US Crosses the Electric-Car Tipping Point for Mass Adoption

I'm the only one in my household to have occasional stupid long drives. I traded my V8 F150 for a VW GTI for something more fun with more luxury appointments in addition to better fuel economy. My wife has an ID.4 on the way. I'm not sure I'd be ready for two electric vehicles just yet, but for her use case it makes sense and we'll have both options. I just got tired of this sustained $4+ a gallon fuel and I'm not ok with paying $350-$400 a month in fuel for my truck. It was $500 or more with both the F150 and Edge factored in even with as little as my wife drives. I'll occasionally drive it too and likely more often with sustained higher gas prices. I'm paying around half for my fuel now compared to the truck.
We really like our Tesla Model 3 but I don't think I'd want two EVs right now either. Our second car is a 2007 Honda Accord V6 6MT which is pretty easy on gas. We're driving it less than 1000 miles a year right now but it gives us other options.

We just did a 4100 Km long trip with the Tesla throughout western Canada (where there are not that many superchargers) and it did pretty well. But you do have to do more planning and have to stop every couple of hours to charge up a bit. Charging at a Tesla supercharger is pretty fast. On our first day we drove about 600 Km and spent less than an hour charging while on the road. Knowing what I know now I think I could cut that by about half. (The trick is to use the bottom half of the battery - it charges much faster down there, and only charge enough to get to the next supercharger destination with 15 - 20% left in the tank.) We did charge up to 90% at the end of the day at the supercharger right by our hotel to get a good start the next day. So it's not bad as a long distance cruiser but not quite as good as a gas model. And it may not be that good in really cold weather. We don't know because we live on Vancouver Island where cold and heat aren't much of an issue.

Aside from the EV aspect, as a car it's just terrific. Terrific acceleration, handles well, rides well, lots of room for 2 adults and a dog.

Having one EV in the family is a really good idea. We charge at home and start off every morning with 400 Km "in the tank".

If I were buying a Tesla Model 3 right now I'd buy the long range version. That would make road trips just that much better.
 
Honestly who really cares? Doesn't mean it will be accepted by the masses, plain and simple! They can build all they want and take a serious loss when the crap doesn't sell... There really is no win/win with everybody and never will be.

Currently there are issues with cat converter theft with ICE... so guess that will give thieves a new outlet to strip wiring out of the EVs hitting the road... while they're at it might as well steal the battery setup too...
won't be accepted by the masses huh? Well in Norway, EV's are 84% of sales.
 
Can you set it to 40, or stock evse supplies only 32 amps?
m3 has an onboard charger. Thats the max capacity, the "level II" charger is just a cable and adapter with a smart chip to monitor circuit voltage so it doesn't burn you wiring out if the breakers or outlet is wired wrong.
 
This is the USA.
Norway is the size of one US state = New Mexico
Norway places a brutal tax on ICE vehicles of upwards of 45% and incredible incentives for EVs just dont forget, there are no long drives in Norway as there is no place to drive.
On the other hand, CA is the 4th or 5th largest economy in the world. And we buy a lotta Teslas.
Sometimes more than gas cars.

To a large extent, it depends on your needs, wants and what you can afford. All good.
 
So true! One can select the charge rate to what ever fits the need. Whether people will or not when grid power is stressed is another question entirely.

I had a model S long range at my house for a while. It charged at 40A, 240V using the 50A outlet I have. Drawing just under 10,000watts for about 5 hours per night.

We could have limited the charge to 20A and drawn just a tick more than a water heater‘s 4500w element. But that would have taken 10+ hours, which may not have fit the schedule. We did see the options. Just chose not to use the lower charge rate.
Do you pay a fee for kW and kWh?

At my home I do not get charged per kW (yet), but at another property I own, I noted that on the bill.

Besides the fact that it’s better for the battery to charge slow, this would be another reason to dial it down, depending upon how they want to gouge you per kW.

At charger stations such things are already baked into the rate… So I’d suspect that there is some optimization on what one should pull from home, vs when on a charger.

Fortunately we don’t run electric heating, so I’d never have reason to pull 4500W from a single load at my home unless I had an EV.

At my other property that charges per kW, once I was running a big 240v heater for many days, and got a significant charge. Usually I pull like 0.2kW and that’s a lot… lol. The bill is typically like $12… and since that bill below, they’ve upped the distribution (kW) charge from $1.86 up to $3.50/kW.

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m3 has an onboard charger. Thats the max capacity, the "level II" charger is just a cable and adapter with a smart chip to monitor circuit voltage so it doesn't burn you wiring out if the breakers or outlet is wired wrong.
Thank you for the explanation; I know what evse is. Some have manual settings on evse, and some cars have settings for amperage (one of my evse can be set at 8,16,24, and 32 amps), hence why I am asking. I had an impression that Teslas can take up to 40 amps on level 2.
I guess you have the slowest charging one...

https://www.tesla.com/support/home-charging-installation/onboard-charger
https://www.tesla.com/support/home-charging-installation/wall-connector
 
On the other hand, CA is the 4th or 5th largest economy in the world. And we buy a lotta Teslas.
Sometimes more than gas cars.

To a large extent, it depends on your needs, wants and what you can afford. All good.
Population CA = 37 million EV market share approx 10%
Population Norway = 5.5 million EV Market Share Approx 54%

RIght now only about 20% or less of the population can own one in the US and one has to admit, the taxes on gas in CA are off the wall. Much like the taxes on ICE vehicles in Norway.
I pay $3.49 here in SC, Same Costco someplace in CA is $5.09

Meaning people are being pushed into EVs in some other countries and non EV owners are subsidizing purchasers of EVs on others. This isnt an Organic transformation to EVs.
 
Population CA = 37 million EV market share approx 10%
Population Norway = 5.5 million EV Market Share Approx 54%

RIght now only about 20% or less of the population can own one in the US and one has to admit, the taxes on gas in CA are off the wall. Much like the taxes on ICE vehicles in Norway.
I pay $3.49 here in SC, Same Costco someplace in CA is $5.09

Meaning people are being pushed into EVs in some other countries and non EV owners are subsidizing purchasers of EVs on others. This isnt an Organic transformation to EVs.
I bought a Tesla because I wanted one. Actually is was more for my wife...
In my completely unscientific survey (aka opinion) most people don't buy Teslas to save money.
If they do, their arithmetic score is a D-... A Corolla/Civic beats it economically all day long.

I would love to pay $5.09 for gas. I would have to drive 10 miles each way to Costco.
From left to right: Acura TSX, Lexus GS350 F Sport, Tesla Model 3. The TSX is the smartest buy all things considered, including fun. And they are all fun.
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Well opinions vary and I certainly will never bother with one. Also, sales mean nothing when production lags and 83.5% are waiting for years to have an EV.

I spotted a recent article (might be old news to some) in which Toyota is being bashed by 'environmentalists' for their decision to not focus entirely 100% on EV. Pretty sure that's their decision in business and **** sure don't blame them. Why put all the eggs into 1 basket that won't suit everyone? This argument will of course go on and on and is something to laugh at every day it's mentioned, but EV won't be that practical in my lifetime so I won't lose any sleep over it.
Well I don't know how old you are but within 10 years, for sure not only will EV's be practical but they will be lower cost to run (and own) than a standard ICE. Of course, not for me as I drive beaters......catch up...your falling behind old man...lol
 
This is the USA.
Norway is the size of one US state = New Mexico
Norway places a brutal tax on ICE vehicles of upwards of 45% and incredible incentives for EVs just dont forget, there are no long drives in Norway as there is no place to drive.
so in a 2 car family, especially if one has access to a plug, the second car can easily be an EV. 99.999999% of my trips fall within the range of an EV. I mean, how often do you really go out and drive over 250 miles in a day?
 
so in a 2 car family, especially if one has access to a plug, the second car can easily be an EV. 99.999999% of my trips fall within the range of an EV. I mean, how often do you really go out and drive over 250 miles in a day?
Absolutely without question, even in my household a second car would be perfect as an EV.
Past posts I have said the same thing, But for me that’s exactly how I look at EV’s as they are currently designed, an economy car at a still outrageous price for the general public.
 
EVs are well and good until everyone is forced to drive one, and there is a national electricity shortage that forces your local utility has to pay double, triple or 10x for power.

Some facts: Americans drove 3.248548 TRILLION MILES in 2019 and consumed 149.29 billion gallons of gasoline. The average amount of electricity consumed per mile by EV's is 2.9.

Lets do the math.

3,248,548,000,000 / 2.9 = 1,120,188,965,517 kWH, and that's ignoring all the heavy trucks that ship goods around, so that's an under-estimate.

Wow, 1.12 trillion kWH seems like lot. How much electricity does the US produce, anyway? The EIA reports we generated 4.12 trillion kWh in 2021, so we'd need at least a third more electricity to power all the miles we drive. Thirty percent doesn't sound so bad, but realize that the federal government is bound and determined to close all the coal plants and thus chop 10% off that production figure (and only replace less than half of it with unreliable intermittent sources). Check out the graph below. They'd really like to do away with the red part in the middle, too.

All this expected new energy demand is why we're building new power plants all over the place. (Oh, wait, we're not).

If something smells fishy to you, too, about this push for a near instantaneous conversion of the US auto fleet to electric only without simultaneously making the improvements needed to power them, then what logical conclusions should we draw? The only one that makes sense to me is the one where the intention of the policy makers is to force a huge swath of the population out of their private automobiles. That's a primary reason for all the resistance to EVs.

Screenshot 2022-07-22 at 11-23-59 U.S. energy facts explained - consumption and production - U...png
 
FAKE news IMO as i can count them on my one hand in my area + the very few chargers in my area are rarely used!! i will NEVER buy one!
Don’t say never if the future means they will be EVs that run on fuel cells.
You will fill it up at your local fuel station. Toyota has been producing fuel cell cars for quite some time but only sells them in California and just in this weeks business new someplace they are selling fuel-cell based trucks.
The problem right now is the chicken or the egg for fuel cell stations, CA had almost all of them including some Shell stations.

It’s interesting if you think about it, gasoline powered vehicle makes its own power, a few cell vehicle makes its own electricity, but we also have the battery powered vehicles that get its electricity from someplace else.
 
There are still a lot of issues with hydrogen as a fuel source (i.e. fuel cells) as I mentioned earlier in this thread:

Safety - hydrogen go boom, boom
Inefficiency - the hydrogen fuel cycle takes > 40% more electricity to move a car down the road than the equivalent EV
Infrastructure - plug in charging stations cost a tiny fraction of hydrogen production equipment
 
EVs are well and good until everyone is forced to drive one, and there is a national electricity shortage that forces your local utility has to pay double, triple or 10x for power.
Didn’t something like that happen in the 70’s? granted that artificial, caused by intentional shortage, but same effect.

The average amount of electricity consumed per mile by EV's is 2.9.
2.9 what? kWhr? seems high, I thought it was like 300 Whr per mile. Even if you take into charging losses and transmission line losses.
 
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