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

[NYCValkyrie]

If I still lived in my old apartment, there's no way I'd be able to keep this EUV. Possibly a different EV with faster charging speeds. I pass by a fast charger on my way to work at a rest stop (unfortunately not on the way home), but that will add an extra hour on to my day and the place this charging station is at is a little shady, especially at 3AM when I'd be going there - I tried it once before I got my Level 2 charger installed in the garage, and I did not feel safe at all. I'm very thankful I can just plug it in at my house.

It's definitely a nice car, I wish I can take it on any potential future road trips, but that charging speed just isn't good enough in comparison to other EVs. That's my only complaint about it, I love everything else!

Electrify America has great Ultra Fast DC chargers and really the only ones worth using. It's about an hour or so to go from half to full charge in the Bolt and only because the car automatically slows charging at 85%. From near empty it's probably 90-120 min-ish. So if you do go on a road trip, use EA chargers!

 

[4sallypat]

Electrify America has great Ultra Fast DC chargers and really the only ones worth using. It's about an hour or so to go from half to full charge in the Bolt and only because the car automatically slows charging at 85%. From near empty it's probably 90-120 min-ish. So if you do go on a road trip, use EA chargers!

I don't know where you get your EA charges, but mine is an absolute nightmare.

Since almost all EV manufacturers have parterned up with EA for free charges, there are no available working chargers and always a huge line.

I have given up with Electrify America.

Even though I have free charging on my Ford account, I have not used it because the lines are horrendous in So Calif.

I charge at EVGo and Shell ReCharge.

EVGo has the fastest 350kWh chargers and no line - always available when I pull up.

Glad to pay instead of waiting for a free charge...

 

[AlaskaMoose]

Cold here. Most likely a frost in the morning. Just set the climate control to warm the car up for me in the morning. What a great feature that is. Nice defrosted windows and a warm space to get into. All set from the app in the comfort of my lounge.

Not very cold in the interior of Alaska. At the moment it is around 14 degrees F (-10 C.), but tomorrow night, according to the forecast, should be -10 degrees F (-23.3333 C.). The heater of each of the vehicles parked outside is set to warm the cabins as soon as possible, so all I have to do is to start the engine using the starter's remote, or the app in my iPhone, a few minutes before driving it.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

Yes, but it's also somewhat understandable, it hasn't been long since we needed to really treat cars as pieces of technology with all the privacy and security concerns.

There is something else, and I will give you an example: my 96-year old mother in law uses her laptop and printer for numerous reasons at least once per day. She also works part time as a volunteer at a local museum. She loves research and writing, as much as she has always done, and even handless hers' and family finances. But she does not know much about cellphone apps and things like that, nor about driving an automobile.

 

[yoak]

Love the app for pre heating my TM3. That was one of 2 things I missed on my previous EV.L, the Hyundai Ioniq. That and range😅. The one thing I miss from the Ioniq is the heated steering wheel. I have the 2019 TM3 and not having heated steering wheel bugs me more than the road noise😬. It’s already -10c here, and it takes forever before it’s warm.

 

[JT2002TJ]

Love the app for pre heating my TM3. That was one of 2 things I missed on my previous EV.L, the Hyundai Ioniq. That and range😅. The one thing I miss from the Ioniq is the heated steering wheel. I have the 2019 TM3 and not having heated steering wheel bugs me more than the road noise😬. It’s already -10c here, and it takes forever before it’s warm.

I have the heated steering wheel in my 2021 TMY, but do not have it in my 2019 TM3. It is nice to have, and it is nice how Telsa has auto level heating (apparently it used to just be at the hottest which was too hot), but when I drive my wife's TM3, I don't really miss it. Once the cabin is warm, the steering wheel isn't cold.

It is nice when my hands are cold from being outside, but with the EV and preconditioning, I never step into a cold vehicle with an ice-cold steering wheel.

My last 2 ICE vehicles took a WHILE to warm up, this was where it was a pain, and having the heated steering wheel was a must.

 

[I7guy]

I have the heated steering wheel in my 2021 TMY, but do not have it in my 2019 TM3. It is nice to have, and it is nice how Telsa has auto level heating (apparently it used to just be at the hottest which was too hot), but when I drive my wife's TM3, I don't really miss it. Once the cabin is warm, the steering wheel isn't cold.

It is nice when my hands are cold from being outside, but with the EV and preconditioning, I never step into a cold vehicle with an ice-cold steering wheel.

My last 2 ICE vehicles took a WHILE to warm up, this was where it was a pain, and having the heated steering wheel was a must.

I have the heated steering wheel and I find that one feature to be a godsend. I was a bit skeptical about the climate control of an electric car, but living in NY I found the a/c over the summer to be very good, while the heating during these last cold days to be excellent. I’ve seen the videos of cars in extreme climate conditions and it seems the effectiveness of the climate control system goes down in extreme heat and cold.

But my favorite feature over the last few days is to keep climate control on. With the temp around freezing keeping the climate system on while going into a store is the “bees knees”.

 

[JT2002TJ]

I have the heated steering wheel and I find that one feature to be a godsend. I was a bit skeptical about the climate control of an electric car, but living in NY I found the a/c over the summer to be very good, while the heating during these last cold days to be excellent. I’ve seen the videos of cars in extreme climate conditions and it seems the effectiveness of the climate control system goes down in extreme heat and cold.

But my favorite feature over the last few days is to keep climate control on. With the temp around freezing keeping the climate system on while going into a store is the “bees knees”.

I'm also in NY (Long Island). I do like the heated steering wheel in my TMY, I just wouldn't say it would be a deal breaker since the car's heat works so well, especially with GPS based preconditioning (set for the morning before work, and before we leave work to head home). I do use it and appreciate it.

We have full ceramic tint (with windshield protection film that is about 70%) on both, so the ac works perfectly on the hottest days, and I agree, the heat is excellent in these EVs (even better with the heat pump in my Y). The interior heats up faster than any ICE I've ever owned.

I put my cars on "Keep" (for non-Tesla people, that is what @I7guy mentioned where you can leave the climate control on while you leave the vehicle) anytime I am shopping...

 

[jz0309]

I don't know where you get your EA charges, but mine is an absolute nightmare.

Since almost all EV manufacturers have parterned up with EA for free charges, there are no available working chargers and always a huge line.

I have given up with Electrify America.

Even though I have free charging on my Ford account, I have not used it because the lines are horrendous in So Calif.

I charge at EVGo and Shell ReCharge.

EVGo has the fastest 350kWh chargers and no line - always available when I pull up.

Glad to pay instead of waiting for a free charge...

Yea, been reading that on the bolt forum that in the LA area EA has turned extremely difficult to use because of at least VW and Hyundai now offering free charging. Luckily haven’t needed to go there in a year .
Public (fast) charging infrastructure still has ways to go, even in CA…

 

[JT2002TJ]

Yea, been reading that on the bolt forum that in the LA area EA has turned extremely difficult to use because of at least VW and Hyundai now offering free charging. Luckily haven’t needed to go there in a year .
Public (fast) charging infrastructure still has ways to go, even in CA…

Wasn't EA created to bypass having to pay the US government TONS of money by VAG because of their emission scandal? If so, it would make sense that VW would offer free charging in order to take some of Tesla's market...

 

[jz0309]

Wasn't EA created to bypass having to pay the US government TONS of money by VAG because of their emission scandal? If so, it would make sense that VW would offer free charging in order to take some of Tesla's market...

Might very well be, but I also know that Hyundai is offering free EA charging and what’s going on is that folks are taking advantage of that and now “blocking” chargers for thru travelers which really should be the main reason for using DCFC.
And u also read that some Tesla SUC are quite busy in the LA area (and LA area is most of souther California).
It’ll be interesting when all the new vehicles come out with NACS ( or whatever the Tesla charging is called)

 

[cyb3rdud3]

Here is where I also like EVs. Major motorway, total standstill for 1 hour. Temperatures around freezing.

Engine is off 😎 everything else still works, even time for a bit of Amazon Prime video.

The main complaints is that the screen doesn’t rotate to widescreen 🤣

Anyway, full heating HVAC on, with heated seats and steering, and entertainment system streaming a movie. Battery loss 1% in one hour.

I’m happy with that. Letting my Range Rover idle for that time with its 5.0V8 supercharger could do it but it’s not great.

 

[pshufd]

Toyota is going Hybrid for all of their Camry's next spring. I'm contemplating buying one this year or before the changeover. I suspect that they are still waiting for that QuantumSpace battery tech to arrive before moving everything over to EVs. I have no idea on what kind of progress they're making.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

Toyota is going Hybrid for all of their Camry's next spring. I'm contemplating buying one this year or before the changeover. I suspect that they are still waiting for that QuantumSpace battery tech to arrive before moving everything over to EVs. I have no idea on what kind of progress they're making.

I keep hearing car reviewers talking about Toyota in the EV sector and it sounds like they don’t fully believe in it and are seriously behind the curve. I have heard they are investing in ammonia combustion technology as an alternative to EV’s but who knows if that is true.

 

[JT2002TJ]

Might very well be, but I also know that Hyundai is offering free EA charging and what’s going on is that folks are taking advantage of that and now “blocking” chargers for thru travelers which really should be the main reason for using DCFC.
And u also read that some Tesla SUC are quite busy in the LA area (and LA area is most of souther California).
It’ll be interesting when all the new vehicles come out with NACS ( or whatever the Tesla charging is called)

Yeah. I am hoping that as a result of this partnership, we will have 1 standard (or at least 1 most common NACS) with all chargers, and as a result more companies will pop up making these charges (like gas stations). I'm sure companies were sitting back and waiting rather than jumping in because of the lack of standard.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Yeah. I am hoping that as a result of this partnership, we will have 1 standard (or at least 1 most common NACS) with all chargers, and as a result more companies will pop up making these charges (like gas stations). I'm sure companies were sitting back and waiting rather than jumping in because of the lack of standard.

We have one standard in the UK. There are some older Nissan ones but they are being faded out

 

[jz0309]

I keep hearing car reviewers talking about Toyota in the EV sector and it sounds like they don’t fully believe in it and are seriously behind the curve. I have heard they are investing in ammonia combustion technology as an alternative to EV’s but who knows if that is true.

Yep, heard the same thing, and agree that they are ways behind on EV. They want to milk their hybrid investment…
Whether it’s Ammonia or hydrogen (Mirai), all in the early stages and in the case of Mirai not taking off.

 

[JT2002TJ]

We have one standard in the UK. There are some older Nissan ones but they are being faded out

Yeah. We don't have the same, and even with many manufactures moving to NACS, we still don't. But once most make the move, we will have a de facto standard...

Maybe once there is a clear majority with NACS it will be our standard, if we ever come up with one. Hey, we don't even have an official language...

 

[pshufd]

I keep hearing car reviewers talking about Toyota in the EV sector and it sounds like they don’t fully believe in it and are seriously behind the curve. I have heard they are investing in ammonia combustion technology as an alternative to EV’s but who knows if that is true.

I hadn't heard about that one but they are experimenting with hydrogen in their Mirai. I do think that they know that it is the future but they are trying to figure out the right transition time. I do think that they are betting big on that battery technology. They have the pieces available in that one RAV4 EV but I think that's a low-volume vehicle. I imagine that all car companies would go with the Quantum Space tech if it becomes commercially viable.

Building the Best Solid State Battery | QuantumScape

QuantumScape is on a mission to transform energy storage with revolutionary solid state battery technology that will charge faster, go farther and last longer.

www.quantumscape.com

 

[pshufd]

Yep, heard the same thing, and agree that they are ways behind on EV. They want to milk their hybrid investment…
Whether it’s Ammonia or hydrogen (Mirai), all in the early stages and in the case of Mirai not taking off.

I think that they only have hydrogen stations in 1 state. That's pretty limiting.

 

[Apple fanboy]

I think that they only have hydrogen stations in 1 state. That's pretty limiting.

Imagine the queues and the round trip!

 

[jz0309]

I think that they only have hydrogen stations in 1 state. That's pretty limiting.

not even an entire state ... in greater LA area only afaik, one can only buy a Mirai in that area ...

 

[jz0309]

Imagine the queues and the round trip!

Mirai is a very rare sight, former co-worker had one and loved it, refueling was like 5 min and from what he told me there was no "queuing up" due to the rarity.
I've only seen a handful in like 10 years in SoCal except for the coworkers one

 

[Flowstates]

I hadn't heard about that one but they are experimenting with hydrogen in their Mirai. I do think that they know that it is the future but they are trying to figure out the right transition time. I do think that they are betting big on that battery technology. They have the pieces available in that one RAV4 EV but I think that's a low-volume vehicle. I imagine that all car companies would go with the Quantum Space tech if it becomes commercially viable.

Building the Best Solid State Battery | QuantumScape

QuantumScape is on a mission to transform energy storage with revolutionary solid state battery technology that will charge faster, go farther and last longer.

www.quantumscape.com

Definitely buying some stock !

 

[pshufd]

Imagine the queues and the round trip!

Seems to me that you'd be a prisoner in the state.