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

[AlaskaMoose]

Yes, sorry I didn't clarify it. It wasn't the fuel I was worried about, it was idling a Jaguar Land Rover engine in a Range Rover that I was worried about 🤣 I didn't want it to fail on me.

Nice, and yes, you would rather not shut it off then.

For some reason I am very sensitive to the smell of diesel fuel, both burned fuel or not. I get a terrible headache
After responding to you about letting it idle, I thought that if I were in the same area your vehicle was idling, I would probably be very sick

 

[AlaskaMoose]

Like with any type of vehicle you will only have reliable knowledge if you drive and live with it for a period of time. If you type in ‘EV issues’ or ‘Diesel car issues’ on YouTube, there will be a plethora of videos with horror stories of people experiencing expensive failures and repairs. I’ve never seen anything to suggest owning an EV is more expensive and risky than owning a diesel or petrol though? Anything can go wrong with any car. I watched a video last night of a guy in the Czech Republic who has a Tesla Model X (2016) and it’s done 200k miles. It’s got far too much rust on it for my tastes but mechanically it was excellent and perhaps capable of doing plenty more miles. It’s always pot luck with cars.

You’re very sceptical of EV’s and jump from one extreme issue to the next or suggest you need to idle your car in car parks or come up with a scenario where you’ll be needing to preheat a battery and charge locally due to lack of charge. I know you live in a very remote and extreme country in regard to weather and maybe EV’s aren’t suitable for your style of driving or location, but it looks like Alaska does have citizens who are making the transition due to the amount of public chargers etc. Why not rent an EV and give it a go for a week and see how you get on? I was sceptical like you until we lived with one and probably wouldn’t be driving one now if my wife hadn’t got one with her promotion, but am pleasantly surprised by how easy they are to drive and keep charged.

You are assuming that I am skeptical of EVs, but I am not. I have explained numerous times the reasons why I don't want an EV. The answer is as follows: My wife and I already have several automobiles (two trucks, SUV, small car, ATV, and UTV), and don't plan to buy any more vehicles because we don't need them. The small car, a Toyota Corolla, we haven't driven since 2019. It is in perfect shape, and we let our daughters drive it when they come to visit us each summer (they live far away from Alaska). Of the two trucks, one has a smaller engine, so I use this one to drive a few miles away from home to isolated areas away from streetlights and houses to take photos of the auroras, or wildlife, or of the sled dog races, skijoring, and so on. I also used it during the fishing and hunting seasons. The other truck I use now and then to tow a 17-foot trailer that is loaded with the UTV, ATV and smaller trailer, and some other times I haul a 6,000-pound travel trailer. The areas I camp, fish, and hunt are very remote. I carry extra fuel, a 2,000-watt inverter generator, plus food and supplies to last three weeks in the outdoors. There aren't houses, gas stations, electrical outlets, etc. We sleep in tents, or in the truck (it has a topper).

As for renting one, there aren't EV's for me to rent, nor charging stations in Fairbanks Alaska.

I have also explained that in some areas of Alaska where the weather is milder than in interior regions, some people have EV's. For example, in Anchorage, and Juneau. I have seen two Tesla automobiles in Fairbanks, one during the summer, and a few weeks ago I saw another, both driven into a military installation by newcomer military members from other US States.

 

[Apple fanboy]

You are assuming that I am skeptical of EVs, but I am not. I have explained numerous times the reasons why I don't want an EV. The answer is as follows: My wife and I already have several automobiles (two trucks, SUV, small car, ATV, and UTV), and don't plan to buy any more vehicles because we don't need them. The ;'small car, a Toyota Corolla, we haven't driven since 2019. It is in perfect shape, and we let our daughters drive it when they come to visit us each summer (they live far away from Alaska). Of the two trucks, one has a smaller engine, so I use this one to drive a few miles away from home to isolated areas away from streetlights and houses to take photos of the auroras, or wildlife. I also used it during the fishing and hunting seasons. The other truck I use now and then to tow a 17-foot trailer that is loaded with the UTV, ATV and smaller trailer, and some other times I haul a 6,000-pound travel trailer. The areas I camp, fish, and hunt are very remote. I carry extra fuel, a 2,000-watt inverter generator, plus food and supplies to last three weeks in the outdoors.

As for renting one, there aren't EV's for me to rent, nor charging stations in Fairbanks Alaska.

I have also explained that in some areas of Alaska where the weather is milder than in interior regions, some people have EV's. For example, in Anchorage, and Juneau. I have seen two Tesla automobiles in Fairbanks, one during the summer, and a few weeks ago I saw another, both driven into a military installation by newcomer military members from other US States.

Not assuming anything. Your posts throughout this thread are very anti EV. Constantly telling us how they don't work. I genuinely understand your situation is very different from mine. To be honest probably very different from most readers on here.
If I was living in Alaska I'd be a lot less likely to try one. But I'd not spend so much time trying to convince others why they don't work for them (even when they already own one!).

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

You are assuming that I am skeptical of EVs, but I am not. I have explained numerous times the reasons why I don't want an EV. The answer is as follows: My wife and I already have several automobiles (two trucks, SUV, small car, ATV, and UTV), and don't plan to buy any more vehicles because we don't need them. The small car, a Toyota Corolla, we haven't driven since 2019. It is in perfect shape, and we let our daughters drive it when they come to visit us each summer (they live far away from Alaska). Of the two trucks, one has a smaller engine, so I use this one to drive a few miles away from home to isolated areas away from streetlights and houses to take photos of the auroras, or wildlife, or of the sled dog races, skijoring, and so on. I also used it during the fishing and hunting seasons. The other truck I use now and then to tow a 17-foot trailer that is loaded with the UTV, ATV and smaller trailer, and some other times I haul a 6,000-pound travel trailer. The areas I camp, fish, and hunt are very remote. I carry extra fuel, a 2,000-watt inverter generator, plus food and supplies to last three weeks in the outdoors. There aren't houses, gas stations, electrical outlets, etc. We sleep in tents, or in the truck (it has a topper).

As for renting one, there aren't EV's for me to rent, nor charging stations in Fairbanks Alaska.

I have also explained that in some areas of Alaska where the weather is milder than in interior regions, some people have EV's. For example, in Anchorage, and Juneau. I have seen two Tesla automobiles in Fairbanks, one during the summer, and a few weeks ago I saw another, both driven into a military installation by newcomer military members from other US States.

Ok. I’ll be honest, I don’t know what to say other than an EV isn’t for you and I doubt ever will be. You’re not going to be carrying additional batteries to the remote wilderness anytime soon and perhaps never, like you do with fuel. When the World transitions to EV’s, Hydrogen cells and Ammonia combustion, there will be countries like yours and perhaps Russia, South America and Africa where there will be an industry keeping ICE vehicles going no doubt.

It’s probably difficult answering a lot of your queries regarding EV’s because nobody else here needs them to work the way you would. We are all either from densely populated Europe or cities in the US, but hopefully you’re at least getting something from the discussion. I totally sympathise that this technology is not for you.

 

[cyb3rdud3]

For some reason I am very sensitive to the smell of diesel fuel, both burned fuel or not. I get a terrible headache
After responding to you about letting it idle, I thought that if I were in the same area your vehicle was idling, I would probably be very sick

No worries you’ll be safe. Mine runs on unleaded premium fuel. I feed it RON98 or above only. It really likes it better. And it’s Greta Thunberg approved. It is allowed to go into ultra low emission zones free of charge. As clean as an EV 😂

 

[AlaskaMoose]

Ok. I’ll be honest, I don’t know what to say other than an EV isn’t for you and I doubt ever will be. You’re not going to be carrying additional batteries to the remote wilderness anytime soon and perhaps never, like you do with fuel. When the World transitions to EV’s, Hydrogen cells and Ammonia combustion, there will be countries like yours and perhaps Russia, South America and Africa where there will be an industry keeping ICE vehicles going no doubt.

It’s probably difficult answering a lot of your queries regarding EV’s because nobody else here needs them to work the way you would. We are all either from densely populated Europe or cities in the US, but hopefully you’re at least getting something from the discussion. I totally sympathise that this technology is not for you.

Alaska is the 49th US State and the largest landmass at 665,384 square miles, and a population of 732,385 inhabitants (2024). Long distances between the three major cities are normal for us. The capital, Juneau, is reached by flying. People are congregated in and around the cities, so there are wilderness all around. A great portion of indigenous peoples live by the coastal areas, and don't have road access. But we aren't as isolated as you may believe. Some people drive EV's, usually in Anchorage and Juneau

This is a map of Alaska compared the the rest of the US (just don't believe the selected ambient temperature averages shown. It gets much colder in the interior of Alaska):

Geography of Alaska - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Audentia]

Ok so EVs have some challenges to work out before being mainstream in the wilderness of Alaska and other remote places

... so electric planes then?

 

[Audentia]

Not assuming anything. Your posts throughout this thread are very anti EV. Constantly telling us how they don't work. I genuinely understand your situation is very different from mine. To be honest probably very different from most readers on here.
If I was living in Alaska I'd be a lot less likely to try one. But I'd not spend so much time trying to convince others why they don't work for them (even when they already own one!).

right, agree with what lots of folks are saying recently and we can see others' points of view, but also to this point, its one thing to say "EV's don't work for me because of my unique situation" and another to say "EV's don't work at all (for society at large) because of my unique situation"

And I guess perspective for both sides, we can't say EVs will work for 100% of the population, on the other hand I think its also wrong to think EVs will / can / should never be the dominant form of transportation. The future will not be 50% ICE and 50% EVs, it's going to be like 5% ICE and 95% EV, and I think ultimately thats a good thing for a lot of reasons.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

Ok so EVs have some challenges to work out before being mainstream in the wilderness of Alaska and other remote places

... so electric planes then?

I am assuming that there won't be any roads to drive any kind of vehicle in most of the Alaska wilderness. Automobiles are usually driven in and around the cities and between cities or towns. In the future there will be more EV's in the interior of Alaska than there are now. Still, there are some EVs in this area, but not as much as the cities with milder weather (Anchorage, Juneau, and so on). There have been efforts to Electrify Alaska, but lest say that one wants to drive an EV between anchorage and Fairbanks at subzero temperatures during the winter, driving an EV has to be planned with extreme care since there are very few charging stations. The distance from Anchorage to Fairbanks is (approx.) 360 miles. Long distance driving is very common in Alaska, regardless. Also Alaska has the largest number of small aircraft in the US per-capita. During the summer's salmon fishing season (King, coho, and other salmon), I travel from 600 to 800 miles or more (round trips) to both Valdez, or my favorite the Copper River. The Copper River salmon is priced by chefs around the world.

Some of the small towns that don't have road access have small airports. Food, and all types of supplies (fuel, groceries, mail, etc.) are delivered wby aircraft from the Stores in Anchorage and Fairbanks, and by ship (coastal areas) during the summer. Some tourists drive their petrol motorhomes from Europe to Fairbanks through Canada. A lot of European motorcyclists can be seen traveling through Fairbanks. Some drive the Dalton Highway. Yes the same road used by an EV rally that has been conducted in recent summers.

Amazing!

Road Rally Sends EVs to the Arctic Coast - Alaska Business Magazine

The northernmost drivable point in the United States is the end of the road for an all-electric rally that starts in Fairbanks on Friday.

www.akbizmag.com

 

[halledise]

Like with any type of vehicle you will only have reliable knowledge if you drive and live with it for a period of time. If you type in ‘EV issues’ or ‘Diesel car issues’ on YouTube, there will be a plethora of videos with horror stories of people experiencing expensive failures and repairs. I’ve never seen anything to suggest owning an EV is more expensive and risky than owning a diesel or petrol though? Anything can go wrong with any car. I watched a video last night of a guy in the Czech Republic who has a Tesla Model X (2016) and it’s done 200k miles. It’s got far too much rust on it for my tastes but mechanically it was excellent and perhaps capable of doing plenty more miles. It’s always pot luck with cars.

You’re very sceptical of EV’s and jump from one extreme issue to the next or suggest you need to idle your car in car parks or come up with a scenario where you’ll be needing to preheat a battery and charge locally due to lack of charge. I know you live in a very remote and extreme country in regard to weather and maybe EV’s aren’t suitable for your style of driving or location, but it looks like Alaska does have citizens who are making the transition due to the amount of public chargers etc. Why not rent an EV and give it a go for a week and see how you get on? I was sceptical like you until we lived with one and probably wouldn’t be driving one now if my wife hadn’t got one with her promotion, but am pleasantly surprised by how easy they are to drive and keep charged.

EV cars are one thing but other ‘vehicles’ that use diesel or oil would be very hard to electrify.
i’m thinking fishing trawlers, bulk carriers and cargo ships (bunker oil), army vehicles, locomotives, and so forth.
speaking of locomotives, most are diesel/electric these days.
i’ve often wondered why this hasn’t been translated to other vehicles - long-haul trucks come to mind.
just wondering …

on another note, 4WD enthusiasts (with caravans) are most here in australia and the trip to Cape York in FNQ is almost a rite of passage in the winter months (dry season).
no way would an EV 4WD sustain the trip, especially when one looks at the map.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

EV cars are one thing but other ‘vehicles’ that use diesel or oil would be very hard to electrify.
i’m thinking fishing trawlers, bulk carriers and cargo ships (bunker oil), army vehicles, locomotives, and so forth.
speaking of locomotives, most are diesel/electric these days.
i’ve often wondered why this hasn’t been translated to other vehicles - long-haul trucks come to mind.
just wondering …

on another note, 4WD enthusiasts (with caravans) are most here in australia and the trip to Cape York in FNQ is almost a rite of passage in the winter months (dry season).
no way would an EV 4WD sustain the trip, especially when one looks at the map.

Cruise ships are already transitioning to electric power and the shipping industry is moving towards that as a whole. HGV's are following small commercial vehicles by becoming EV's with manufacturers like Mercedes, MAN, Scania, Renault etc developing towards this goal. They have to, as clean air zones and fines for noise pollution in off-peak hours are and have been in place in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain since 2014. The UK are bringing this standard in too.

I agree that EV's have their drawbacks in places like Alaska and Australia, but that will be something for those countries to figure out. Those places have small populations and huge expanses of land which current EV's would struggle with, but I doubt the major car companies are using those sorts of places to benchmark against markets like Europe and Asia where most of their sales will come from, along with the US (minus Alaska).

 

[JT2002TJ]

As for renting one, there aren't EV's for me to rent, nor charging stations in Fairbanks Alaska.

Fairbanks, Alaska EV Charging Stations | PlugShare

Looking for EV Charging Stations in Fairbanks? PlugShare's map has with 8 total EV Charging Stations in Fairbanks, Alaska.

www.plugshare.com

 

[Apple fanboy]

EV cars are one thing but other ‘vehicles’ that use diesel or oil would be very hard to electrify.
i’m thinking fishing trawlers, bulk carriers and cargo ships (bunker oil), army vehicles, locomotives, and so forth.
speaking of locomotives, most are diesel/electric these days.
i’ve often wondered why this hasn’t been translated to other vehicles - long-haul trucks come to mind.
just wondering …

on another note, 4WD enthusiasts (with caravans) are most here in australia and the trip to Cape York in FNQ is almost a rite of passage in the winter months (dry season).
no way would an EV 4WD sustain the trip, especially when one looks at the map.

That’s an interesting point. Recently I was on a canal walking holiday. A number of the previously diesel boats had been converted to electric. Must make living in them much more pleasant.

 

[Apple fanboy]

right, agree with what lots of folks are saying recently and we can see others' points of view, but also to this point, its one thing to say "EV's don't work for me because of my unique situation" and another to say "EV's don't work at all (for society at large) because of my unique situation"

And I guess perspective for both sides, we can't say EVs will work for 100% of the population, on the other hand I think its also wrong to think EVs will / can / should never be the dominant form of transportation. The future will not be 50% ICE and 50% EVs, it's going to be like 5% ICE and 95% EV, and I think ultimately thats a good thing for a lot of reasons.

I agree with this. There will always be edge case scenarios where ICE make more sense than electric.
But I think we will continue to see less edge cases as the technology advances.
Good news for all.

 

[JT2002TJ]

I agree with this. There will always be edge case scenarios where ICE make more sense than electric.
But I think we will continue to see less edge cases as the technology advances.
Good news for all.

EVs don't work... I live in a tree house with no streets on a remote island of Indonesia that has no electricity...

 

[adrianlondon]

EVs don't work... I live in a tree house with no streets on a remote island of Indonesia that has no electricity...

Buy an EV fully charged. You will become king of the island. Order your minions to buy and install solar panels for you.

 

[SalisburySam]

…probably wouldn’t be driving one now if my wife hadn’t got one with her promotion…

Can I work where your wife works?

 

[halledise]

i own a BMW 2 litre twin turbo diesel.
it has very low pollution levels and is most inexpensive to run.
a 50 litre tank yields around 950 kms.
drive into the servo, fill up, then back on the road within 5 minutes or so.
charging an EV takes a tad longer, so i’m told.
one hears it idling yet there is almost no exhaust smell.
some car companies have got it right.
i’ll be driving it for many more years to come and even a friend with a tesla 3 has yet to convince me to go EV despite his best efforts.

 

[halledise]

nuclear powered cars?
works on submarines …

 

[Apple fanboy]

i own a BMW 2 litre twin turbo diesel.
it has very low pollution levels and is most inexpensive to run.
a 50 litre tank yields around 950 kms.
drive into the servo, fill up, then back on the road within 5 minutes or so.
charging an EV takes a tad longer, so i’m told.
one hears it idling yet there is almost no exhaust smell.
some car companies have got it right.
i’ll be driving it for many more years to come and even a friend with a tesla 3 has yet to convince me to go EV despite his best efforts.

Who knows how long it takes to charge. You are nearly always asleep whilst it happens.

 

[Eric5h5]

Just because you can't smell the exhaust doesn't mean it's not polluting. Because it absolutely is. Try parking that in a garage while the engine is running, close the door, and see what happens. Or maybe don't, because you'll be pretty dead after a while. That can never happen with an EV. There are no ICE vehicles that have "got it right," only those that are somewhat less bad than others.

 

[Apple fanboy]

nuclear powered cars?
works on submarines …

Mmmm And where do we drop off our nuclear waste? Might make road traffic accidents a little more hazardous for first responders.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Interesting video for anyone considering an EV. Interview with a driver who has switched from a BMW M3 to an MG4.

It's quite long but covers a lot of the real world experience that he had.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

EV cars are one thing but other ‘vehicles’ that use diesel or oil would be very hard to electrify.
i’m thinking fishing trawlers, bulk carriers and cargo ships (bunker oil), army vehicles, locomotives, and so forth.
speaking of locomotives, most are diesel/electric these days.

The US Army is actively investing in EVs.
Locomotives, as you mention, are largely actually driven by electric motors nowadays, using diesel engines or turbines to generate the electricity. Moving to pure electric could be done either by adding electrification infrastructure (as many light rail and commuter rail already are via an electrified rail or overhead wires) or by moving to hydrogen fuel cells (which have their own problems, but can be made “100% green”.)

For bulk ships, some are already starting to move to a diesel/electric style powertrain, and would also be possible candidates for fuel cells. A few companies are even experimenting with -SHOCK- sails.

Bulk ships have the double whammy of being both “need energy-dense” fuel AND mostly not caring at all about pollution. Large cargo ships are a *HUGE* source of pollution, because many countries have zero emissions controls on them.

I saw an interesting proposal - with “Vehicle 2 x” technologies finally rolling out en masse in electric vehicles, car-carrier ships could make the transported vehicles themselves their energy storage. It wouldn’t be cheap to build such a ship, but one where every EV inside it is plugged in powering the ship for the trip may be interesting. Of course, because of the risk of Lithium Ion fires, EVs are usually shipped at near-zero charge in the battery pack; this would require actually charging them up first, then using that stored energy to power the ship, then they would be recharged again at their destination. Battery technology improvements would help here, too. Especially solid state, if that ever actually reaches the market.

 

[Tagbert]

Buy an EV fully charged. You will become king of the island. Order your minions to buy and install solar panels for you.

Get your monkey butlers to install the solar panels!