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Electric car owners?

NutmegCT

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Just wondering what you think of the "electric experience".

How much do you pay to charge up.

Heating and air conditioning effect on battery life.

Insurance costs.

Changed driving patterns/habits.

Any regrets?

Thanks.
Tom M.
 

JPSmit

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No direct experience but my mechanic drives an Electric Smart Car (and owns a Range Rover and a Truck) for just getting back and forth to work he says it can't be beat.

This morning I just saw an ad for the Mustang Mach-E electric car.

I am not sure I would own one because most of the driving I do is longer distances and because it is out of my realm financially but, prices are coming down and if I just needed a commuter car....
 

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Was given an Audi E-tron as a one-day loaner (while my Q5 had some recall stuff done). It was amazing. A 402hp SUV with gobs of bells and whistles... but, about $85K.
It was probably the best sales pitch I ever had, but I'm not biting.

etron.jpg
 
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Deleted member 8987

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Couple of observations.
Let's say you want to take a trip.
Gasoline vehicles were always arranged for 200-250 miles per tank.
Get gas, stretch legs, off you go.
Electrics?
I have read, with all the ballyhoo of mileage claims, 125-175 tops.
Then what?

Park at a motel overnight while it charges? Three days from LA to SanFran?

I have a friend in SoCal, leased a FIATsco 500 electric. The charger that was provided, no way to charge it in the "cheap" electricity overnight rate....charge too long, window too small.
Electronic Engineer, designed and built a fast charger to fit in the available window.

Worked well for him driving to work and back, less than 10 miles round trip including errands.

Then there is the Tesla....and near as we can tell, threats by manufacturer on publicizing fires....but they happen FAR more frequently than the agenda-driven media will ever tell you.

Friend of my brother, lived near him, widow.....Tesla torched in the garage, took the roof off the house while she was napping in the afternoon...barely got out of the house. Next day, five miles north, another one lit off....neither ever showed up in the news.

Some government mandate will probably force us to do it, someday, but like stupidphones, I shall resist.
 

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The Audi checks in with a reliable 205 miles (though obviously that's a function of how the car is used). I think that will prove to be too little except for a "local" car.
300 miles will be a better battery, otherwise, these are city-run-about cars.
The Audi also has a quasi-quick-charge feature... 10 minutes gives 55 miles.

For the wide-open spaces of the USA, an internal combustion engine isn't going away soon.

I was also reading that many fleets will switch to electrics as those companies know their needs.
 

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I have a friend in SoCal, leased a FIATsco 500 electric. The charger that was provided, no way to charge it in the "cheap" electricity overnight rate....charge too long, window too small.
Electronic Engineer, designed and built a fast charger to fit in the available window.
Worked well for him driving to work and back, less than 10 miles round trip including errands.

I also have a friend with the Fiat "500e" (and is a mechanic) and he loves it... but only for a short-trip city driver. Small and easy to use.
Interestingly, it has heated seats and steering! I might have thought that to be crazy in such a vehicle. However, evidently, they've studied this and found that when the seat and/or steering is heated the occupants are much less likely to turn on the actual heating system for the whole car (which uses a lot more juice).
 
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And speaking of electric cars... will the software be owned by the owner (or will be it more like a Microsoft lease of your operating system)!
Check THIS out.

[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Tahoma,Calibri,Geneva,sans-serif]https://www.zdnet.com/article/tesla-yanks-autopilot-features-from-used-car-because-they-werent-paid-for/ [/FONT]
 
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Isn't the feature removal part of the Tesla Model BS?


I can't wait. The 5-tube superhet radio in my 1950 Ford may get disabled because I didn't pay the license fee?

All started with Microslime....I remember when they (MS) stated in a video release, they could shut down remotely any MS operating system anywhere in the world whenever they wanted.
 
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NutmegCT

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Just talked to a guy that travelled Boston to Chicago in a Tesla S. Liked the car, but every 150 miles a 45 minute stop for a recharge. Sitting around in highway rest stops for 45 minutes at a whack got old. Probably ok for local driving.

Yikes - an $80K Tesla S, needing to stop every 150 miles for 45 minute recharge. Yeesh. $80K for a commuter car is a bit of a stretch. This begins to remind me of "solar panels for every home". Looks impressive, and may be good for the environment. But isn't all it's cracked up to be unless there's a *big* subsidy.

Thanks all.
Tom M.
 

HealeyRick

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I'm not anti-electric car, but there are some problems that need to be ironed out. Here's a video of holiday traffic in December in Lake Tahoe of Teslas waiting for a recharge. Owners said it took from 30 minutes to an hour to get to the charger.

[video=youtube;a1uFudf37JU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=69&v=a1uFudf37JU&feature=emb_l ogo[/video]
 

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Following up on my post about the Fiat 500e... the best thing about those city-cars is that they underwent MASSIVE depreciation. An original low mileage $30K car could be had $10K (that was just a couple years old).
 

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More problems (though these will surely be resolved):

 
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NutmegCT

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I think Henry Ford's Model T could be bought with an ethanol-tuned engine. And during WW2, there were plenty of woodgas fueled cars on the roads (albeit at greatly reduced hp compared to gasoline).

pkw.jpg
 
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Brave New World. No freaking stupidphone 3.0, no chargee. 10 hours for half charge was it? Oh, and don't lose your Tesla Charge Adaptor.....Nope.
 
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