Most passenger vehicles use snow cables now, not chains. Lighter, easier to install, and don’t tear up the roads.
Yes I agree that works for that sort of climate, if the car has clearance for chains. Some cars don’t have clearance even for cable chains and they aren’t recommended.
Yes I completely agree EVs are great in snow with the proper tires. My point was more to caution those concerned about this issue to make sure they are paying attention to tires not just the car.
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Yes, totally agree. An AWD, even with proper tires, can never come close to a four-wheel drive in low range. I’ve had both, and a real four-wheel drive in low range can go just about anywhere.
Oh, how I miss my Jeep Wrangler!
Ideally, I can find something I like and test drive it during bad weather.
No need for HOV sticker for us. I don’t think they have those in our state, but they might? We don’t seem to have the issues with traffic except at choke points and interstates like 95 on weekends/holidays.
I’m shocked at how much our old Volvo is worth. We’re keeping it though. Great car for the kids. And it easily works for the beach, mountains and the dump.
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Back to the incentives issue for a moment - allow me a slight vent: In my state I have to pay not only an extra fee for the EV tag (I am fine with that- its my choice and I can drive in the HOV lane with it) BUT, we EV owners are charged an annual “alternative fuel vehicle fee” because we do not pay the gas tax at the pump. For a non-commercial vehicle, this year it was $210.96. BUT, the governor has temporarily suspended the gas tax for all ICE cars since march of this year. But did we get any kind of credit or comparable break for paying this alternative fuel vehicle fee? No. IMO we should have- since ICE drivers have been given this break at least through the summer.
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Suspension of the gas tax presumably was to help offset (somewhat) the increased cost of gasoline and inflation overall. You are waving to people at gas pumps as you drive by in your EV. But you want some money back on your EV tag fee? How much? Gas tax suspension means more to people who buy more gasoline than others. Should any EV tag reduction be equal to everyone paying it or prorated some other way?
And in the end, to the extent we move away from ICE vehicles, gas tax revenue will need to be replaced with something else (at least to the extent they are used for roads – in some states I understand that is a required usage). Expect to see EV tag fees to increase. If that happens, maybe the lack of a rebate/reduction now won’t feel so bad.
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We get socked with the fee to compensate for the fact that we aren’t paying a gas tax. Regardless of why they suspended the tax, if the ICE drivers aren’t paying it, neither should we.
I guess my view is that everyone who uses roads should have to pay tax to help with the upkeep of them. If you don’t pay it through a gas tax because you have an EV then it should be paid some other way.
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It doesn’t sound too good for the power grid:
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All I am saying is if ICE drivers are getting a temporary break, so should we. We pay an annual fee equivalent to what they pay in state taxes on 725 gal of gas
Wouldn’t it be fairer to pay, instead of a gas tax (or some EV tag fee):
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a road tax to cover the damage to the roads based on the mileage driven and the weight of the vehicle; and
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a separate environmental tax to cover the damage to the environment based on the vehicle’s overall (i.e. for both emission and energy generation) carbon footprint?
It will certainly be controversial, even if it’s fairer.
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Probably gasoline taxes were used because they were relatively easy to implement (and did not increase the incentive for odometer fraud) while gasoline consumption gave a decent approximation of the weight, mileage / usage, and environmental based effects? Of course, that approximation becomes less accurate when electric vehicles are thrown into the mix.
Which means people won’t be able to pump gas at the stations unless they have generators to work the pumps.
If we had an EV at home, we could use our own personal generator to charge it some if we had to - or we could use the EV to run our house for a little bit if that were better.
Better than both would be if we had personal solar access… When Puerto Rico had its recent major power outage it didn’t affect my solar powered lad at all. He shared some of his power with his neighbors. Afterward he said a lot of local people invested in the solar panels he already had, but of course, stores raised the prices on them at that point.
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Electric vehicle charging largely happens at off-peak hours (incentivized by time-of-use electricity rates), rather than during peak hours (late afternoon and early evening when air conditioning use is greatest) when the grids are most likely to get overloaded.
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Do you have source for this? That’s not my understanding. I’ll look for a study I saw recently that says the opposite. Most people drive home from work and plug in their cars. They are hitting the system exactly at the early evening peak. Not all areas have time of use rates and even where they do, not everyone bothers. That said, EVs aren’t contributing enough load to be a significant factor in the current situation.
ETA: I located the data I recall seeing and it was specific to New England, but it showed a clear pattern of early evening charging. I’m not sure if other parts of the country have the same profile.
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I’ve not seen electricity rates determined by time of day or demand here in PA. Maybe because I have a fixed rate that good for a specific number of months before it adjusts?
The good news is that EVs are not a significant potion of the hundreds of millions of cars currently owned in the US. Provided the government is smart with their energy policies going forward, supply should be able to ramp up as demand increases. If they aren’t, life will be an expensive, unreliable and unpleasant experience as people not only have EVs but HVAC, appliances and so forth that only run on electricity.
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Our rate doesn’t change either.
According to the article @sushiritto posted it sounds like the grid PA uses is a bit more practical and realistic in its approach to electricity production so black and brown outs aren’t much of a problem. Personally I can’t remember ever experiencing either one in the 50 years I’ve lived in PA.
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Link to a survey on time of use rates:
On page 2, 14% of US utilities offer a residential time of use rate, and where it’s available, 3% of customers enroll on average.