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

[AngryScientist]

By the way, is it me, or have colors fallen out of favor? Anecdotally, it seems the bulk of new cars and suvs i see are black, white, silver or grey.

[saab2000]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

By the way, is it me, or have colors fallen out of favor? Anecdotally, it seems the bulk of new cars and suvs i see are black, white, silver or grey.

This is true.... Mine is metallic gray because it was the only "color" Tesla offered besides white or black that didn't have an upcharge. I'm not nearly in love with their blue or red enough to pay extra for it.

Supposedly they will introduce a new blue and red color for the European market but I don't know when or if that'll come to the US.

But I agree with you. The lack of color options is disheartening. Supposedly it's a very expensive part of the manufacturing process though and I'll give Tesla at least a bit of slack because 15 years ago they were a warehouse startup and a decade ago were just starting to produce at scale and still producing losses. Today they're profitable and I'd like to see more color options too as they grow. There are aftermarket wraps but I'd like to see my metallic red or metallic green right out of the factory.

[David Kirk]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

By the way, is it me, or have colors fallen out of favor? Anecdotally, it seems the bulk of new cars and suvs i see are black, white, silver or grey.

I'm with you. The color of Kia EV6 that the dealer had on the lot was a light putty gray and while i like it I wish it was a very bright color instead. Kia did offer the EV6 in a very bright yellow and if I were ordering one that would be the color I'd want.

It's interesting isn't it? Brighter cars are safer and car makers want safe cars but the public asks for white and grey cars. It's my understanding that most rental cars are white because it has the best resale value.

Maybe we are boring and pick boring colors?

dave

[72gmc]

Originally Posted by David Kirk

Maybe we are boring and pick boring colors?

I think part of it is that color options aren't as available as they used to be. My childhood recollection is that Dad got cars in colors he wanted, while my last two car purchases (both pre-pandemic) taught me that most colors are now vaporware.

My wife's Mazda CX-9 is white because the soul crystal red that she wanted was only available on the most premium model, which she didn't want.

[bikinchris]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

By the way, is it me, or have colors fallen out of favor? Anecdotally, it seems the bulk of new cars and suvs i see are black, white, silver or grey.

Over the last few decades, white cars have outnumbered all other colors. But black and silver are another large part of production numbers. Those are colors people don't seem to get tired of.

[kppolich]

I've owned 4 vehicles. Blue, silver, silver, blue

[PSC]

We got the white Tesla, as we didn't want to pay the $2k extra for red. Lots of people are getting their cars wrapped, so they can get exactly what they want.

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by Ralph

Thanks for that post Dave. I believe you are correct. I know I will be moving to at least one of my vehicles being an EV next time.

Yup, great, informed, post. But I wish for two things when it’s time to replace my ICE car. I hope the range and ease of charging is comparable to an ICE car. And I hope those who sit is ‘big chairs’ and yell about ‘clean coal’ and how EVs will mean the end of civilization will be out of the political arena. There are going to be a lot of bribe$ from big oil, a lot of fake news about renewables, about a green economy, for a while.

[sparky33]

Originally Posted by kppolich

I've owned 4 vehicles. Blue, silver, silver, blue

That Tesla blue does look fantastic in person.
I would think that Tesla has an audience that may be daring enough to go for more vibrant colors.

For the record, we have white, silver and dull gray, and it's super boring to look at.

[p nut]

Originally Posted by David Kirk

…
It's interesting isn't it? Brighter cars are safer and car makers want safe cars but the public asks for white and grey cars. It's my understanding that most rental cars are white because it has the best resale value…

White is also one of the safest (if not, the most safe) color, according to this article.

https://www.rd.com/article/car-color-accidents-risk/

But regardless, it’d take a whole lot of convincing ($$$) for me to drive a yellow or Orange car. Even an exotic. I don’t even like bright colored bikes!

[Ralph]

I find this discussion of EV's and our gradual acceptance of them interesting. Also how our grid system is adjusting to the newer ways to make electricity. And how old views on this subject are slow to change.

In 2015 my 2 brothers and I leased 15 acres of land in SW NC to a solar company to build a plant and produce electricity. Very rural area, nearest neighbor about 1/4 mile. Local county fought us, came up with all kinds of new ordinances, but we finally got it done. So the solar company built what they called a 2 MG plant (mega watt I guess). Produces enough electricity to provide for about 300 local homes in area (town about 6 miles away). We left them enough adjoining land to put in a battery system if they ever wished, because they told us eventually, they would want to install next generation panels (whatever that is), and those would make power on a cloudy day. Seems to me our grid is adapting very quickly to this increased demand.

This power was to be sold to Duke Energy. Duke says in some of their reports, the average cost to them of producing electricity using a combination of nuc, coal, and nat gas is about 7 1/8 cents per kW hour. I know our solar operator was selling to Duke for a good bit less than that. And this part of NC is not as sunny as Florida or SW USA. Our solar operator told me that in AZ and parts of Texas, where they have some huge solar farms, and where they can lease land a lot cheaper than we got, they can produce electricity for less than 5 cents a KW hour. I don't know anything about wind power. And I will tell you that using that old farmland for this solar project is way better use of the land than what we were doing before with it.

The question is how much renewable energy can we reliably make? I have since sold my share of that project.

[MikeD]

To me, residential solar makes more sense than commercial solar. No land is taken out of service and the homeowner pays for the system and maintenance of it.

[paredown]

Originally Posted by Ralph

I find this discussion of EV's and our gradual acceptance of them interesting. Also how our grid system is adjusting to the newer ways to make electricity. And how old views on this subject are slow to change.
<snip>
This power was to be sold to Duke Energy. Duke says in some of their reports, the average cost to them of producing electricity using a combination of nuc, coal, and nat gas is about 7 1/8 cents per kW hour. I know our solar operator was selling to Duke for a good bit less than that.

The speaker that I heard (2019) that sparked me starting the original post was already quoting numbers showing solar generation installations certainly producing cheaper than 'peaker' (less efficient, get tapped only under high load) plants, and in some cases already producing at a lower cost than current generation natural gas powered plants.

His overall point was 'the change is closer than you think' and 'we may get there by market forces' which I found both inspiring and unsettling.

Mind, this was before the 'Great Pandemic' -- so I would love to hear updates as to where we are.

[Ralph]

Renewable is cheaper. Just a question of producing enough. And overcoming climate issues. Maybe some places you can't overcome climate issues. Imagine some fossil fuel production will be needed for a long time.

Solar and wind power are not some future tech way out in the future. it's here now and is a viable source.

I just put a new roof on our house. Had many leaks develop on old roof over past 10 years or so from the solar water panels installed on roof to heat our pool. Maybe strong winds from several hurricanes blowing panels around contributed. I will never again bolt anything onto a roof. I would only do residential solar of I could put on ground near home. We put in a new electric heat pump to heat pool.

[AngryScientist]

If I am ever forced to buy a car that includes a bunch of cameras and microphones i will disable, cover or rip them out immediately.

I'm no conspiracy theorist, but the idea of a bunch of tech goons in an office somewhere making jokes about what goes on inside my car is beyond sickening.

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/s...135329460.html

Also shared: crashes and road-rage incidents. One crash video in 2021 showed a Tesla driving at high speed in a residential area hitting a child riding a bike, according to another ex-employee. The child flew in one direction, the bike in another. The video spread around a Tesla office in San Mateo, California, via private one-on-one chats, “like wildfire,” the ex-employee said.

Other images were more mundane, such as pictures of dogs and funny road signs that employees made into memes by embellishing them with amusing captions or commentary, before posting them in private group chats. While some postings were only shared between two employees, others could be seen by scores of them, according to several ex-employees.

“We could see inside people's garages and their private properties,” said another former employee. “Let's say that a Tesla customer had something in their garage that was distinctive, you know, people would post those kinds of things.”