When do you think you will buy a 100% pure electric vehicle?
- Thread starter dmclone
- Start date
Totally agree with your take on the Tesla. I’m not such a sycophant or ideologue that I wouldn’t buy a Tesla because of the CEO of the company. Tesla’s are neat. If I didn’t like/need the utility of having a truck I would totally go for a Tesla.
Not sure the purpose of your linking the article. Other than to show they have made less than $1B investment in non-EV manufacturing.
But it's comical. GM has invested TENS of BILLIONS in EV tech and about $1B in V8 engines. Unless that investment is to develop high gas mileage V8 engines, it seems like 2 conflicting approaches to battle climate change. But I can see where it is good business to invest in high margin segments.
My rant is the heavy focus on EV's (and 1 industry) to fight climate change. Why emphasize one technology with intended benefits so far in the future (2035 or 2050)? Wouldn't aggressive mpg targets and promoting hybrid vehicles have had more immediate impact on emissions. How about push to have people own smaller cars vs. SUV's and pick-ups.
Also why so much focus on vehicles. For example, why not housing? Are 2000 or 3000 sq foot homes climate friendly?
I admit to being jaded, believing a lot of climate change focus is $ driven vs. environmental concern.
Wonder what message boards would have been like during the transition from horse to automobile?
"How will ye acquire petrol when there are no petrolmongers in most townes and villages? Meanwhile I can conveniently buy hay at every local livery"
We live in the capital district in NY and we're going to be putting solar on by the end of the year too. Partly bc of the incentives from fed and state, partly bc of what the grid could look like in 10-15 years. I took a deep dive on it today and its a no brainer for us. Going solar might actually move up my timeline for an EV.
It's especially crazy given electricity is in 100% of homes. A better comparison would be if the vast majority of homes in those horse and buggy days already had their own personal gasoline station installed and people were still terrified of how they'd fuel their automobile.
You are not wrong. Investing in energy efficiency (insulation, LED lights, et al), hybrids get maybe 50% better mpg, etc. But there isn't as much money to be made and not as interesting and exciting to talk about. Most people tune out and say "boooo-riiiing".
You know the best, easiest, and most efficient way to cut CO2? Carbon tax at the right level (ie high). Pass on the hidden costs to the actual users. That will drive energy efficiency behaviors. And it will hurt everyone, maybe the poor the worst. But it will work. TANSTAAFL.
Anyone remember the oil shock in the 70s? I do. My dad about turned the car off 50 feet early and coasted to a stop to save gas. Thermostat always set to an uncomfortable level. Anything to save a dime. Price signals work!
But like social security reform, this is a super unpopular solution, so no one wants to talk about it.
PS this post not intended to be a cave thing, just commenting on the efficiency of different approaches.
Interesting thought, let people charge at your house for a fee. Find a spot with an app, go and pay/charge. Suddenly get who knows how many charging points. Try doing that with a gas station.
Also, any of you choose to raise a family living by a gas station? I sure as hell wouldn’t.
I have seen houses in socal with no driveway install chargers at the curb by street parking...I assume for their own use but it could be for anybody.
The cable looks messy but you can also just string a really long cable out to the street, it's not like you have to go into a house, yard or even driveway. One of my neighbors just leaves a cable lying across a yard most of the time, not attractive but gets the job done. It's a nice house with a huge yard but I guess in the 50s in a nice climate they just built houses with no garage and no driveway sometimes.
Thanks for the open discussion, I truly mean it. Electric companies can not jump their rates around, but suppliers can. I put up solar panels at a business a little less than 2 years ago and get paid what is called voided costs (what the electric company pays the supplier) for anything that is produced over what I use. This is with a cooperative. What I get is anywhere from 2 cents per kilo up to near 7.5 cents per kilo pending on the time of year, demand, the source (sometimes one place can not provide all of it so it kinda gets "outsourced" to another) and other things. So, you can see the electric company can have their supply change up to 4X the cheapest cost, and as we all know, storing electricity for several months to be used during heavier times is not really an option. I used to be very good friends with a manager of a decent sized electric co-op so I learned quite a bit from him.
The charger availability scare is silly.
If there is money to be made, businesses will adopt. Instead of "filling up" at convenience stores, people with fill up at home, sit down restaurants, grocery stores, work, street side stations, etc. etc. Also a lot focus is on the time to charge to 100%, similar mindset as filling up gas tank. But based on what I have read, it's probably better to keep battery charged to a range less than 90%. So maybe partial charging will become best practice and take a lot less time.
The lack of a 12-15 passenger van makes it unaffordable for me. That’s what my family needs, otherwise we will be taking 2 vehicles everywhere we go. I have seen cargo vans that size and those are more than I would be able to afford for a long time, so I don’t even know what a 15 passenger van would cost.
Most businesses aren’t going to like to see the cost on a commercial install. It will be a lot of pushback. I’ve already seen the hesitancy first hand.
I’m sure a lot of people have specific needs but 15 passenger rules out over 99.9% of ice vehicles too.
Electric buses are increasingly common so I’m sure it’s very possible, just probably not the lowest hanging fruit.
I’ve filled up my phev lots of times out of the loading dock of my business warehouse with an extension cord. I just pull down the door on the cord, free charging station at work. Few are commuting 100+ miles one way to even need a fast charger. It’s overblown concern.
Need a plug-in? More businesses adopt EV chargers to attract customers
There are more than 51,000 electric vehicles registered in the Chicago area. But with only 1,300 public charging stations installed across the state — there’s a lot of catching up to do in the charging infrastructure. Businesses are stepping in to fill that gap.
chicago.suntimes.com
And its not like everyone needs the supercharger-type speeds for daily use. Average usage for most drivers is like 30-40 miles per day. One can get that plugging it in to a 110v outlet overnight, even without installing a more powerful connection.
Anecdotal, but a ton of parking lots around my neighborhood in LA have charging spots. There's even some streetside ones. About 1/3rd of the parking spots in my building's garage have chargers installed.
15 passengers?! Keep it in your pants for five minutes bro!