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Why Electric Cars Will Be Here Sooner Than You Think

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Re: Why Electric Cars Will Be Here Sooner Than You Think

#61

Post by tempestn »

Retric wrote: post #26
hammock wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a lot of downtime. Most people I know, including myself, when doing a 14 hour roadtrip would stop as infrequently as possible, for a total of 30-60min over the course of the trip. And that figure is including pee break stops, which your calculation presumably didn't.

It's actually really dangerous to do that kind of driving without taking significant breaks on a regular basis. But, sure if you do this regularly enough you can't either rent a gas car or spend an extra hour or 2 then fine. However, nobody I knew has done a trip like that in the last decade.

I think "really dangerous" is overstating it a bit. Driving while fatigued is dangerous, yes, but 14 hours with a 30-60 minute break is hardly that extreme, especially since we could be talking about road trips with multiple drivers.

Re: Why Electric Cars Will Be Here Sooner Than You Think

#62

Post by Waterluvian »

kylec wrote: post #17

I was talking to my father a few weeks ago about electric cars, and I wanted to quantify how much going electric would save him so I ran some numbers. Where he lives gas is currently somewhere around $2.20/gallon. His car gets around 30mpg combined, so he's paying ~$0.073/mile. Tesla's website contains a "charging estimator" for the Model S, which estimates a cost of $12.04 for a total charge of 300 miles in a 90D. I…

Holy crap that's not cheap. I pay about 0.08CDN here in Ontario. Which suddenly makes it a lot more feasible. Especially since gas is more expensive here than in most of the US.

Re: Why Electric Cars Will Be Here Sooner Than You Think

#63

Post by foxylad »

mikestew wrote: post #57
foxylad wrote: post #45

I just bought a 2014 Nissan Leaf. It's excellent and I'd recommend one (with a couple of caveats, see below). A few (hopefully) interesting comments: There's no premium for being "cool" or "green" any more. It cost 26,000 NZD for a 2014 Japanese import, which is about the same as an ICE (internal combustion engine) two-year-year-old mid-level vehicle costs (yes, NZ car prices are mad). And I'm guessing the trend will…

One small correction: your Leaf has brake pads.

Thanks for your undeniably better-informed comment.

Would I be right that regenerative braking should substantially reduce brake pad wear?

Re: Why Electric Cars Will Be Here Sooner Than You Think

#64

Post by white-flame »

foobarian wrote: post #38
white-flame wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish I had saved a link to it, but a study on affordability marked an average earning household of about $35k/yr as being able to afford an $8,000 car. In order to be able to afford the "average" $33,000 car took a $90k/yr income.

My household income is way more than that and I still found it painful to buy a $20k car. I find it hard to understand why people buy cars at such high relative prices.

It's easy to understand why people overextend themselves on vehicle purchases that they really can't afford:

One is to feel "safer" in having a newer vehicle, especially if it's still under warranty.

The second is simply peacock presentation of showing they've spent more money than you'd think they could afford otherwise.

I guess some might simply be a mega-fan of a particular car model and go for it even when it's outside of their financial means, but I haven't seen that very often out of people in average income brackets.

Re: Why Electric Cars Will Be Here Sooner Than You Think

#65

Post by xbmcuser »

euroclydon wrote: post #42
PhantomGremlin wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had always assumed that electricity was far cheaper than gasoline As you note, in many places electricity is far from cheap. Also you need to amortize the cost difference of a Tesla vs a conventional car. That's hard to justify as long as a Tesla costs in the neighborhood of $100,000. But, perhaps generate that electricity on your rooftop! The utilities have lobbied effectively to lower the feed-in prices they must…

Unfortunately, me and my car are at work when the sun is shining on my rooftop.

10 years from now you will have an electric car. An auto battery changing system where the batteries are charged with solar panels and changed automatically when you park your car at night all made by tesla of course. Currently the loss like battery life and power I feel are too high to make economic sense for using a home battery like powerwell charged with solar to top up your car. But swapping the batteries themselves might work.

Re: Why Electric Cars Will Be Here Sooner Than You Think

#66

Post by Gibbon1 »

ourmandave wrote: post #34
Gibbon1 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can buy a fairly low mileage used Nissan Leaf for approximately $10,000 right now. Look on Craigslist take your pick. For the life of me I cannot imagine why you wouldn't be able to buy the same cars for $5,000 five years from now.

The warranty on the battery pack is 60 months / 60,000 miles. A replacement battery costs $5,500 plus taxes and labor. I wonder how many on Craigslist don't want to write that check.

A fair number of vehicles on Craigslist at the $10k price range have 20-40k miles on them. More than likely the battery will last 100k/10 years. Unlikely someone selling a leaf with 25k miles on it is doing so because they fear the replacement cost of a new battery.

Also, replacement battery costs are dropping year by year. So if one bought a used leaf, drove it for five years and replaced the battery you wouldn't pay $5500.

Re: Why Electric Cars Will Be Here Sooner Than You Think

#67

Post by Gibbon1 »

foxylad wrote: post #63
mikestew wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One small correction: your Leaf has brake pads.

Thanks for your undeniably better-informed comment. Would I be right that regenerative braking should substantially reduce brake pad wear?

My boss has a Prius. Had to replace the front brake pads at 120,000 miles. Rear ones supposedly good for a while longer.

Re: Why Electric Cars Will Be Here Sooner Than You Think

#68

Post by Retric »

tempestn wrote: post #61
Retric wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually really dangerous to do that kind of driving without taking significant breaks on a regular basis. But, sure if you do this regularly enough you can't either rent a gas car or spend an extra hour or 2 then fine. However, nobody I knew has done a trip like that in the last decade.

I think "really dangerous" is overstating it a bit. Driving while fatigued is dangerous, yes, but 14 hours with a 30-60 minute break is hardly that extreme, especially since we could be talking about road trips with multiple drivers.

It's a question of repetition not fatigue. People are just really bad at paying attention to limited stimulus. Swapping drivers every 4 hours or so is a good counter to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_hypnosis. But again if you have multiple drivers you only need one car that takes gas.

Re: Why Electric Cars Will Be Here Sooner Than You Think

#69

Post by LoSboccacc »

kylec wrote: post #17

I was talking to my father a few weeks ago about electric cars, and I wanted to quantify how much going electric would save him so I ran some numbers. Where he lives gas is currently somewhere around $2.20/gallon. His car gets around 30mpg combined, so he's paying ~$0.073/mile. Tesla's website contains a "charging estimator" for the Model S, which estimates a cost of $12.04 for a total charge of 300 miles in a 90D. I…

All that assuming residential recharge. Power stations with fast revharge will need a profit, so expect energy there cost more.

Re: Why Electric Cars Will Be Here Sooner Than You Think

#70

Post by LoSboccacc »

Gibbon1 wrote: post #67
foxylad wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for your undeniably better-informed comment. Would I be right that regenerative braking should substantially reduce brake pad wear?

My boss has a Prius. Had to replace the front brake pads at 120,000 miles. Rear ones supposedly good for a while longer.

Meh. I've a 3.2L alfa gt having 120k km. Front pads got changed at 100k because they were getting old and hard, not because consumption. Rear pads are still stock. Got one spark plug and belt change at 90k km, anticipated because I did extra maintenance after a track days season.

Maintenance is baskcally changing oil every two year.

That's to say veihcle that are cheap to maintain are easily found if that's a priority, even amongst unexpected make/models.

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