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1. oil prices have none to do with drilling and such and everything to do with politics. Think all you want to, oil prices went down to hurt Russia financially. Until that is done, one way or another......
2. Petrol prices in WA went up from $1.87 to $2.27 in matter of ten days. Same gas station I drive past 5 am on my way to the gym. That's 40 cents. Yes, I know, they normally go up winter time - why? - but read #1.
3. When was the last time you went to a dealership to look at new car prices? A Camry for $42 000? Plus tax? Toyota Sequoia for $76 000 plus tax, what makes it more expensive than Tesla? You looked at new Tahoe or Escalade prices?
4. But no, personally, I'd not buy a Tesla. I considered a cheap version of it coming out in 2 years but when i found it will have to have battery replaced after yey many years of use, I wiped the thought. My Camry Hybrid has $0.08 per mile cost, is paid for and why would I bother then? Heck my Highlander Hybrid averages $0.076 per mile (it'll go up a little) so why bother?
4. Knowing Musk though, he may end up pushing that car brand to the point of decent usefulness and feasibility. But only time will show.
We have a Leaf and honestly, gas prices are pretty low on the reason why we ended up buying it out after our lease ended. For us, the most appealing feature of an EV is the ability to "fuel up" at home.
For me personally, I would love to have an EV. It will be what we drive in the future. But the biggest problem right now is the extremelly high price of maintenance for EV's. That is why I have stayed away from hybrids and EV's. Sure, rebuilding an engine can run in the thousands of dollars for a domestic vehicle, the same with a transmission. But EV parts can be triple. I will list problems from friends and family members that I personally know.
Friend had a 2007 Prius. The car had 110,000 miles. While going to work the car just shut off. She had it towed to the nearest Toyota dealer. Cost her 300.00. They told her that the "controller" had failed, the part was 4,000.00, plus labor for installation. She wound up selling the car to a body shop that had just purchased a rear ended prius. They gave her 3,000 for the prius, replaced the "controller" from the totaled one, and then sold it so some unsuspecting customer.
I have another friend that works for a small used car lot. They made the mistake of buying a honda civic hybrid at action. After inspecting the car they tried to take it for a test run. The service light came on and when they hooked it up to the diagnostic it said that the battery had overheated. They tried several times to reset it and got the same code. After taking it to the dealership they found out that the battery needed to be replaced, at a cost of 2,000.00, plus labor. They took it back to the auction and resold it.
Most people realize that at some point beyond 200,000 that you will have to drop money to rebuild your transmision or motor. But in a hybrid you have to add in a battery replacement on top of that, another 2,000 to as much as 10,000. It makes owning a hybrid longterm a horrible investment, even with the increased fuel economy.
If your plan is to buy the vehicle and ditch it after 5 to 7 years you won't have to worry about it. But I keep my vehicles untill they can't be repaired anymore. Every vehicle I have ever owned except for a Mazda Protege got well over 200,000 miles. Due to my job I put about 40,000 to 50,000 miles a year on my work vehicle. I want to be sure that my vehicle will last year after year without problems, can be easily repaired any anyshop, and have parts available. EV's and hybrids just don't offer that.
When EVs match the operational capabilities of inexpensive IC vehicles (range 300+ miles, refuel in less than ten minutes, many convenient refuel sites, etc.) they will surely gain market share... but today's offering just don't offer comparative value for most.
Most people drive less than 35 miles per day. Why carry around fuel for a 200 mile trip all the time when you rarely need it? Add the fact that you "refuel" at home and start every day with a "full tank" and you can see that the convenience is actually better than a typical ICE car where you have to plan on a fuel stop. Do you fill up every day? No, you carry around a full week or two of fuel and fill it up once every week or two. With the EV, you simply plug in when you come home and unplug in the morning and you don't do a weekly or so fuel stop. It's a paradigm shift in how you go about your day.
80-100 miles is fine for 80% of people, and the new round of 200 mile range cars (like the Chevy Bolt) will make it so that unless you're going on a long trip where you can rent, fly, or take your second car (which most families have), you'll never use gas again.
This is assuming that battery range is 90 miles on a charge or more.
That is why the electric car is useless in our part of the world. Good for city cars, but not out in the open spaces.
Reasons:
1: Cold winter weather will reduce the range by as much as 60%
2: Climbing mountains reduces the range considerably.
3: Using the heater, reduces the range.
In our part of the country, you could not even get to the next town in the winter. You would find yourself sitting along a highway, out of electricity to power the vehicle, and out of service for your cell phone so you can't even call for help.
Go to any parking lot, and you will find the parking lot filled with over half either being a large pickup, or mid size or large SUV. And by this time of year, equipped with snow tires with most of them studded. Not only do we want all wheels driving, but the ground clearance that things like Tesla get stuck in the snow when trying to travel due to low ground clearance. Maximum a Tesla can be raised to is 7.9 inches and a Prius is 5.5 inches. Come around a corner where the snow has drifted, and they sit there stuck in the snow on a plowed highway, and on those that may not be plowed they won't go very far.
My wife and I are in our mid 80s, and we drive what is considered safe to drive in the winter here.
1: F-150 pickup.
2: Mid Size SUV (Ford Explorer) that we get about 20 miles per gallon with. Top quality snow tires, with studs. Has a 6 speed automatic which turns to Manual when set at manual setting. Enhanced transmission with a dial where you dial in the type of driving conditions from dry pavement, to sand, and off road conditions (1 setting for each), and what I love in the Winter is Snow and Ice setting. There is a button in the middle of the dial when going downhill on a mountain in bad weather conditions that you push. This button changes the transmission and the brakes, to make it controllable and hold back as needed.
One accessory item we carry, is a long tow strap. When you are out away from towns and find small cars off the road everywhere you go, we pull them out of the snow and back onto the road. With the cell phones out of range of a signal so they can't call for help, I have never been able to just drive on by like so many people do. I pull them out if possible.
I know that city people in warmer climates think cars like the Tesla, and Prius are great. But out in a lot of the country they are really useless, especially for half the year.
This is a strange OP- it seems like whoever wrote this hasn't bothered following the oil markets in the past year. the cost of a barrel of oil is less than half of what it was in 2014.
There is no feasible scenario where oil rises another 300% by 2024.
True. I LOL'ed when I saw the $4.00 mention.
As for the latter point, Iran is fixing to make up for lost time due to sanctions by flooding the market with oil and they aren't worried about anyone else's feelings, either.
I just gassed up for $1.79/gal and could have saved another dime a gallon (oh well, what's $2.20 when ATM fees would more than negate that?) paying cash.
It seems to me, that in order to beat the rising cost of gasoline, the EV car is becoming more viable.
The battery weight of a Tesla S is 1200 lbs with a 240-270 mile range and a curb weight on car= 4,647.3 lbs.
The weight of 60 liters of gasoline is 100 lbs with a range usually way over 300 miles.
While a motorcycle is inherently more efficient than a car, it's efficiency is overwhelmed by the fact that it is a considerably more dangerous vehicle than even the smallest econo-box.
One can see a huge advantage of an electric motorcycle which is gyro-stabilized to make it much safer than a gasoline motorcycle. You get the advantage of a lot less overhead weight, and the ability to use a much smaller battery to give you a workable range.
We picked up a used 2013 Chevy Volt back in March of this year. We both are still head over heels in love with the car, our best streak was 10 weeks and 2,453 miles with 7.9 gallons of gas used. If the car had a little more electric range it would have been even longer, the 2016/7 Volt is looking mighty attractive for that reason. As mentioned by the Leaf driver above, "filling up" the car in my own garage is great, as are free public charging stations.
We both said we don't want to be without an EV in the future so a 16/17 Volt or a Tesla will be targeted for the next upgrade.
We picked up a used 2013 Chevy Volt back in March of this year. We both are still head over heels in love with the car, our best streak was 10 weeks and 2,453 miles with 7.9 gallons of gas used. If the car had a little more electric range it would have been even longer, the 2016/7 Volt is looking mighty attractive for that reason. As mentioned by the Leaf driver above, "filling up" the car in my own garage is great, as are free public charging stations.
We both said we don't want to be without an EV in the future so a 16/17 Volt or a Tesla will be targeted for the next upgrade.
The Volt is a 40 thousand dollar economy car with a 15+ year payback period, that only has any economic viability because it takes money out of my pocket and puts it into your pocket.
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