10 Things I Love About My Electric Vehicle

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The stars aligned for me a couple years back. My employer opened a new employee parking garage equipped with 36 plug-in electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, and I was ready to park my pickup for a more fuel-efficient daily commuter. I’d still need the truck to pull our trailer and take trips to the home improvement store, but the $250/month fuel bill just wasn’t practical. In fact, my goal was to get a car payment below that amount and charge primarily at work. So while it seemed like a big jump, our family chose an all-electric vehicle.

Two years later, I can definitely say there’s no turning back! It was a great decision, and here are my top 10 reasons why I love my electric car.


http://breakingenergy.com/2015/09/25/10-things-i-love-about-my-electric-vehicle/?ref=yfp


EV is not for everybody, but it's for many drivers whose commute less than 50-100 miles a day, and have second vehicle for other purposes such as long trip vacation.

When EV price is down to about current ICE vehicle at about $20-25k with range of 200 or more miles, I think it will capture more market share, by 2025(ten years from now) I think it is likely we will see that happening, probably from Tesla.
 
I am a new adopter, so to speak - I bought my first gas/electric hybrid in 2012 "to try it out". I traded that in for a newer version of it (Prius) this past February. I am now planning on waiting until the Leaf has more range, the Tesla is more affordable, or I can get my hands on a new Gen2 Volt at an attractive price. My goal is to be as much EV as possible for my DD by 2017.
 
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I'd love to get an electric car just for the short trips and lesser maintenance. Not for the "green" aspect as Hawaii gets most of our electricity from diesel fuel generators, unless it's a PV powered charging station or getting PV installed at home.
 
I'm not sure that an employer providing free charging/parking is a legit argument in favor of people buying an electric car...

How about

"My dad is paying for all the gas so I'm buying a suburban!"
 
What does the poster own?

The leaf looks good on paper and should work for me but i'll be having range anxiety forever and shorten my lifespan.

The telsa 3 looks right on par tho. 200 miles and 35k. I can get behind that
 
Gas for 87 reg octane is 1.99 a gallon. Big oil is trying to entice people to stay in SUV/trucks
 
Originally Posted By: Cutehumor
Gas for 87 reg octane is 1.99 a gallon. Big oil is trying to entice people to stay in SUV/trucks


You pull your boat with your Cobalt or Vibe?
 
lot of redundant reasons in the article if you ask me.

Pros of EV

- Pricing - attractive lease offers from time to time. With state and fed rebates, the purchasing/leasing price point be quite good.

- Carpool access/discount bridge toll. For those who live in the Bay Area in CA and need to cross the bridge, you pay carpool price. Green stickers are limited to the first 70k vehicles whereas white stickers are not capped

- Economics - cost of gas vs charging at home. In my first 4k miles of owning, I've only paid to charge the car 3 times. $0.50 for 1hr at a public station and twice at home for less than 1kWH (about $0.50). There are many free charging stations in California. Chargepoint estimates that of ALL public chargers in the USA, 60% or so are free. Cost of electricity is cheaper at home as well compared to gasoline.


Cons of EV
- Limited range - Almost all pure electrics are around 100-125 miles in range, YMMV on driving style. Tesla is the exception. Driving at freeway speeds will decrease range. With 200 mile range cars coming soon, this may increase EV demand.

-Charge time - Depending on the EV, charging times can range from 30 mins (via quick charge) to 8 hours+ (240V) to 24hours+ (120V). BMW,Chevy Spark, VW e-Golf, Nissan Leaf are a couple that have this as a optional upgrade. On level 2 (240V) charge times vary greatly. This is because every car has a built in charger that varies in power capacity (similar to laptop charger boxes). Some cars only have 3.3 kWh chargers whereas others have 6.6kWh. Given that most EVs are about 24 kWh (Tesla excluded), it can range from 4-8 hrs to charge. Again, inconvenient if you cannot wait for the car to charge. 120V is the last option. 24hrs+ to charge. Plug in vehicles (even with smaller batteries) can also take 4hrs to charge because they have small built in chargers. Tesla charge times vary depending on which charger you use. Their superchargers are very quick and can deliver about 100kW/hr. Also, to charge a Tesla in public (240v), one will need to buy charging converting heads from Tesla since the plugs are not the same. It also takes a long time since the battery is much larger.

-Battery degradation - Batteries wear out over time, and range of the cars decrease. This is why residual values on Leafs and Volts are so low, and why many owners lease EVs. Until battery technology improves, battery degradation will continue to be an issue.

-Charging cost - for the stations that are not free, it can be expensive. Prices are set by station owners and vary. Quick charging is free for 2 years from BMW and Nissan, otherwise it may cost ~$12 to "fill" your car. Regular 240V charging can vary from $1/hr to $0.50/kWh.

Feel free to ask me any questions as I have an EV.
 
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I see nobody dares to mention how much bigger the carbon foot print for an EV vs a mid size sedan from factory all the way to the junkyard.
 
Originally Posted By: Andy636
I see nobody dares to mention how much bigger the carbon foot print for an EV vs a mid size sedan from factory all the way to the junkyard.


blush.gif
woops!
 
Originally Posted By: Andy636
I see nobody dares to mention how much bigger the carbon foot print for an EV vs a mid size sedan from factory all the way to the junkyard.


shhhhh
 
Originally Posted By: Brybo86
I'm not sure that an employer providing free charging/parking is a legit argument in favor of people buying an electric car...

How about

"My dad is paying for all the gas so I'm buying a suburban!"

It is clearly benefit EV owner. Yes, someone have to pay for electricity that EV drivers use, but from owner point of view he/she got it free(everybody loves free things), another benefit at work space is those parking spaces are usually closer to the building entrance and under a cover.

Another benefit is carpool access for single occupant, and low to no maintenance.

Originally Posted By: Andy636
I see nobody dares to mention how much bigger the carbon foot print for an EV vs a mid size sedan from factory all the way to the junkyard.

Nobody did a comprehensive comparison between the two, that why no member here can post any data to support either type of vehicle.
We need an independent party to calculate all parts at manufacture site, to daily usage to reliability of each part ... The work is too much for any person to do, only a group of dedicate/knowledge people can do it with some funds from independent source.
 
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
Originally Posted By: Brybo86
I'm not sure that an employer providing free charging/parking is a legit argument in favor of people buying an electric car...

How about

"My dad is paying for all the gas so I'm buying a suburban!"

It is clearly benefit EV owner. Yes, someone have to pay for electricity that EV drivers use, but from owner point of view he/she got it free(everybody loves free things), another benefit at work space is those parking spaces are usually closer to the building entrance and under a cover.

Another benefit is carpool access for single occupant, and low to no maintenance.

Originally Posted By: Andy636
I see nobody dares to mention how much bigger the carbon foot print for an EV vs a mid size sedan from factory all the way to the junkyard.

Nobody did a comprehensive comparison between the two, that why no member here can post any data to support either type of vehicle.
We need an independent party to calculate all parts at manufacture site, to daily usage to reliability of each part ... The work is too much for any person to do, only a group of dedicate/knowledge people can do it with some funds from independent source.
The juice is "free" because the gubbermint is passing the cost on to someone else, what else is new.
 
Originally Posted By: Brybo86
I'm not sure that an employer providing free charging/parking is a legit argument in favor of people buying an electric car...

How about

"My dad is paying for all the gas so I'm buying a suburban!"


It's a legit argument.

To help you out as a naysayer though, it's falls into the same category that it is a minus to for someone who lives in an apartment and doesn't have a garage but just parking lot or street parking.

You got to take both the plusses and minuses of evaluating the charging . Some folks will see a huge Profrom charging convenience (this including pricing if their work supports them);

but others will see a huge Con since they can't charge it where they live.
 
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There are so many applications an electric vehicle would be a perfect fit. Though they are not at all green.
 
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