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we could have cut gas usage in half yrs ago, all we have to do is produce an affordable electric car - even if the gov. gave a subsidy...
if the prius, leaf, volt, tesla, was under 10 k- within one year, we would use half the gas we do now,,and not be dependent on foreign countries..
why doesn't/hasn't this happened??
because the greased politicians wont let it happen- they get greased by big oil, and also, the federal and state governments depend heavily on the taxes of every gallon sold,,
The whole "plug it in at night and wake up to a full tank" concept only works if you never exceed the range in a single day. Makes it impractical for long road trips, delivery or taxi vehicles, etc...
That will be fixed when quick charging stations exist, but they don't yet.
The whole "plug it in at night and wake up to a full tank" concept only works if you never exceed the range in a single day. Makes it impractical for long road trips, delivery or taxi vehicles, etc...
That will be fixed when quick charging stations exist, but they don't yet.
Obviously.
I don't know any of my EV owning friends that aren't fully aware of the range of their cars and plan accordingly. Basically 29 days a month they are completely fine driving the EV and charging at night (some don't even need daily charging). The other ONE day when they're road-tripping? Take the spouse's car or rent for the day.
I don't know any of my EV owning friends that aren't fully aware of the range of their cars and plan accordingly. Basically 29 days a month they are completely fine driving the EV and charging at night (some don't even need daily charging). The other ONE day when they're road-tripping? Take the spouse's car or rent for the day.
Yup. Everyone we know with a pure electric has multiple cars. Of course, they were all multiple car families even before they had the EV.
I don't know any of my EV owning friends that aren't fully aware of the range of their cars and plan accordingly. Basically 29 days a month they are completely fine driving the EV and charging at night (some don't even need daily charging). The other ONE day when they're road-tripping? Take the spouse's car or rent for the day.
Ok? That doesn't solve the issue at all.
I drive a lot. The best production electric car has a range of 265 miles. That car cost 70k. All other electric cars in production have a range of 100 miles or less. The cheaper ones have a range of 70-80 miles. I exceed that regularly in a single day, so do delivery drivers, taxis, etc...
There is no "planning accordingly" that fixes that. If you are going to drive 90 miles in a day, and your car has a 68 mile range, there is NO planning that fixes that.
I don't have a problem with electric cars, I like the idea once they iron out these kinks... what annoys me are the people who tell me that the problem is I just don't know how to plan. If I had an electric car, and I acted like your friends, I would be renting a petrol car half the days of the month. (I wouldn't own a Model S with a range of 265 miles, I can't spend that much money on a commuter. I much more likely would have a Fiat 500c electric or a Focus electric with a range of around 80 miles.. not enough.)
I am not going to spend 25-30k dollars on a car just to leave it parked and rent an ICE car half of the days I drive.
I don´t think anyone is saying that an EV makes sense in all situations and it makes no sense to dismiss the EV as a whole just because it does not fit your usage.
Can we please finally end the myth that most Americans cling on to, even against all actual evidence, that hybrids do or are even meant to save money by using less gas?
That is REALLY not their whole point.
The actual point of hybrids is to save the environment no matter even if it costs you extra $ to do so. And it does. They are expressly NOT meant to, or ever going to, reduce the overall cost of driving on your wallet, especially assuming US gas prices won't go up much. Which they won't not least because of all the large new oil fields under the US that fracking has opened up.
If you just want cheap motoring its much better to go get a cheap small (gas only) car than a hybrid:
E.g. Toyota Yaris. $15k new. 37 mpg (Also included is no waiting around to recharge it or battery range anxiety).
Now compare that to a Toyota Prius which is $25-30k new and gets around 45 mpg depending on who you believe. Thats only 7 mpg more.
Lets just totally ignore all the extra financing costs, insurance, taxes etc for buying/owning a more expensive car, and even assuming gas is $4/gallon (its currently $3.70 here) the purchase price difference alone would buy you 3750 gallons of gas.
That means you're actually only starting to save money by buying the Prius instead of the Yaris after 168,750 miles (About 14 years on average) of motoring.
But wait, even thats not true because by that time, your Prius would also have needed at least one new battery so now add another $3.5k -7k to save on gas before you actually start to save by driving a Prius.... Which will take you another 4 years minimum and maybe yet another battery, so possibly another 3.5k to make up. You're basically upto at least 22 years and 264k miles on your unfeasibly long-lived Prius before you even come close to saving money over driving a small efficient gas-only car.
....So please lets finally kill this stupid myth going around the US at least, that driving a hybrid saves you money.
Last edited by justniz; 09-30-2014 at 05:30 AM..
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