Will you buy an electric or hybrid car next?

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485

I grew up in a red old style VW. It hauled my family and our two German Shepherds many miles and after it was done with its road miles, it became a doghouse (doors off of it).

It brings back memories, but not enough to want one for myself TBH, old style or new.

I actually really like the SUVs like our Ford Escape. It’s not a “have to buy.” It was a “want to buy” for me. I’m not a “car” person of any style car, sports car, sedan, whatever, and I’ve found I don’t really care for trucks either. The SUV is a nice mix, esp since our Escapes can tow what we need them to tow. H would prefer a truck for work, but has made the Escape work since the old truck died.

486

We live in a rural area. The closest charging stations would be 30+ miles away. If I lived in a city, I would probably purchase an EV for in town driving. However, we do lots of long distance traveling. Since June 1st we have made 3 trips of over 400 miles one way, and 1 trip of over 300 miles. Coming up next month, we have a 900 mile trip to our DD planned.

One thing that I haven’t seen on this thread is registration fee cost. Our state charges an additional $150 a year on registration fees for either an EV or Hybrid vehicle. It was passed to make up for the loss of gasoline taxes that pay for roads. Gasoline tax pays for many states roads, so how are states going to make up that income? The roads are still being used by the EV’s and Hybrids, but there is no tax received on the EV’s and much less from the Hybrids.

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487

Actually, the Electrify America chargers are part of the Volkswagen scandal settlement and have nothing to do with taxpayers. That is Volkswagen footing that bill. They are not free for everyone, but many of the current new EVs come with 2 or 3 free years of Electrify America charging.

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488

Per mile charge with a vehicle-specific coefficient. It is not that difficult. Let the farmers get their diesel at a discount. No one will drive their farm machinery around town just to save a few $$ on road taxes. :slight_smile:

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489

To clarify, I wasn’t referring to free electricity I was referring to the cost of installing/constructing charging stations.

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That’s what I was referring to also. Very few charging stations, if any, are constructed by the federal government. And only a handful by progressive local city and town governments.

On the other hand Electrify America/Volkswagen-Audi-Porsche group has been constructing a huge amount of chargers across the country. They are available at Walmarts across the country as well as other locations.

There are very few federal or local free gas stations either!! Charging is a business and aside from EA some of the other big players are Charge Point, EVgo, Tesla, of course, and some smaller players like Clipper Creek and Blink, oh and the car makers— chargers are usually available at dealerships. These charging companies build and install the chargers themselves. Nothing to do with taxpayers or the government aside from Volkswagen’s having to create EA due to the settlement for the TDI scandal.

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492

I appreciate that many EV chargers/stations are owned by private entities however, the recent infrastructure bill contains billions of dollars earmarked for EV charger installation/construction in a national network and competitive funding grants to the states (as well as EV purchasing by a myriad of federal agencies and other EV initiatives). A stated government goal is to build out the first-ever national network of 500,000 electric vehicle chargers along America’s highways and in communities. So far there are around 100,000.

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/us-detail-5-bln-plan-fund-ev-charging-network-2022-02-10/

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493

Excellent post, @mynameiswhatever. When we went skiing with DS#1 and family last Dec, he was allowed and able to drive no problem on the CA highway with his Tesla. (CA restricts/monitors cars in snow conditions). Thank heavens I bought snow chains (cables) for the rental car before we headed to the mountains b/c we absolutely needed them and would not have been allowed on the highway without them. With good reason!

Currently its ridiculously hot here. I am able to turn the a/c on remotely before we get in the car so it’s comfortable when we get in. It also has “cabin overheat” that turns the a/c on if the car gets to over 93% inside and then turns it off when its cooled down. We were recently visited by DIL and granddau who is 4 1/2. We were headed to a playground when she fell asleep. We were able to sit quietly in the car with the a/c on to let her snooze. There is no “engine” running. Just the a/c. And if you have a dog and you have to run an errand? Put the car in “dog mode” and leave the a/c (or heat, if need be) on in the car and play the dog’s favorite music!! I LOVE my EV.

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494

Anyone worried about that ought to also read this that has been going on for ages:

https://e360.yale.edu/digest/fossil-fuels-received-5-9-trillion-in-subsidies-in-2020-report-finds

It’s an article published by the Yale School of the Environment.

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wanna drive in this???

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image1870×1668 305 KB

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Ok, to make the math easier, compare 478,000,000,000 to 5,000,000,000 to see where more money is spent without considering anything implicit. (Note the 0s could all drop off to get the 478/5 ratio. And note that the 478 is not all US, but a lot more than “5” of it is.)

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Here’s one with solely US:

My suspicion with the politics that seem to be involved is some sources are dissing the one without any comparisons to the other. Seems to be the thing to do to keep folks only seeing one side.

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499

On the snow issue, absolutely. I committed malpractice when driving to the ski place. The sign clearly said “Chain Control in Effect”, and I should have stopped to put the cables on immediately. Instead, I was lazy and said we would put it on later. Unfortunately, every other turnout lane was uphill, and I could not get the cables on. We barely made it up the small hill to get back on the road.

Meanwhile, I marveled at all the Teslas making it up and down hills because of the low center of gravity/AWD. There was definitely someone from the local sheriff’s department checking cars to make sure they were properly equipped.

Generally speaking, parts of the Bay Area can be very hilly. We have absolutely no problems going up the steepest hills around here.

It’s so funny you talk about the dog mode in the Tesla. DD mentioned that just yesterday. I don’t think I would ever use this with our pupper, as I would be afraid something would go wrong.

But, yes, indeed, Telsa is a technological wonder. We have the Model Y, and there is absolutely nothing on the dashboard except a single tablet that contains EVERYTHING, from the speedometer, odometer, gauges, etc to climate control to GPS to infotainment. It took a while to get used to this, but I guess it’s a safer design. Instead of looking out the front windshield, the speedometer, the GPS, the climate control, and the infotainment in several different visual fields, you look at one place for everything in the Telsa. I guess that’s better and safer, as you have fewer places to look.

However, I do wonder what would happen if that tablet ever conked out! I actually did have the center display go dead on me in a PHEV I had, but I had duplicate physical controls for the radio and climate control. Effectively, I was just out the GPS with no display. In the Telsa Model Y, though, I think you’re pretty much out of luck if that display goes.

500

Given how much the government did to subsidize and support previous transportation options, including trains and gas cars, and how much it still subsidizes the oil industry, seems consistent to also help this.

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501

The Tesla will still drive even without the tablet.

(I found out the hard/scary way as we were doing 75+ on the interstate on Autosteer and the screen went blank. Car continued to do what it was supposed to. When I stopped an hour later to charge at a SuperCharger, the tablet rebooted itself and was back online in a minute or so.)

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502

Thank you! That is very good to know!

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That’s a better outcome than my 7 year old gas Volvo XC90 which was one of the earliest cars that went to an all-digital dashboard display. That screen failed mid-drive once a few years ago and it instantly bricked the car – suddenly without warning it dropped to 10 miles per hour and totally ignored any acceleration on the pedal. I was fortunately close to home and was able to put on the emergency blinkers and crawl to my driveway. Volvo had to come and pick up the car with a tow truck and take it in for servicing (was still under warranty). They later told me this was a “safety feature” because I could not see the current speed of the car (despite the fact that this wasn’t technically true as the HUD still worked). So despite the only problem in the car being the screen disconnected, it made the entire car effectively inoperable. They claimed it was a federal requirement, but that must not be true if Tesla doesn’t do it. Instead it must just be Volvo being typically over cautious.

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There are several things to do if the screen blacks out. Reset it by holding down the 2 scroll wheels or sometimes get out/ open the door and it resets! Ask me how I know.

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505

Companies deduct expenses in determining taxable income. Not limited to energy companies. Its as if all revenue belongs to the government and just be happy you are allowed to keep any of it.