Considering moving back from CA to WI (Clinton, Leon: home, maintenance)

[slamont61]

The self proclaimed Hippy Liberal. CA is your hot bet, the Conservative Family is more at home in Milwaukee. Sounds like a lot of work to avoid one week visits with those "un-desirables".

[Wanderer2017]

Thanks to those who responded with useful critique - hadn't even thought of a dirth of charging stations/maintenance/ability for a Tesla to survive a Wisconsin winter. You'd think I'd have thought of that.

To those of you who think I'm crazy/neurotic - of course I am. You don't know the half of it. But damn my parties are fun.

One clarification - the conservatives are in Atlanta. Liberal family is actually in Wisconsin, worth remembering (for me, you can remember whatevs you want).

[techaz]

What kind of diversity do you want? You consider it a negative to live in an area that voted Republican? You sound like you're a little too wrapped up in politics and like a certain image...maybe staying in California is best.

Having lived in Wisconsin for most of my life (and moved away), I could not possibly recommend anyone to move there who has lived on the west coast or southwest. It's run down, many times dreary, terribly cold, and has a tiny fraction of the beauty that comes from the mountains, oceans, and national parks that we enjoy out west.

If it's cost of living that you're looking to improve upon, think about moving to Portland or Phoenix...or Vegas!

Good luck.

[guidoLaMoto]

Originally Posted by Wanderer2017

Thanks to those who responded with useful critique - hadn't even thought of a dirth of charging stations/maintenance/ability for a Tesla to survive a Wisconsin winter. You'd think I'd have thought of that.

.

Not to mention that so much of the energy generated for WI use comes from fossil fuel that running your EV here would actually cause more sequestered carbon to be released into the atmosphere than a gasoline powered engine (has to do with loss of energy in the transmission process; 2nd Law of Thermodynamics).

While you have mountains, high taxes & Snowflakes in CA, you don't have seasons, an abundance of fresh water, the opportunity to live off the land should the need arise, etc like we have here in WI.

Please stay where you are until you age and gain enough wisdom to become a conservative. As Winston Churchill said- A young man who is not a liberal has no heart. An old man who is not a conservative has no brain."

All solutions require compromises among the competing factors. Best wishes with whatever you decide.

ps/ if you were thinking, you wouldn't be driving a Tesla at all.

[Ragnar]

I see quite a few Teslas in Madison, so folks in WI do have them. You can easily charge at home. Or, if most of your driving will be in the Minneapolis/Madison/Milwaukee/Chicago corridors, there are supercharger options along the interstate, and Tesla is always adding more. Their current plans are to add superchargers to some retail areas like Targets, grocery stores, etc., so check the map on Tesla's website for updates. But, if you want to road trip regularly up north in WI or to some of the more rural areas, a Tesla may not be your best option unless you have overnight destination charging available at a hotel, friend's house, etc.

Chicago has a Tesla maintenance center or two, which are not that far from Milwaukee.

Driving a Tesla won't save the planet, but if you'd like a Tesla and can afford it, they're fun cars, and should do just fine in WI, especially with AWD. Just don't sacrifice your retirement savings for one.

With charging electric cars, the most important thing for me is that the "fuel" is generated domestically, primarily from USA sources, and is not imported from unstable countries that hate the USA. The type of that generation is secondary for me. YMMV.

We don't personally own a Tesla yet (too expensive for a depreciating item, even used), but find the evolving technology interesting. As such, we did recently purchase a used plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (has both an electric motor and gas engine) from another manufacturer as a second car, so we are gaining some experience with operating an EV as well as examining the growing charging infrastructure in WI. We do all of our charging at home, and our particular vehicle in EV mode goes ~ 65 miles on the electrical equivalent cost of a gallon of gasoline in WI (currently ~$2.30 per gallon). Most of our driving is short distances around town. YMMV.

Your local WI utility may offer a rebate or special program for installing a 240V home EV charging station, but there are currently no WI rebates on the purchase of EV's themselves.

[brrabbit]

Originally Posted by Ragnar

As such, we did recently purchase a used plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (has both an electric motor and gas engine) from another manufacturer as a second car, so we are gaining some experience with operating an EV as well as examining the growing charging infrastructure in WI.

Which one? Volt or something else?

[helena101]

Originally Posted by guidoLaMoto

Not to mention that so much of the energy generated for WI use comes from fossil fuel that running your EV here would actually cause more sequestered carbon to be released into the atmosphere than a gasoline powered engine (has to do with loss of energy in the transmission process; 2nd Law of Thermodynamics).

While you have mountains, high taxes & Snowflakes in CA, you don't have seasons, an abundance of fresh water, the opportunity to live off the land should the need arise, etc like we have here in WI.

Please stay where you are until you age and gain enough wisdom to become a conservative. As Winston Churchill said- A young man who is not a liberal has no heart. An old man who is not a conservative has no brain."

All solutions require compromises among the competing factors. Best wishes with whatever you decide.

ps/ if you were thinking, you wouldn't be driving a Tesla at all.

Wisconsin also has high taxes. For low taxes, look elsewhere. And living off the land should the need arise? Like after an apocalypse? I wouldn't want to live in a place where windchill is in the negatives in the winter in a situation like that.

Regarding your quote, see this page of quotes falsely attributed to Churchill:

https://www.winstonchurchill.org/res...ely-attributed

[guidoLaMoto]

Originally Posted by helena101

Wisconsin also has high taxes. For low taxes, look elsewhere. And living off the land should the need arise? Like after an apocalypse? I wouldn't want to live in a place where windchill is in the negatives in the winter in a situation like that.

Regarding your quote, see this page of quotes falsely attributed to Churchill:

https://www.winstonchurchill.org/res...ely-attributed

That apocalypse may be closer than you think, and the cold weather makes WI even more desirable for us preppers: fewer of the unprepared will be marauding seeking our caches.

You're right. It wasn't Churchill. I just didn't want to sound too egotistical. It was I who really first uttered that quote. I was also the one who said "When in Rome, do as the Romans do," and "Pardon my French."...oh, no, wait... that one was George Costanza.

As far as taxes go, I'm a FIB. Compared to IL, this is Paradise.

[ReDNeQ]

Wife and I own a Tech Company. We left Cali for Texas back in late 90's early 00 right before the Internet Bubble. Wife is originally from Bay Area. We did the Texas thing "Where I'm from" long enough to raise our older 3 and to make that Tech money there. Tons and I mean tons of Californians moved in.

I like to say we have had the ability to move to areas that needed our services more than anyone else. We've been moving around for the jobs/money/needs of our hearts knowing wherever we ended up Technology was in demand. The state of WI is hiring a ton of tech people. There are alot of businesses in all industries hiring tech. It's in high demand. The problem is that most Techies get fearful of the lack of High Speed Internet if they don't live right in one of the populous.

That's been our biggest issue, but nothing to prevent us from buying a home with some of the best views in the world. If you had my views anywhere in cali you'd pay million +.. That being said, we left all our family to move here. Everyone is still in Texas. Most of them moved from Cali to follow us to Texas and I mean everyone did, over 30 people in total. Now they saying "We aint following you guys this time, it's too cold" we aren't complaining too much. We know they will be up here soon.

If you're willing to live a little and just accept that everything here is slower than Cali and the weather is cold it will be one of the best decisions you could make for your family. Family is te most important these days.

BTW wife's company still has contract in Bay Area. She remote manages them and travels out there every few months when special needs arrive, and no We don't tell anyone what we do locally because we get overwhelmed with requests to fix this or can you do that. Already been down that road. THERE IS A LARGE TECH NEED HERE!

[Ragnar]

Originally Posted by brrabbit

Which one? Volt or something else?

Ford C-Max Energi. Shorter EV range than the Volt, but it still works for us. Also is more comfortable for us with better/higher seating position. So far we really like it.