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I’m ready to trade in my electric car

latimes.com

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Re: I’m ready to trade in my electric car

#281

Post by TexanFeller »

tapoxi wrote: post #184
noogle wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the article seems to be right - wait with EVs until they improve. Why suffer the pains of an early adopter?

As an early adopter, the benefit of less maintenance, home "refueling", and the fact that an EV is more fun to drive offsets the hassle. We've done a few road trips in it, and while road trip charging is annoying (we have a VW ID4, so the CCS network) its still worth dealing with because we enjoy the EV. Personally I think right now EVs are a great second car for almost everyone because you get the benefits of an EV…

> the benefit of less maintenance

Toyota/Honda ICE cars my extended family owns usually go many years without more than an oil change every 8-10k miles. Maintenance costs are absolutely trivial if you go Japanese. Heck even the Chevys made it to 200k when we sold them with no major mechanical issues. The costs of ICE maintenance seem to be the most overblown electric selling point. FWIW I dream about ways to rationalize buying a Tesla.

Re: I’m ready to trade in my electric car

#282

Post by vel0city »

steveBK123 wrote: post #278
vel0city wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see plastic bags over pump handles way more than 0.01% of the time. In fact over the last year I've had more experiences with gas pumps being broken than EV dispensers not working.

Most gas stations have more then 2-4 pumps, and whatever number they have, you aren't at risk of waiting 30min for previous user to finish, or driving 30 miles to find the next pump. I say this as an exclusively EV driver for 5+ years myself... let's not defend the indefensible (EA's CCS network).

I'm just sharing my personal experiences. Every time I've charged at a DCFC in the past year all dispensers appeared to be working and I was able to either plug and charge or tap to pay with Google Wallet on my phone. I did not wait in a line once nor did I fail to charge on the first try.

Meanwhile in the last year I've waited in lines several times to get gas, and I've pulled up to a pump only to find it out of order three times this last year and seen many others with bags over the pump handle signifying they're out of order.

It's definitely not 99.99% of gas pumps working.

Re: I’m ready to trade in my electric car

#283

Post by indymike »

tuatoru wrote: post #279
indymike wrote: post #75

I just spent a week with a Chevy Bolt while one of our family cars was in the shop. The good: nice small car, everything is pretty easy to use. The meh: without hardware installed in my home, keeping the car charged up for regular family use is problematic. Sometimes there is just not 2 hours to swing by a charging station, and so we spent most of the week with the Bolt showing under 40 miles in range. The bad: hitti…

This is the dirty secret of EVs (or one of them): public charging costs as much as gasoline for an equivalent ICEV, or more. Whenever I run the numbers to decide between an EV or an ICEV, I get payback periods in the hundreds of years. (I can't charge at home. YMMV.) Edit: This would change if a battery-swapping industry model were widely adopted. If the battery was not included in the cost of the car but amortized o…

> Whenever I run the numbers to decide between an EV or an ICEV, I get payback periods in the hundreds of years. (I can't charge at home. YMMV.)

That was the eye opener for me: the cost of charging and eventual battery replacement made the ICE a long term better spend.

Re: I’m ready to trade in my electric car

#284

Post by mwint »

Marsymars wrote: post #118
avalys wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the power is out at your destination you're unlikely to be able to operate the gas pumps either. Who brings emergency gasoline supplies with them on a family trip with young kids? The suggestion is ludicrous. Is your typical vacation, like, traveling to Florida to experience a hurricane making landfall? If you do a lot of travel to remote locations and camping and hiking and things like that, yes, an EV will proba…

> Even if you are into the remote/outdoorsy stuff, an EV is a perfectly viable second car. This has been my conclusion - the main problem at that point being the sheer cost. My household’s current secondary car is one that cost $10k a decade ago. (Two years old at the time of purchase.) There’s no EV that’s even in the same ballpark for cost-per-km or cost-per-year. (And for a second city-only car, they almost all co…

A Used Nissan Leaf with ~70-80mi range can be had in the US in the $6-10k range. My family has two, they're amazing for everything within a ~30mi radius (which, it turns out, is 98%+ of driving we do)

Re: I’m ready to trade in my electric car

#285

Post by nradov »

hn_user2 wrote: post #103
jackmott42 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you aren't doing road trips much you won't. When you don't do road trips you don't need any infrastructure at all except your own house

With most rental cars giving you unlimited miles, I'm very much of the opinion that when you factor in mileage and wear and tear on the car plus vehicle depreciation due to the long miles on the road trip--that renting a car for long trips is the way to go. Especially when compared to owning a second care with an ICE just for the occasional trip.

I actually like my car and have a bunch of my stuff in it. Renting another car just to save a few dollars on a road trip is ridiculous. Plus when I show up at the rental agency they often don't even have the car that I reserved. Now what?

Re: I’m ready to trade in my electric car

#286

Post by TheLoafOfBread »

wcoenen wrote: post #277
TheLoafOfBread wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol, no. The money is gone, turned into "charging credit" into that application.

Which app is this? The ones I've tried either charge a card for actual usage, or do a monthly direct debit.

https://www.freshmile.com/en/

Re: I’m ready to trade in my electric car

#287

Post by theluketaylor »

Gunnerhead wrote: post #232
bryanlarsen wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I made 4 3000km trips in a Tesla with young children. (Ottawa to Saskatoon and back, twice). The battery lasts longer than a child's bladder, and a restroom stop with young children requires at least 20 minutes, enough time for a substantial charge. Only twice in the four trips did we ever have to wait for the car to finish charging. IOW it added 15 minutes to a 3 day trip.

What’s the charger situation like in Northern Ontario?

I've taken my Tesla to the Manitoulin a number of times to visit family with no issues from Southern Ontario. Not super north, but enough to get a good sense.

Tesla has superchargers along 17 pretty consistently. The biggest gap is probably Sault St Marie to Wawa and that's only 230 km. The rest of the gaps are all well under 200 km (mostly around 100-150) so you don't have to stop at every location. Highway 11 is a no-go zone.

Destination charging is a little more sparse. I use a welding outlet in the family farm shop, but that's obviously not an option available to everyone. There is a single L2 charger on the whole island and it costs $5/hr which is pretty steep for 7 kW.

I wouldn't feel stressed taking a Tesla anywhere along 17 or the whole main trans-canada corridor. I'd want to plan a little ahead if my destination was a place without a supercharger to arrive with enough charge to get back to the network, but that's pretty simple.

Re: I’m ready to trade in my electric car

#288

Post by bryanlarsen »

Gunnerhead wrote: post #232
bryanlarsen wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I made 4 3000km trips in a Tesla with young children. (Ottawa to Saskatoon and back, twice). The battery lasts longer than a child's bladder, and a restroom stop with young children requires at least 20 minutes, enough time for a substantial charge. Only twice in the four trips did we ever have to wait for the car to finish charging. IOW it added 15 minutes to a 3 day trip.

What’s the charger situation like in Northern Ontario?

Both Tesla and Petro Canada have the Trans Canada covered. I'd recommend getting a TT-30 and a 14-50 adapter for your charger so you can charge at camp sites.

Re: I’m ready to trade in my electric car

#289

Post by seanmcdirmid »

vel0city wrote: post #274
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla lacks the need to tap card and you just plug in. Supposedly that tech is coming to CCS EVs someday.

As I mentioned in my comment, this tech exists for CCS today already. That's my experience with many public CCS DCFC.

What car? What provider? You mentioned taping a card, not just plugging in. Definitely not EA.

Re: I’m ready to trade in my electric car

#290

Post by vel0city »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #289
vel0city wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I mentioned in my comment, this tech exists for CCS today already. That's my experience with many public CCS DCFC.

What car? What provider? You mentioned taping a card, not just plugging in. Definitely not EA.

Mach E. I've had plug and charge work every time I've used an EA charger on the first try. I've never failed to charge on an EA charger nor have I ever had to use an app to pay for it.

Most EVgo charging experiences have been plug and charge. I did have one experience a while ago that needed an app but that was one of their older chargers which even still had their old logo on it. All their newer chargers have successfully done plug and charge.

I've had tap to pay work with Google Wallet at Road Ranger (Freewire) and Francis Energy chargers.

> You mentioned taping a card, not just plugging in

That's why I included the language "as well". I've used a number of different brands of EV chargers.

Out of all the times I've used a public DCFC, I had to use an app maybe 10% of the time. And of that, it was only earlier into my ownership, I haven't had to use an app in about a year. Every charger I've used in the last year has been either plug and charge or supported credit cards directly.

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