Post
by dirkdiggler » Sep 15, 2017 5:19 pm
There is always that "guy" that needs a vehicle to fulfill some out of the ordinary situation. I hate the comments about, but an EV car can't take me 4,000 miles every day, or can't haul my 10,000 lb tractor trailer. My response is buy a gas car then, but 99% of us don't need something special like that, even those "guys" are probably just BS'ing because they hate the fact an EV doesn't sound cool. (Yeah, I really dig the sound of the cut exhaust at 2 in the morning, you are really cool! About as cool as the guy pumping his bass at the stoplight!) 99% of us drive less than 30 miles a day. 99% of us take one or less road trips longer than 300 miles in a given year. 99% of us don't need to tow anything. 99% of us commute to work as a single driver in a four door vehicle. We really should be driving a motorcycle or riding a bike - but that has different issues.
My experience with driving a Tesla for the past year has shown that I have less range anxiety than I did in a gas vehicle. Only once have I had a day where I thought, I should have charged my vehicle last night. My car says I have 80 miles of range, and I start to worry. My wife's gas car is always on empty and every time I get in it, I think we should stop and get gas, but always, always at a time inconvenient to me. I can tell you the gas station is the place I don't miss at all. I always thought I'd love to have a gas pump at my house - and that's what I finally get with an EV. I lose absolutely no time at all plugging in my car when I get home. It's the same as plugging in your cell phone. How hard is that? I wonder if you had a cell phone that used gas and ran for a week without refueling, but you had to refuel at the gas station taking only five minutes at the pump to get it fully charged, would you be interested? The inconvenience of plugging in your phone at night is much less than having to go someplace to charge it. Same applies to cars.
The other thing that gets me is that people will complain that the supercharger takes a whole hour to charge when they are on a road trip. They want to get out of their car, pump and pee. Then get back in the car and drive off. Their time is too valuable. Do they think about the fact that with a supercharger their gas was technically free? So, that $60 gas purchase that saved them a half hour of time is worth it to them. That's like making $120 a hour after taxes if you think of your time when using a supercharger. Two fill ups at the supercharger just paid for your nights hotel stay. I do see the opposite happen at the local supercharger, where people are using the charger to save $10 of electricty, while sitting in their $100k vehicle - that also makes no sense at all to me. Even if you go back to the time factor, how much time do you save by not having to regularly get gas at the station, how much time do you save by not having to do oil changes or maintenance? I know that time alone makes up for hours upon hours, and If I am inconvenienced on a road trip by sitting at a supercharger for longer than pumping gas, my time in other ways has more than made up for it. I timed my wife one time while getting gas, and she spent around twenty minutes, by the time she found a gas station, pulled in, swiped her card, pumped, got in the car, got out of the car and took the pump out and finally drove off. I pull in the garage, hit the charge button, put the plug in and walk away. Much better way to do it IMHO. I do this once or twice a week, my wife fills up every week or two. I figure I come out far ahead on that one.
Anyhow, drive what you want - I just don't want to breath your air. I have driven a ton of nice cars, but like the Tesla the best. Just don't base your decision on what you think you need 1% of the time. My wife wanted a car that she could go get plants in, I asked her how often she does that - once or twice a year she responded. I find that typical with most consumers. Why buy a car based on that?
As for the big auto - I really am now in the conspiracy group. Maybe it was from watching who killed the electric car, but the big manufacturers, have put out half-assed electric products from day one. Either weird designs or hampered by some other issues. Tesla, who had really no knowledge that wasn't commonly available, has taken everyone to the woodshed. No other new car company in the US has been in business longer than 3 years. I hope the big ones get their asses handed to them on this. I'm not usually a brand homer, but I am on this.
