OT: Electric Vehicles--anyone driving them or seriously looked at them?

[cgolvin]

This hardly counts as an epiphany but it's something that I noticed the other day. Even though I wasn't conscious of it, a part of me was always attentive to gas prices. Even though I almost always bought gas at my neighborhood cheapo station, I couldn't help noticing the wide range of prices as I passed by gas stations.

I now have no idea about the price of gas and ignore gas stations. Despite the fact that it previously consumed a minuscule amount of energy/attention, it's nice that has gone to zero.

[saab2000]

Originally Posted by cgolvin

This hardly counts as an epiphany but it's something that I noticed the other day. Even though I wasn't conscious of it, a part of me was always attentive to gas prices. Even though I almost always bought gas at my neighborhood cheapo station, I couldn't help noticing the wide range of prices as I passed by gas stations.

I now have no idea about the price of gas and ignore gas stations. Despite the fact that it previously consumed a minuscule amount of energy/attention, it's nice that has gone to zero.

Same. I just plug in when I get home and never think about the price of gas.

This leads me to the point above about an EV being ‘inconvenient’. This can be a factor if one does a lot of road tripping though it’s actually easier than I expected, but if most of one’s driving is local commuting, shopping and general farting around for daily stuff the EV is a piece of cake. Just plug in when I pull into the garage and it’s always ready to go.

I spend tens of dollars per month on electricity in a normal month.

Road tripping is less easy than with gas but honestly not that different. That said, I would still wait to be a brand other than the one I have because the charging on other brands is less consistent, though I am hearing more murmurings about T***a’s charging network having issues and of course the psychopath CEO just fired his whole charging team, so there is that. Definitely a whiskey tango foxtrot moment.

[Mark Davison]

To complement our Tesla Model Y we just bought a Toyota RAV4 plug in hybrid. This gives us a car which will mostly run as an EV for trips around town, and will run as a relatively efficient hybrid for road trips (around 40mpg).

In planning a hub and spoke tour in Montana this fall, I realized that there are destinations which lie beyond the range of the Tesla supercharger network, and where local recharging is not readily available. (A destination is out of range when the round trip distance between the nearest supercharger and the destination exceeds the practical safe range of the car, which is about 75% of the stated EPA range in many cases.)

[dgauthier]

Originally Posted by saab2000

(...) and of course the psychopath CEO just fired his whole charging team, so there is that. Definitely a whiskey tango foxtrot moment.

Take heart, he just rehired them:

https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-walk...oogle_vignette

So nothing whiskey tango foxtrot about that, right...?

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by Likes2ridefar

My accord hybrid only gets about 36mpg in actual driving (touring model). A new Prius pretty much smokes it.

My son didn't buy the Hybrid for gas $ savings, he bought it because he really likes the car. A 'Pius', not ever gonna happen, for him nor me.