I would love an EV for local driving, but from speaking to a friend that has one said her insurance is much higher and repair cost too. currently, the cost of ownership is too much for us, I will stick with my Honda Civic for now.
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How much of the gas you use in your internal combustion engine (ICE) is from green sources?
FWIW, our local power comes from nuclear (not that I love that either). But with an electric vehicle you can make your own fuel with solar cells, a home windmill, micro-hydro power if you’re really concerned about it. There’s a whole group of people where the survivalists and hippies intersect that do this. It’s a lot harder to go out and refine your own gas.
Every single time you start and drive your ICE car you add to pollution. Your vehicle not only runs on a fuel that is very dirty to make (petroleum), but it also adds to the pollution problem when you are going to the grocery store.
My vehicle may or may not run on a fuel that is dirty to make depending on how the electricity is produced, but when I am driving it I am not adding more pollutants to the atmosphere. That’s what zero-emissions means. And that’s why we switched to EVs.
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I agree completely. Our 2012 Camry Hybrid, while an older generation with a lower MPG than yours, is one of the best cars we’ve ever owned. It’s closing in on 150,000 miles and we haven’t had a single problem with it. The hybrid purchase was originally a utilitarian decision due to my 100+ mile daily commute, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed driving it. We also have two newer Subarus, and while I really like driving both, I prefer the hybrid’s acceleration over the CVT transmission.
We installed a 50 amp outlet by the driveway for my in-laws to use with their RV when they visit, which will make going all electric or plug-in hybrid with the next car much more practical.
I’m looking forward to cars with solar paint!
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The EPA has a very handy little calculator widget on their website that will estimate the greenhouse gas emissions associated with driving your EV or PHEV car in your local area. For my Chevy Bolt in my area I get 90 CO2 g/m. It says a typical gas vehicle in my area is 410.
They also have a nice myth-busting page that might be useful for some of y’all. Electric Vehicle Myths | US EPA
Again, hardly any maintenance or repairs for our Chevy Bolt that we have had for 5 years (outside of the recall, which gave us a freakin’ brand new battery for free). Got 84000 miles on it and it runs like a dream.
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This thread has a few straw man arguments.
First, @thumper1 never said they’d go fully electric, but rather one EV and one hybrid. That makes all the handwringing about long trips moot.
Second, EV as a status symbol? My bolt is essentially an electric version of the Fit we gave our son, hardly a status symbol. The lease is $149/mo, and we paid nothing down. Can’t find that now? You can’t find great deals on ANY vehicles right now. @thumper1 never said they were buying right now though, nor did they propose a Rivian, a Tesla Model S, or a Lucid.
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OK I thought this was kinda funny.
Nuclear power plants release radioactive materials into the air and where do all those spent fuel rods go? They’re transported to be buried somewhere in the US. How about that water to cool the nuclear power plant?
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not all insurance companies charge an EV premium. Your friend should shop around.
Cost of ownership should be cheaper as BEV’s have fewer working parts, and lower maintenance. In the first 4.5 years that I have owned mine, I have rotated the tires, changed teh windshield wipers and added windshield washer fluid. That’s it.
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We also live in NC. We have a 2013 Ford C-Max hybrid (replaced a 2003 Honda Civic hybrid) and a 2017 Chevrolet Bolt (replaced a 1997 Honda Civic hatchback). The technology improvements with each round of cars have been amazing. If you haven’t looked at an EV in a while you might be surprised at the advances.
We usually just charge off our wall charger.
Where we live we deal with the most unreliable power grid I have ever personally dealt with. We can pretty much count on losing power for 1/2 a day or more, once or twice a year. You all might be amused to know that my husband has wired the Bolt up so that we can run the house off of it for short periods of time. We could run the fridge, the office, and the lights for 2-3 days if needed.
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I guess we can agree to disagree on this one. Look at all of the shenanigans this driver had going 300 miles from New York to Vermont! No thanks - sounds like an absolute nightmare.
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I agree with you on these issues. For folks who live in an area with grid/power issues already, there are certain things to consider. For those of us in NE, I wonder why prices for electricity wouldn’t rise as more people move to EV’s? Maybe someone will get a few years of really low costs then it will go up a lot. Gas is high so the economic consideration at this moment can also play into it.
I have no interest in stopping at the roadside to charge up. I can’t even keep my iPhone charged. I’d have a hybrid just for medium trips and around town when gas goes above a certain price. Would be fine as a third car. I’d use the convertible and SUV for other business ( Beach and the dump).
We have a family member who is in the energy business. He often says every energy source has pluses and minuses. Even solar, wind, etc. We have geothermal for our home. I actually think that is one system which actually is less of a drain on the environment. But I’m not moral about it. It’s energy and the green for me is $$$ as well as “green”
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So little though that it can be disregarded. It’s fractions of a percent of the background radiation we are exposed to daily and never even think about.
https://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/radiation/related-info/faq.html#9
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Less than coal plants.
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What do you tell your kids about rare mineral mining for the batteries? And the battery disposal? Have you also thought about that aspect of what kind of world you are leaving your kids.
I tell them that everything has pros and cons. On balance ICE cars are far more harmful, even including battery production and disposal.
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Glad someone is talking about pros and cons. I have geothermal but don’t usually pontificate about leaving the planet a better place than my neighbors who have gas/electric/oil heat and maybe can’t afford geothermal or don’t have enough space.
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The only thing released into the air is water vapor, if it’s working properly. Of course you’ve got to get that right! It does generate dangerous radio-active fission products and “transuranic,” elements that take a very long time to decay.
But in terms of efficiency and emissions, it’ very clean. Among the better choices (if handled with the utmost care) to bridge us to a day where we can have more robust solar. But no one wants it in their back yard.
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I did not read the 2nd article. But in the first one the entire reason for the writer’s charging hassle is that he was determind to find a partcular brand of ev charger so he could get free charging. Seems like a lot of unnecessary time and trouble to save $4. Makes me suspicious that there was an agenda in this review.
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If you have two cars when one car would do, you aren’t environmentally friendly. So many people have an EV for commuting and a gasoline powered car for longer trips. But consider that the second vehicle has used raw materials, which must be manufactured, and the energy used in the manufacture itself, plus the inevitable disposal issues and you aren’t saving the earth. You are using up more natural resources.
Use less. Buy less. Conserve.
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Not agreeing to disagree until you’ve done it. How many road trips have you taken in an EV?
Let’s see, we have driven from NC to Florida. From NC to Atlanta. From NC to VA. And all over NC from the beach to the mountains. In my personal experience of driving an EV for 7 years I enjoy driving an EV for road trips and it is my preferred car to drive. I currently drive a 2017 Chevy Bolt so not even one of the newer faster charging EVs out there.
If you try out driving an EV and hate it then we can agree to disagree, but right now you’re going on hearsay and I’m going on personal experience. Take one for a test drive and then we can talk.
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