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I don’t think any technology is THE answer, but I do like hydrogen or hybrids over pure EVs. That’s just my preference. It seems like some companies are starting to take a closer look at hydrogen. Honda has partnered with GM, Toyota is jumping in, BMW too. I’m hoping Audi and VW does. Not buying their total transition to fully electric. That won’t be good for the brand.
As much as I despise GM for their abandonment of manufacturing in the US (at different tiers), they have done some interesting work with hydrogen powered cars. Honda has taken notice. I hope they (and others) come up with viable vehicles!
EV's do appear to be on track to be the new normal. Sure, car makers will need to have lower priced models in the future.
That part appears to be the hangup though. For all that we keep hearing that EVs just around the corner from price parity, they don't really appear to be. E.g., my EV is basically the sedan version of an electric XC40. Reasonable configured both the XC40 electric and Polestar 2 are right around 61k whereas the the gas mild hybrid XC40 is 45k. That's your typical 15k EV tax we're all used to seeing.
In the real world, 15k is to a lot of buyers a big amount of money. If you look at the price difference between a Honda Civic and a Honda Pilot, it's right around that 15k. That's what 15k gets you in the mainstream, non-luxury car space. It's a lot more car.
For now though EVs are very much a luxury feature with some pros and cons. They're really quite pleasant to drive if you're just looking for A to B and not a car nut. Even if you are, having the EV I find I enjoy the unrefinement of the gas car a lot more whereas when I was daily driving it, it was grating on me. But there is the big drawback which is charging. Provided you can charge at home or office it's really only something you'll deal with when taking longer trips which might not be frequent. But yeah, spending 30-40 minutes for most EVs to get the equivalent of half a tank of gas from the very limited number of charging locations, it's as fun as it sounds. You really gotta work it to spin the idea of hanging out at the typical Wal-Mart/Target big box parking lot as something more fun than hanging out in a parking. For the people who live in apartments with no ability to charge overnight at home or at their workplace, it's going to need to be addressed.
The ridiculous part of the whole EV/Green push is that the US, especially CA, does not have enough electricity as it is to power the grid today. And the green lobby keeps forcing power plants to close, and yet wants everybody to drive an EV.
Just where is all the electricity going to come from?
I don’t think any technology is THE answer, but I do like hydrogen or hybrids over pure EVs. That’s just my preference. It seems like some companies are starting to take a closer look at hydrogen. Honda has partnered with GM, Toyota is jumping in, BMW too. I’m hoping Audi and VW does. Not buying their total transition to fully electric. That won’t be good for the brand.
As much as I despise GM for their abandonment of manufacturing in the US (at different tiers), they have done some interesting work with hydrogen powered cars. Honda has taken notice. I hope they (and others) come up with viable vehicles!
All of the above - twigs, kindling and flint, dung, charcoal, wind, water, olive and other oils, coal, petroleum, natural gas, nuclear, ocean waves, geothermal, solar, hydrogen, and the next - all at once in varying proportions, as much redundancy, as much robustness, as possible.
The ridiculous part of the whole EV/Green push is that the US, especially CA, does not have enough electricity as it is to power the grid today. And the green lobby keeps forcing power plants to close, and yet wants everybody to drive an EV.
Just where is all the electricity going to come from?
The govt has no clue what it is doing.
My guess is nuclear power. But we don't hear about it much. All we hear about is solar and wind is the 'answer'. Yet around the world there are 59 reactors under construction and 100 reactors planned...while 325 more reactors are proposed.
Then you have power plants in war zones like Ukraine.
Is the plan for the EV future going to be mostly powered by nukes while keeping the public appeased showcasing new solar farms (which won't be sufficient)?
Not worth it until the at least the infrastructure is there.
And as once being a regular commuter on L.A. freeways and stop and go traffic I can imagine what the 405 freeway would look like during summer and rush our when you’re stuck in bumper to bumper traffic running your EV AC for an hour or two while averaging 10 mph.
Add that to running blackouts they have now and the result from an outsider looking in on a live cam could be quite comical.
It's totally worth it to me, I spend less time charging my Tesla than I do putting gas in my BMW X5 and it's not close. Bumper to bumper is where the EV is most advantageous. Never had a blackout in over 3 years. 99% of the reasons non EV people say that I shouldn't like my Tesla just aren't an issue.
Lots of teslas in my neighborhood, my sis owns one. I want the electric flying “ Alef”! Think NJ is the first playground. Weeee - hope the self drive too.
That part appears to be the hangup though. For all that we keep hearing that EVs just around the corner from price parity, they don't really appear to be. E.g., my EV is basically the sedan version of an electric XC40. Reasonable configured both the XC40 electric and Polestar 2 are right around 61k whereas the the gas mild hybrid XC40 is 45k. That's your typical 15k EV tax we're all used to seeing.
In the real world, 15k is to a lot of buyers a big amount of money. If you look at the price difference between a Honda Civic and a Honda Pilot, it's right around that 15k. That's what 15k gets you in the mainstream, non-luxury car space. It's a lot more car.
For now though EVs are very much a luxury feature with some pros and cons. They're really quite pleasant to drive if you're just looking for A to B and not a car nut. Even if you are, having the EV I find I enjoy the unrefinement of the gas car a lot more whereas when I was daily driving it, it was grating on me. But there is the big drawback which is charging. Provided you can charge at home or office it's really only something you'll deal with when taking longer trips which might not be frequent. But yeah, spending 30-40 minutes for most EVs to get the equivalent of half a tank of gas from the very limited number of charging locations, it's as fun as it sounds. You really gotta work it to spin the idea of hanging out at the typical Wal-Mart/Target big box parking lot as something more fun than hanging out in a parking. For the people who live in apartments with no ability to charge overnight at home or at their workplace, it's going to need to be addressed.
Where I live, even Goodwill has 2 charging stations. Not seen them at gas stations though. Maybe bigger ones? My question is how long you have to wait? I gas up in 4 min max and I’m gone…
This was a post I made yesterday in a thread in the Automotive section, comparing the ownership of a Tesla Model Y and a Toyota Camry. Just to be clear, I compared the most basic Toyota Camry and a Tesla Model Y Long Range. I think it's worthy of being reposted here.
I know someone who owns a Tesla. It costs him about $14 to recharge his battery at home. If $14 gets 300 miles of range, and you were to drive 10,000 miles per year, it would cost $672 per year to charge your Tesla, only using your home charger. Over ten years, that would accumulate to $6720. Meaning, that when you factor in the price of electricity, it's actually $13, 845 more expensive to drive a Tesla Model Y than a Toyota Camry, over a 10 year period, still excluding any maintenance or repairs.
Why would you compare a Model Y vs Camry? They aren't the same class car.
I doubt it - they haven’t solved the problem of longer-capacity batteries and where to charge. How are they going to change the entire charging infrastructure of the country that is equivalent to gas stations? People also don’t want to wait more than 10 min to charge their battery. And if you have a long-mile battery, the vehicle is very heavy and will have other problems.
Gas vehicles seem to be just fine for the next decade at the least!
I charge at home 99.99% of the time. It's actually easier than going to a gas station.
For the near future, I see Hybrids as the most economical/useful. But EVs are a good choice as a second car in a family.
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