration sticker and I need to get another before end of next month. Haven't had to refill the windshield washer fluid yet.

I have the white seats/interior and my dog regularly rides with me anywhere that I can take her with me, goldendoodle. No stains or issues there, I'd thought at least the stitching would stain but I occasionally wipe everything down surprisingly it looks very, very good still. Until people get used to it they tell me it scares them to sit in it and I must make people sit on plastic covers or something because the interior still looks so nice.

I've hauled 2x4's, 2x10's, air compressors, generators, propane tanks, PVC pipes...yes from the front dash to the back gate several 10' PVC pipe will fit inside just in case you're in a pinch.


The Mercedes, we've had 3, have had far and beyond the most expensive cost of ownership just in terms of yearly maintenance and issues some quite major but under warranty so no out of pocket there.
It's a couple grand a year just to have service done. It is nice that they will come to my wife's work and bring her a loaner and swap back once service is done.

My truck has just past the 10 yr mark and has never been in for service, changed tires a few times, the oil changes are atrocious at 13 quarts of synthetic and a 38 gallon fuel tank with diesel being regularly over $3.00/gallon. Pretty much throw out a hundred dollar bill at each fill up, give or take.

 

[960design]

I can guarantee you have opinions on people "you do not know" otherwise your life would be functionally equivalent to that of a rural village person blissfully unaware of anything outside their own nook;

You are assumptious... I believe it goes hand in hand with creating opinions based on hearsay. Yet, I have no judgement nor opinions of you, as I do not know you. You could be a bot created to sow discord. You could also be a passionate human that is truly upset about personal actions Elon Musk has taken against you. In the later I would happily offer a Rochefort 10 or nice glass of port to learn more about it.

 

[960design]

Double post

 

[max2]

Not anytime soon but hopefully in the future one day.

I know we have chargers at one of our parks which is pretty cool.

 

[Ruggy]

I think it depends where you live and how you want to use it at the moment.
If it's all short trips and you have a drive, then you haven't got any problems at all.
People living in flats who have to park on the road: not so much.

I would definitely recommend having a good look at chargers in your area and I don't mean just looking at how many there are.
Have a good look at how well they work, how many are out of service, how many are occupied all the time. It's quite an eye opener.

Here in Europe there are about 20 companies offering charging services so you may well turn up to a charger and not have the right card. They are investing heavily in building them and they aren't being used so much yet meaning they aren't being maintained so lots and lots of problems in some places.

Then you may find a lot of the network is only 17kwh which means a very long wait on the edge of a lorry park. And some of these companies are charging exorbitant charge prices too. I've seen € 60cts per minute and that's €36 an hour!
Of course, if you decide to go for a Tesla then the story is completely different. Tesla are years ahead in charge facilities and they are usually built in nice places like hotel car parks so you can stop for a decent meal while you wait.
Barrier controlled so no turning up and finding someone has parked their diesel in the only charging point and gone shopping. And for the moment, charging is free. Plenty of 150kwh chargers too.
There are some nice other electric cars like the Taycan, but really Tesla have a huge advantage right now.

Another thing to consider is technology. There's no doubt there are going to be big changes in the next few years so if you buy electric now you have to be sure you are going to hold onto it for a while because it's likely the depreciation will be enormous as batteries get better, cheaper and technology improves.
Dr Rachid Yazami recently made an announcement about charging. He invented the graphite electrode for Liion so is one of the fathers of the Liion battery.
He says his company has made a breakthrough and can now charge a 90kwh battery in 10 minutes. He claims 800km range in 10 minutes will be possible. He didn't state how much it will cost of if there are any technical obstacles to commercialising this or give any idea of when it will be possible but it's clear, there will be big advances coming in the next couple of years.

Finally something that isn't mentioned much: nearly everyone that goes electric wouldn't want to go back. The torque is so enormous and pick-up so great then driving them is a real pleasure.
So much so that people are willing to put up with the odd fault or inconvenience.
Something else to bear in mind.

 

[pshufd]

Finally something that isn't mentioned much: nearly everyone that goes electric wouldn't want to go back. The torque is so enormous and pick-up so great then driving them is a real pleasure.
So much so that people are willing to put up with the odd fault or inconvenience.
Something else to bear in mind.

This is what I've heard from my friends that own them.

But, again, they have ICE vehicles as well to deal with potential issues.

 

[BeeGood]

@BeeGood

I know you’re a Tesla Model 3 owner from your postings in here. As I get closer to my Tesla purchase with questions, would you mind if I message you personally, versus over-taking this thread? I can tell you’ve got quite a bit of direct owner experience and I’d rather not join a Tesla forum.

Absolutely! I’ve enjoyed my experience with my Model 3 and don’t mind sharing the good and the not-so-great

 

[Airforcekid]

The Tesla comes with CarPlay as well though doesn’t it? My bosses does I’m sure.

Nope only thing you can do is stream music or audio sort of like the Aux cable days but with that built into the car I don't even bother connecting my phone which is a shame.

 

[Airforcekid]

So if someone owns a muscle car and an EV do they have a bigger or smaller carbon footprint than me with my 1.4 litre VW?

Confusing isn’t it? I don’t ask this to pass judgment. I genuinely do not know the correct answer. Nobody does.

My footprint is by far larger a turbo charged 5 liter V8 straight piped so not catalytic converters etc. I do run E85 so I haven't failed any sniff tests yet and most people doing state inspections are clueless and haven't noticed anything missing so I have passed emissions twice now. Its mainly a weekend/drag strip hobby car for me but a solid backup if something happens to the 3 or I need to drive over 250 miles.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

That will give you a rough idea but nothing on the environmental impact of owning two cars verses one. Many people on here say they have a back up ICE car. That somewhat defeats the object to my mind.

Well, it will give you emissions numbers, so if you know your annual mileage you can see the difference between owing two cars versus one.

By this website, my current car (the Fiesta) emits less than half as much pollution as my previous car (an older Subaru). During the pandemic in 2020, my mileage dropped by about 50%. So my overall emissions for 2020 were a fraction of what they were in a typical year driving my previous car.

And of course I agree that having a 'backup' ICE car reduces the environmental benefits of owning an EV. But driving an EV still makes a difference, even if it's only part of the time, and not everyone wants an EV for environmental reasons - in fact some posters here seem to be explicitly distancing themselves from environmental motivations, yet they are still interested in other aspects of EVs...

...which is interesting, the idea that you have to apologize/explain to others when choosing buying an EV. "Look, I'm not some pinko commie eco-terrorist", "my other vehicle is a massive truck, etc." I guess this is just a side effect of the gradual mainstreaming of EVs. In a few years you presumably won't need to explain an EV purchase like this at all.

 

[QCassidy352]

That's right. The charging time--1-2 hours for a complete re charge--is the fatal flaw.

I can see that being true for people who routinely take long road trips, but it’s a non issue for me the vast majority of the time. My round trip commute is about 25 miles, so even a SR+ Model 3 would only need to be recharged every week to two weeks. Even when we take trips, they’re usually no more than about 3 hours drive, which a fully charged Tesla can do no problem. So with that usage pattern, I can recharge at home overnight and never even need to worry about recharge times.

 

[QCassidy352]

The average price of a new vehicle in the US was $40,768 in April 2021 (Kelley Blue Book). The last car I purchased was $25k, the most I've paid for a vehicle. My approach is to just right a check for the vehicle - I don't like to borrow money. I'm aware that what would be considered cheap cars are hard to find as prices have risen and the number of models has decreased. I'm just amazed that people have the money to pay that much on average.
…

We haven't had any debt since the previous century.

Lack of debt allows you to build your savings quickly assuming a decent rate of return.

I had that mindset for a long time, but we did finance our last car. The opportunity cost of not having that money to invest is a lot higher than the interest rate we’re paying.

 

[pshufd]

I had that mindset for a long time, but we did finance our last car. The opportunity cost of not having that money to invest is a lot higher than the interest rate we’re paying.

Just remember that markets go down.

The $SPX dropped 50% after 2000 and took 13 years to recover.

There are BDCs and mREITs yielding 12-15% from time to time. Every once in a while, they become grossly undervalues and I can make double-digit income returns along with capital gains. It takes patience in waiting for deep discounts though.

 

[Clix Pix]

To me the greatest barrier in the overall acceptance and use of all-electric vehicles is going to be the charging of them. A lot of people do not live in single-family homes with garages, many people do not live in single-family homes at all and depending upon the location and size of the property upon which a condominium or rental apartment community was built, there just may not be space for installing charging devices. If a complex has, say, parking spaces for 14 buildings with 14 units within each building, will they need to find somewhere in addition to put in charging stations for all of the residents of those buildings, some of whom may have and need two vehicles? Or turn the entire parking lot or parking garage into one which provides charging for every vehicle?

 

[pshufd]

To me the greatest barrier in the overall acceptance and use of all-electric vehicles is going to be the charging of them. A lot of people do not live in single-family homes with garages, many people do not live in single-family homes at all and depending upon the location and size of the property upon which a condominium or rental apartment community was built, there just may not be space for installing charging devices. If a complex has, say, parking spaces for 14 buildings with 14 units within each building, will they need to find somewhere in addition to put in charging stations for all of the residents of those buildings, some of whom may have and need two vehicles? Or turn the entire parking lot or parking garage into one which provides charging for every vehicle?

There was an apartment complex near my office and we put in two EV charging spots. The rules were that you could only charge for three hours and then you had to move your vehicle. I never saw it used by anyone in the office because engineers are lazy. The rule of having to move after three hours is discouraging. If you're heads down and working, you're going to want to keep working.

Instead, there was one guy who would bring his car over in the evening and use one of the charging stations and then fetch his car at 5 AM. It turns out that he lived in the apartment complex and they didn't have any charging stations at all. So EV owners can get creative. He was ignoring the three hour limit but he probably didn't know about it as he didn't work for our company (rules were sent via email). We do have Teslas and Leafs but people didn't charge their EVs at the office.

There is a movement to companies like Blackrock buying up SFHs and renting them out. They will outbid people looking to buy SFHs because they have so much in AUM. I suspect that this will ultimately result in people moving more often as a way to deal with rent increases by a party paying above market prices for SFHs. People in this market (young families) may not have the flexibility to always have a SFH - moving out may mean that you're in a condo, triple-decker or apartment with on-street or communal parking. And you may have to think about that if you're in that situation.

 

[Clix Pix]

Well, back in October of 2020 I, a condominium unit owner and dweller for many years with no plans to move any time soon, DID think about just this when I was coming to grips with the reality that I really needed to replace my beloved 2006 Acura RSX..... I looked at info about hybrids, I looked at info about EVs and in the end decided that at this point in time I was not ready to jump into that and instead went with yet another ICE vehicle, and she should last me through the next several years of the anticipated changes as they occur..... Given my current age, this could well also be my last vehicle, too, another thing which I took into consideration. In any event at the moment I'm happy being able to jump into my car and when she needs a refueling head over to a convenient gas station and give her what she wants, something which will keep her transporting me for quite a while until the next need for refueling.....

 

[pshufd]

Well, back in October of 2020 I, a condominium unit owner and dweller for many years with no plans to move any time soon, DID think about just this when I was coming to grips with the reality that I really needed to replace my beloved 2006 Acura RSX..... I looked at info about hybrids, I looked at info about EVs and in the end decided that at this point in time I was not ready to jump into that and instead went with yet another ICE vehicle, and she should last me through the next several years of the anticipated changes as they occur..... Given my current age, this could well also be my last vehicle, too, another thing which I took into consideration. In any event at the moment I'm happy being able to jump into my car and when she needs a refueling head over to a convenient gas station and give her what she wants, something which will keep her transporting me for quite a while until the next need for refueling.....

Those things seem to last forever. I have a couple of friends that had those.

 

[Clix Pix]

I loved my little blue Acura RSX -- she was a gem and gave me very, very little trouble in the fifteen years that she and I were family...... I can only hope that my new girl, a 2021 Honda Civic Sport Hatchback, serves me as faithfully......

 

[pshufd]

I loved my little blue Acura RSX -- she was a gem and gave me very, very little trouble in the fifteen years that she and I were family...... I can only hope that my new girl, a 2021 Honda Civic Sport Hatchback, serves me as faithfully......

You clearly value reliability, QA and longevity.

 

[Clix Pix]

I do, indeed! Also, I value a car that looks pretty cool and moves pretty responsively when I need her to do so..... I've had a surprising number of compliments on her as my neighbors and friends have seen her for the first time, but the important thing is how well she functions on the road, and so far I have not been disappointed! She and I will hopefully be together for quite a few years......