They’re just some EV owners that aren’t doing much, if anything, else.
I have never seen Tesla drivers do any idiotic stuff here, and we have a lot of Teslas… that privilege belongs to punks in their jazzed up Hondas. 
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Really? EV owners have a holier than thou attitude and it’s a universal problem because you’ve met EV owners all around the country and the world and you know this? You’ve been to all the “locales”? Wow you have managed to turn an apology into insulting every EV owner on this thread yet again.
Most of the EV owners I have met have been kind and friendly folks looking to reduce their carbon footprint. I’m sure there are some jerks out there just like there are plenty of jerks that drive Ford pick up trucks or Toyota Camrys or Honda Accords. But the folks I have met in MY locale are good folks. I haven’t met all of them, though.
Again, EVs do not have to be part of the power grid. I have made this point before but will make it again. You can charge your car on your own solar/wind/micro-hydro/etc. People who go off grid completely like EVs because they can be completely off grid unlike gas vehicles which not only rely on the petroleum industry but also rely on electricity to power the gas pumps. If you’re a survivalist and want to be prepared for dystopia you go for biodiesel you can make yourself out of pig fat or whatever, or you go EV which you can power via on your own.
And your fears about the national power grid are unfounded. I don’t know about your local power grid.
https://www.autoweek.com/news/green-cars/a30650045/public-utilities-will-all-these-new-electric-cars-crash-the-grid/
This point right here:
Not relevant to me because I don’t live where in an area that has a drought. We get a lot of rain. Our water supply is at 96% and my local water company tells me “With no further rainfall, we have enough water to last: 618 DAYS.”
You are looking at this through your local situation which is not the same as other people’s situations. Not all EV drivers are jerks everywhere. The grid in most places can handle EVs just fine. Your neighbors may not compost but many of my neighbors compost. I have a micro-farm across the suburban street from me with chickens and bunnies and veggies.
Again not all Tesla drivers are jerks. There are nice people on this thread who said they drive Teslas so y’all are calling them jerks? Not cool.
And isn’t that better than not doing anything at all? I’m sorry if you have neighbors who bug you, but the rest of the world is not like your neighbors.
We take at least one 1000+ mile (each way) trip a year. And several 500+ mile (each way) trips a year. Monthly 250+ (each way) trips. Vehicle goes 500 miles on a tank of gas. We stop for gas and rarely anything else (combining restroom and eating breaks with gas stops). We traveled in a caravan with several other families several years back. They stopped about every 90-120 minutes. My family didn’t need such stops. Just dragged out the travel time. When we did subsequent trips with that group, we drove separately. I actually added a couple nights at another location on the first trip to avoid having to drive back with the caravan.
We typically drive straight through. I know people who take 3 hours for what we drive in 2 (they stop along the way). 4 hour trips are 5+ hour trips for them. Driving more than 6-7 hours requires an overnight stay for them. I routinely dropped my daughter at college with a 5.5 hour drive, drop her at her dorm door, and drive 5.5 hours home. 98% highways. No way I am stopping every 2-3 hours. Not going to happen.
I get that no everyone drives that way. What works for some doesn’t work for all. Why there are different options available. Expect tech to get better, number of charging stations to increase, etc. Costs will come down. This site skews to higher incomes so current prices are less an issue for many people here. Wife just visited cousin who recently sold their house for $30k. Not falling down, next to toxic waste dump, etc. In residential neighborhood (with a house down the street listed for $9k). Don’t expect they will be buying many EV anytime soon (or new gas powered vehicles either for that matter). Those changes will change the dynamics for more people though not likely all.
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And those dang loud mufflers. Hate those things. Not EV drivers around here.
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I just want to thank everyone who is giving their real life experience with their EV/Hybrid. DH and I didn’t buy one when our 2005 Pilot was on it’s last leg in 2020 for many of the reasons people have listed, but reading some of peoples’ experiences makes me think next time we can make the jump.
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We got a Tesla last year. Aside from whatever - small - benefit driving an EV may provide to reducing emissions (and I understand that it is a small benefit) it is a super fun car. I honestly love driving it, and, having never been a car person, that’s not something I’ve ever experienced before. I also really appreciate the convenience of never having to get gas. I just plug it in every few days (overnight) and don’t really have to think about it.
We have yet to take it on a longer trip, but I have used the superchargers a few times when I was out and about, and they were faster and easier than I expected. From my reading, it does seem like experiences with taking longer road trips in a Tesla can vary - charging times can sometimes take longer than expected and charging stops will generally be more frequent then filling up a gas tank. But, honestly, we don’t take many longer road trips - maybe once/year. So, the every day convenience makes up for the potential inconvenience that might happen on the rare road trip.
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Meh, not really. In terms of personal energy usage/cost, marginal at best. And pricey too.
I have no fears about the national power grid, barring a bad actor shutting one or more plants/areas down with a laptop.
Yes, I’m sure it’s an attitude that’s only confined to my locale. And not seen anywhere else.
Feel insulted, if you want. I really don’t care one way or another.
I think you have really good points for your driving needs. You’ve taken the time to think about how you drive, what your priorities are, and how EVs work.
And I get ya on the driving straight through thing. I have a friend that needs to stop at least once on a trip that is only 130 miles away. Unless my bladder is about to burst or I’m falling asleep behind the wheel that is a definite drive straight through trip for me.
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I admire people who walk the walk and talk the talk. I also admire those who do what they can, either small or large.
As the heat wave in Europe should be giving everyone some pause this week.
We do what we can and any way there is to reduce our carbon footprint, you have kudos from me.
FYI the driving jerks in my area drive great big trucks and have American flags waving out the back. Actually they don’t have to have the flags, just the big gas guzzling truck.
Jerks on the road are universal. What they drive is not.
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Tesla has been successful at attracting some of the “former BMW driver” demographic, so no surprise that you see some BMW driver stereotype driving habits. The same driver demographic probably is not the one that chose the car based on energy savings and such (they would not drive like that if they were pinching electrons like some “former Prius driver” EV drivers).
But if you prefer gasoline cars, be glad some of them are in Teslas, since they are not longer adding to gasoline demand. However, if you are a non aggressive Tesla driver, they may be annoying due to their effect on your insurance rates.
Reckless drivers drive all sorts of vehicles, but it was just pure coincidence that today’s example of a reckless driver was driving a Tesla/EV. This person was nearly “lane splitting” like a motorcyclist does in traffic.
I was about to post the same thing: there are TONS of Teslas and EVs/PHEVs of all sorts here. The drivers of these cars tend to be the safest and most cautious. I have no idea where this concept that Tesla drivers are bad/rude/whatever comes from, but it certainly ain’t from the Bay Area. Do those “pontificating” this have any evidence of a higher number of tickets, more accidents, higher insurance rates, etc?
Speaking of insurance, I personally found little to no difference in insuring EVs and PHEVs than other cars. We just went through this last year. Insuring the Tesla was, AFAIK, not materially different from insuring another comparably priced new car. Perhaps that’s because of our driving record and is personal to us. But, FWIW, there was essentially no difference for us.
Knock on wood, we are hoping for no maintenance on the Tesla. We get software updates, but that’s been about it.
As I said earlier upthread, we have been fine with charging both our EV and PHEV with the 110 v. Interestingly, we are putting in a new panel in next week and will be able to get to the 220-240v range in our garage, so that will be even better. But that’s an added benefit to replacing our panel: ours is DECADES old (older than me I believe), and it was high time to replace it. We are going from a meager 70 amps (!) to 200 amps. I have no idea how we were powering everything here and charging cars with 70 amps, but we did. We’ve only taken the Tesla to the superchargers a handful of times since getting the Model Y.
Pretty much on the West Coast, you shouldn’t have any issues on longer journeys in between charges. As I also said upthread, we drove a very large portion of the East Coast recently, and found chargers in all the hotels we stayed at (most of them not high-end). Yes, you do need to prepare, but it’s really not a big deal. And it absolutely is not a big deal for local driving even if you only have 110v charging at home. I too was skeptical about that, and many of the posters on my OP (posted above) pointed out that it was nothing to worry about. They were totally right.
Oh, by the way, I don’t suck as a driver just because we have a Tesla.
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Actually, I can’t. I think part of the reason we are societally here in 2020 is that people don’t mind their own business. My old next door neighbor used to raise bees. She talked about living off the grid around 2001.
Ok, she did some interesting things. One day, a swarm of bees came toward my back porch. My husband asked me why I wasn’t outside. Well, I’m allergic to bees!! And she was trying to get them back (in her bee suit). Did I tell her that her bees were an issue for me (nope I didn’t we lived there 14 years). Why? Because I think minding your own business and doing the things that you need to do to live a good life are yours to keep. And I know that bees are awesome for pollination.
And, I think if everyone did good things ( like raise bees, and chickens and compost and garden etc, etc), that would be great. But if people did good things then told their neighbor what to do and what kind of car was best, then we’re in another place altogether. Just my opinion. But I think that EV’s and Hybrids would also be a lot more acceptable to some people if there wasn’t any moral thinking attached to energy consumption. Let people come to their own conclusions.
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I don’t understand this at all. Takes about 4 minutes to fill my tank and it’s big. I go maybe once a week. Tank is for 400 miles. Maybe folks are driving more often. By us, there are lots of self service stations and lots of full serve. It can take you zero time if you take a call and do full service.
We’ve gone to the gas station zero times in the Tesla. Almost always, charging at night at 110 v at home is perfectly fine. So we’ve saved time and money (especially by not buying Doritos for $2.00 + at the “convenience” store at the gas station).
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No full service in our state. Not paying a premium for overpriced off-freeway gas means one has to make a small detour to a neighborhood station to get gas. I highly doubt it is a 5 minute expedition with all that driving. More like 20 minutes each time wasted to pay $50 (in 2018 - or whatever it costs now). Our electric bill went up $70 a month since we got the EV (versus the $200 it cost us to fill a similar size car with gas in 2018). I think monthly gas $$ will be much more now. Time is money, as they say.
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You may want to rotate the tires as recommended, if you do not want to replace tires more often than you should have to replace them.
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Great point. My understanding is that the optimal tires for Telsa are VERY expensive. Our wonderful non-branded/much cheaper mechanic told me that he can do very little for our Telsa EXCEPT the tires. Will make sure to keep the rotation point in mind. Tesla recommends rotating every 6250 miles:
Well that sounds like it’s partly an issue of where you live ( no full service, going out of the way to get gas).
I agree that gas is likely to go up in price. What stops me from an EV is that electric is likely to go up too. And on a personal note, I’d never put that charger in my house as my driveway is too long for the firehose. Electric fire under my bed, and next to a couple of farms with fields of hay and the fire dept relying on getting enough chems to put it out— no thanks. There was an electrical fire caused by solar and the entire company burned recently. But if it suits you great. $70 is certainly less than what I pay in gas monthly. I’m certainly not going to buy Dorritos in a gas station or wait 20 minutes for a charge for my car.
I’ll take the current options I have happily and stay with gas for now. Might be a hybrid buyer in the near future, might even be an EV buyer if the tech changes and batteries tech jumps.It’s coming along, albeit slowly. And I don’t like the super high end/super low end options. I need something in the middle. Waiting to see what Polestar releases in 2023. I don’t know if they plan a hybrid model. Will look into it.