Which means close to 80% like theirs and plan on sticking with it. Many of those 80% are also showing others their vehicles and all the positives, causing those long waiting lists we encountered.
I agree they aren’t for everyone and I don’t plan on dissing anyone who buys an ICE vehicle for the next few years while EVs (or H powered) vehicles, charging, etc, improve. But for us, our next vehicle and all others afterward are likely to be EV - no law required. It depends on if we will need something prior to the supply meeting the demand TBH. My son who has one of each right now is looking to replace his ICE with an EV at some point.
And yet another difference between areas. I couldn’t tell you a time I’ve had to wait at sheetz for a spot to fill up, and that’s our busiest gas station. We don’t have a Costco
There is quite a difference between gas prices at our Costco and the closest to us gas station (the local gas station is not easy to access because of the left turn lanes with dividers). Close to $1/gallon last time we filled the Y2K truck (which was a few weeks ago). You bet smart A’s are all lining up at Costco… $15-20 a fill is significant savings. People are willing to wait for that.
Well as I said, we don’t have one. The closest is about 50 miles away. Not worth the drive. Sheetz 88 gas with a card is $2.88 here. It’s the cheapest we have.
Have 1 (household has 3 cars). 2nd on order to replace one of the 2 ICE cars. Probably will keep the remaining ICE car until it dies as it’s newish and gets good mileage.
I have a SC location that I frequent that pops up with an 80% limit reminder, but teh app allows me to over-ride that 80% limit if I need to charge to 100%. (which I will only do if the SC is not busy.) Perhaps its different at your SC.
A lot of folks trickle charge and it works great for them. But my earlier point was being able to charge at home (or office), regardless of whether L1 or L2. (Both of my kids were considering an EV but I recommended against it for them as they have no easy way to charge.)
Most EVs charge faster at low states of charge and slower at high states of charge. Charging past about 80% on a DC fast charging station will not be that fast. Tesla navigation’s built-in charging stop routing tends to prefer scheduling charging stops at low state of charge (like 10-15%) so that charging can be done at the highest charging power. This means both less time spent charging for the driver, and less congestion at the charging station.
Got a Tesla last year. Fun car to drive, and more convenient than gas for regular local driving. Have taken a few long distance trips to city destinations where much of the travel is on interstates, so charging not a problem en route or at the destination. Have looked at some trips to more remote mountain areas where convenient charging will be an issue. For that reason, when our other car’s lease (SUV) is up, we will stick with gas or hybrid.
Electric cars aren’t there yet. They’re fine as commuter cars. But even then, gas cars are fine commuter cars too, and they cost less. I supposed if I was going to buy a $50,000 BMW, a Tesla would be a reasonable alternative. But I have no rational reason to spend $50k on a car to drive 17 minutes to work.
You don’t need to spend 50k for an EV. Leaf and Bolt have been available at the low end of the market for years and they’re very good cars. There are several more available in that category or coming next year. Before gas prices rose last spring it was possible to get a used EV with 80-100 mile range for 10-15k.
For a commute like yours they’re ideal cars with lower overall cost of ownership vs. comparable ICE vehicles. In your case you wouldn’t even need a level 2 charger to recharge fully overnight.
Range has increased considerably even at the low end of the market (even though most drivers probably don’t need the range they think they do). For the vast majority of EV drivers current range of 200-250 is totally adequate. We’re seeing manufacturers shift focus more to charging speed than battery capacity.
When VW added a trim level to their US ID.4 line for 2023, it wasn’t a longer range version but one with a smaller battery and range around 200 miles. That car will meet the needs of most people especially as charging networks continue to improve coverage. And of course range will improve in some cars to accommodate market demand for it (which does exist but is a smaller segment of the market).
Did consider a hybrid based on this thread. Bought a car yesterday. Paid 50K (slightly used). I did ask about the mild hybrid (Volvo), the 2-3MPG difference wasn’t worth it.
Didn’t consider the plug in for several reasons. Don’t want a plug in the garage, I’m absolutely not waiting for my car to charge on long trips, and maybe the most important thing. The idea of someone having the ability to shut down the grid temporarily ( and my car) basically shuts down my interest. CA is great in that it portends things that are likely to happen elsewhere.
A plug in hybrid still uses gas so not sure why you would be worried about long trips or a problem with the grid. Did you mean a full EV? The Volvo is a plug in hybrid not a mild hybrid.
No, I didn’t mean a full EV. There are lots of Volvo options. One that we considered was what they call the mild hybrid. The models we looked at included the XC 60 which we bought and a couple of others. You can get what you want. From fully electric to fully electric to mild hybrid or just gas.
In our area of the country (NC) the gas pipeline has shut down (Colonial Pipeline ransomware). It was pretty sweet to have my EV then when everybody else was lining up at the gas stations freaking out. When the power goes out where you are, do gas pumps still keep working?
