Electric Cars

[AX17609]

Does anyone here own an electric car? Not a hybrid, but an all-electric vehicle. If so, what's your experience?

[imwjl]

We came super close recently. Several friends and family have them. No one has any bad experiences. My boss who has two Teslas personally is replacing his company-owned SUV with a Model Y like his wife drives. He's driving Model 3 for now.

What stopped us this past summer was $53,000 for Model Y and our absolutely wanting a wagon or van config. We have eyes on the VW van not yet produced.

The rest of my family hated the Bolt I almost bought but I could have lived with it.

[Earl49]

We thought about it seriously before purchasing our 2019 Subaru Forester last year (probably the last new vehicle we will ever buy). We are good candidates with most of our local trips being 30 miles or less. But the infrastructure is not quite mature so anything other than local use and recharging at home always would be iffy. It did not make sense to buy a vehicle that was limited to such uses. Our Subaru gets 29 city /33 hwy mpg in normal driving. Another factor: being 6'-6" and stocky, the Forester is the single easiest vehicle ever for me to get in and out of.

[Methos1979]

No experience - yet. We owned a couple Prius cars when they first came out and we liked those. But I'd love to go all electric but I just don't know what's out there. Also, I assume you need to have an electrician come out and install a charging station. I wonder what will cost? Cost and availability will definitely be a factor for us. I've not seen any public charging stations yet. But I'll follow this thread closely to see what others are experiencing.

[seannx]

My oldest son has a Chevy Bolt and loves it. I’ve driven it on visits and was impressed. Their other car is a Prius. He’ll probably replace it with a Tesla at some point, because the Tesla charging network makes long trips possible. Then the Bolt will be his in town car.

[buddyhu]

A friend has owned a Tesla Model 3 for about 2 years. He LOVES IT!! I have driven it, and based on that experience I am longing for a Model Y. But haven’t made the move just yet.

[latentaudio]

Yep. I own a Chevy Bolt. The car is great but the charging infrastructure in upstate NY is terrible. Yes there are many Level 2 chargers but very few Fast Chargers which makes traveling across the state difficult.

[Silly Moustache]

We have been told that therewill be no more internal combustion vehicles built in the UK after 2030.

I have a 2014 CRV with 26k on the clock and I've just put new tyrews on it - not yet illegal but showing signs of age - cracks etc., and its going in for it's MOT test next week.

Don't like the feel of the new tyres much, started me thinking about a new car.

Should I go 'lectric ?

[1neeto]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

We have been told that therewill be no more internal combustion vehicles built in the UK after 2030.

I have a 2014 CRV with 26k on the clock and I've just put new tyrews on it - not yet illegal but showing signs of age - cracks etc., and its going in for it's MOT test next week.

Don't like the feel of the new tyres much, started me thinking about a new car.

Should I go 'lectric ?

The internal combustion engine will eventually phase out. I have my strong opinions about this, but I’ll keep them to myself. But that’s the reality, sooner or later, we will all be “driving” electric cars.

[frankmcr]

Just some fun stuff -

[sayheyjeff]

Not yet. Drove a few years ago at work. We had prototypes at the utility where I worked for many years. I was able to take them home for a couple of weekends (utility style joyriding?). Really liked driving them and I feel really good about the concept. We have thoroughly enjoyed the hybrid we have been driving the last 5 years. Our sense is when our cars are gone, they will be replaced by a hybrid and an electric. Probably a year or 2 away from the next car.

[AX17609]

Originally Posted by AX17609

Does anyone here own an electric car? Not a hybrid, but an all-electric vehicle. If so, what's your experience?

I've only been looking into this technology for a couple of days, so my knowledge base is pretty close to zero. But, what I've learned so far has me feeling like I'm looking at the personal computer market back in the middle 80s.

Every major car manufacturer seems to have one EV model that they're test marketing, but the legacy companies are limited in their vision by their legacy vehicles. People expect a BMW EV, for example, to look and feel like a 3-series BMW...which, it's not and never can be.

Only one manufacturer, Tesla, appears to have gone all in and approached the issue from the ground up. The reviews for their cars are remarkably positive. The major downside for this product appears to derive from the fact that the company had no experience in how to build cars, so they had a lot of early manufacturing problems. The major upside is that the company isn't limited by their experience building cars, so they've envisioned their product line in an entirely new way. I think of them as the EV equivalent of an Apple Macintosh.

I was particularly struck by one Tesla owner who said that in spite of the hardware remaining unchanged, his current car is nothing like the one he bought two years ago. All the upgrades have been software related. The experience is something like buying a drivable computer that is getting constant operating system upgrades.

On the other hand, owners of EVs from traditional companies have seen no system upgrades at all. Those companies made half-hearted attempts at a product and seem to be falling behind the technology evolution curve. It's a bit like IBM with their half-hearted attempt to build a PC.

Finally, I'm getting the sense that EVs out-perform gas cars in the speed range that most people drive. The 0-60 acceleration of a Tesla, for example, is under four seconds, and the car beats a 911 Porsche on a quarter mile drag strip. The Model 3 also corners quite well. So, the performance is there. The range issue is being tackled by a network of high-power charging stations. Apparently, my town has several that I've never even noticed.

So, I'm dying to try a Telsa.

[imwjl]

We found the Chinese market was worth looking at. One example is GM selling a vehicle there that probably an insight on what we'll have in US soon.

We also found it interesting to get the stories from our associates who've had them a good while now. Two close friends, a cousin and my boss have been great resources because you hear the good, the bad, and lots of experiences over time.

I'm looking forward to the company owned Model Y that my boss has on order.

The gasoline engine won't die or disappear the way some predict and we'll see other changes more than some predict. I already have some friends who rent vehicles fairly often and one who did the other thing that changed our recent purchase decision - super commuter type e-assist bicycle.

[hubcapsc]

Apparently, my town has several that I've never even noticed

As I understand it, if you ask the Tesla GPS to route you to a
destination X00 miles away, it will only make routes that get you
there by passing enough charging stations so that you will be
able to make it. I guess (?) it won't make a route if it doesn't
think you can get there?

-Mike

[kkrell]

I'm interested for a next vehicle, but am concerned about the infrastructure. If you own a home with driveway or garage parking, I suppose not difficult to have your own home fast charging station.

What do you do for apartment dwellers? In Los Angeles, you often can't get the same parking space at the curb, and may even have to park blocks away. Will every space have a charger, billable to our phones or credit cards? Is everyone going to be tripping over cables?

Multiple cars in the family (husband, wife, kids)? Where can they all plug in?

In a gas vehicle, I can fill up in a minute. Fast charging at public stations are going to make you sit around for 15-30 minutes?

I've heard instances of electric car batteries going bad if the car is stored for some months & not in use (bad cells, so no longer reliable to hold a charge) and drivers stranded or restricted to neighborhood distances.

Also, battery replacements seem to occur in under 10 years, and at a considerable cost. I've been keeping my gas cars going around 20.