why don’t you drive an EV?

And I mean my 20-year-old gas car still works, it's just old and I keep putting money into it. I wouldn't discard it if we got an EV. But it might self-discard at some point.

500 miles would probably push it for a lot of EVs, and thats assuming you could fully charge once you got there and then make it back home on a second full charge.

if most of your driving is short trips and you can charge at home, most plug-in hybrids have enough electric range that you could do the bulk of your driving on EV mode and have a gas tank for those longer trips.

My tech-loving kid is going to be pissed at me if we don't get a full EV, not that that should be the deciding factor

And yes, we live in a house, can charge at home.

tell that kid to start going to camps within EV range

someone itt should get a rivian and also a lucid air

I'm just torn between "you're gonna have this car for 20 years, you should buy the car you're going to want 5 years from now," which seems very likely to be a full EV, and "you should buy a car that serves the needs you know you have," which suggests that right now a gas tank backup and almost fully electric driving around town makes sense (plus the plug-in hybrids are a lot cheaper)

i think given the current and future state of EV tech plus the uncertainty around the future of oil/gas industries, making a prediction about what car (if any) one would need 20 years into the future is tuff. you might just look at getting something to bridge the next 5 years and then trading that in for a BEV in 5ish years when ranges and recharge times are improved.

(NB i have a PHEV that i can charge regularly until we move into a house. we'll replace my wife's care with a BEV when the time comes.)

something 2 consider is that since the BBB is probably not going to pass, a lot of the tax credits for EVs are going to expire once they hit sales targets which is already the case for gm, tesla, will be the case for toyota within a year.

https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/taxevb.shtml

i'd reckon kia, hyundai, nissan, and ford will be on that list soon enough. hopefully EVs just become more affordable once the credits expire across the industry (not holding my breath that there will be new credits anytime soon)

yeah i’m on a lease as i expect the market will be very different in a few years.

Is the infrastructure there to support EVs? There have been articles recently about people who keep EVs in DC even though they have to park on the street. (I've seen a car parked in front of a house, with a cable running from the house to the vehicle to charge it. Technically this is illegal because it obstructs the sidewalk.)

I really would prefer not to replace my Prius while the market's currently in the shitbin. But in the next year I hope to move to a more modern condo, ideally with garage parking. (All the more urgent, given that someone stole the catalytic converter the other night.)

tombot to thread (hes in dc and charges an ev in the street probably rn as we speak)

Range and charging tech don’t need to get any better, infrastructure does.

Take this example driving from LA to SF in a mustang, not even the long range version. 2 stops adding about an hour to a 6 hour trip and you would probably need to do that anyway because everyone needs to pee, eat lunch, etc.

https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?plan_uuid=9877dfa9-5aad-4268-bfbe-4ed3c110ebd2

Making cars long range or charge fast just makes them more expensive. Batteries are about bottomed out in cost for now, certainly for the next 2-5 years, any gains in tech will get swallowed up by more mundane supply constraints.

If you wan the car to charge faster then even if the batteries are not capable you need a lot more mature tech to make it happen; copper, power electronics, cooling.

Cars that charge at around 100-120kW peak are a real sweet spot and will get you where you want to go in about the same time as your gas car once you factor in the breaks you were going to take anyway.

The gap is enough DCFC infrastructure, but plug your routes into ABRP or similar and find out.

ed otm except for the idea that of adding an hour to a 6 hour trip (bc this is america and we eat and pee before and after driving for 6 hours)

With the ioniq 5 as sold in America it’s 27 minutes, I just wanted to illustrate it with the mustang as it was discussed above.

https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?plan_uuid=c0b5ba11-0cb0-42b7-8a1e-511f0e36bca6

I can barely go 2 hours without having to stop to pee. YMMV

Is the infrastructure there to support EVs?

Along these lines, what the hell are people talking about when they say things like "there's not enough electricity to charge an EV if everyone got one."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dfyG6FXsUU

^ has some back of the envelope calculations but the answer is its v doable

Thanks for the video.

First time I heard that, I thought of Thomas Edison lighting the first light bulb and someone in the back going, but yeah, but what about when everyone tries to do this at the same time?

The air conditioning comparison was pretty good.

30% was a lot more than i thought itd be

YMMV

So weird to see this phrase used literally

It's a pilot program for now, but I suspect that going forward we'll see a EV charge station at every suburban/exurban Starbucks.
https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/15/22977536/volvo-chargepoint-ev-chargers-starbucks-dc-fast

Yes but you have to buy a Sarah McClachlan CD to use it

lol

haaaah

re: the tax credits thing

https://evadoption.com/ev-sales/federal-ev-tax-credit-phase-out-tracker-by-automaker/

toyota and ford are set to hit the 200k mark this year, nissan probably by 2023. kinda bad timing for toyota as they launch the bz lineup next year.

i was surprised at how few kia+hyndai ev's had sold considering how many different models they've produced. they've sold less combined than honda which to my knowledge only made the clarity, sold only in select markets before getting discontinued this year.

just speaking to my experience at the end of last year but kia EVs were being shipped to my area in a volume you could count on two hands, with multi-month gaps between shipments

never actually found a hyundai in stock iirc

i believe it. when i was shopping for cars last year, hyundai ioniqs were few and far between in any market. i tried to find a prius prime locally last year and it was some slim pickens. there were a bunch on the coasts which is where i eventually bought one, though thats gone down this year for obvious reasons.

yeah i got my kia by putting myself on the outgoing call list for new arrivals and by being willing to drop everything to test drive and write a check the day they contacted me. very different car buying market these days

smh bread lines except for cars

i recommend everybody waiting for an EV itt to check out a miata instead the current 'meme' car and its good on gas https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/20/business/mazda-miatas-driving.html

whats the current meme car

miata def a cool car but its not too practical, two seater i imagine its disastrous in weather etc, might be good for a city car tho, a lot of ppl def have them as second car for cruising around on the weekend or what have you

things of that nature

its a little bit unfortunate imho too that for a car thats obvs so aimed at enthusiasts that they didnt give it a more tunable engine, i mean im sure there are some trade offs there but still

ppl are putting entirely new engines in there to go faster, its kind of against the spirit of the miata but ppl are going to want more power so you should put an engine in there that can without too much trouble be turned up to ~250hp imho, they would prob sell a lot more of them, hit an entirely new demo of car freaks

My great aunt had a mx5 in her 80s. It seemed a bit rubbish and plastic tbh. She wasn’t like a cool aunt.

my second grade teacher, mrs quinn, who to my mind was more ancient than god, had a yellow RX-7. i remember watching her pop the hatch and put some groceries in. blew my little mind.

http://smclassiccars.com/uploads/postfotos/1979-mazda-rx-7-sportscar-yellow-rwd-manual-transmission-orig-52k-miles-10.jpg

my realtor had a regular car and a weekend miata, which he sometimes showed up to tours and stuff in. it was kind of funny because he was a bug dude for such a small car.

he was a member of a miata club and their only rule was that each outing had to end with them getting ice cream somwhere lol.

immaculate vibes

that rules i want in

my dad one of the original bmw z3's in the 90s and I went on a z3 drive with him one time and it was 20+ z3s (and a couple m3 hatchbacks) winding their way around backroads and through small towns. It was fun to see ppls reactions as they realized what was happening.

lil guys gang

rogaine rangers

beamer teamers

before

https://www.reddit.com/r/IdiotsInCars/comments/tigv7s/flying_tesla/

after

https://www.reddit.com/r/IdiotsInCars/comments/tiqn5t/aftermath_of_the_flying_tesla_as_filmed_by/

Saw a Tesla Model X with the falcon wing doors today in front of me when I was dropping of E for gymnastics. Really seems like a pointlessly complicated way of making a car door and doesn't look particularly cool.

xp https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/728c86c033c317003782339d486ae415b21f3982/0_236_960_576/master/960.jpg

(Art Pepper on Fargo hill, just around the corner from that flying Tesla wreck scene)