When my son bought an electric car, I didn’t “get it”. I mean, I just didn’t understand the charging part, and it was just foreign to me. I didn’t pay much attention. I drove in it and I thought, “Well, that’s different.”
I drove it. Huh!?
The controls are different. And I had to remember to plug it in.
Well, my son moved away and was selling the car. I bought it. A 2018 Tesla Model 3.
I still own it. In fact, I drive this car more than any other vehicle I have. I really like it.
It’s quiet, very fast if you want it to be for a moment, and there are no oil changes or other maintenance, really. Did I mention quiet? And no engine vibrations.
Now, I understand. I see things I did not before. I recognize that gas vehicles are wasteful and antiquated. I didn’t think this before, or feel the need to notice what everyone else was doing, including me.
Gas vehicles use most of the energy in gasoline, producing unwanted heat. And if you put your face near the tailpipe, you will pass out. But millions upon millions upon millions of those tailpipes spew this exhaust into the air we breathe every day. It doesn’t make sense to me anymore.
Sure, we need to produce the electricity, but electric vehicles are still way more efficient and better for the earth.
I think in the future sometime, we will look back and realize how nutty we were for 150 years or so.
When people change their minds, things change.
I really like electric cars – for personal AND collective reasons.
We have a 2020 Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid I take around town and love. It’s only drawback is limited cargo space because of the 2 engines. Our daughter has a Prius Prime plug in which is an amazing car all around. My husband and son have all gas Volvo and Subaru. Our experience is that the electric operation works because we have a homes and offices with easily accessible plugs. They work with our lives. That said when it comes to long road trips the gas cars – particularly the old Volvo are always more comfortable and reliable. That’s the personal end. As far as the collective, looking at California and when they do the rolling blackouts for fires and earthquakes reminds me that its better not rely solely on those who have authority to flip the collective switch.
Model Y. Love the performance. But the main thing is that give how much I drive (45,000/year) it saves me about $10,000/year over a gas powered vehicle.
Made in the USAš
Down sides- range, no good for road trips.
Most importantly, they are not cleaner. Environmental cost to manufacturers, tire dust due to weight, battery disposal and you need to charge so that energy needs to come form somewhere. Lots to consider here. Enegy transmission loss to get a kilo watt tp your house.
I have solar panels which help but studies show EVs break even on cleanliness at around 80,000 miles. And I think those calculations are off.
When my car was in the shop ( someone backed into it) I drive a high end loaner.
Couldnāt wait to get my car back.
Fix battery life and range. Mine the products better,, more nuclear then all cars will be EVs
I love my electric car. It is smooth, fast and silent. Sitting at a red light next to a noise polluting āhot rodā thatās revving the engine, then floors it when the light turns green, I pull away slowly, knowing that if I wanted to, I could ?smoke? him, and quietly! Itās great when ānever electricsā, become converts after driving one. Thanks for sharing every day!
I actually owned 2 first was a Honda fit. This is going back a number of years. The problem was when the cold winter hit the mileage dropped to 30 a day if you were lucky. The second was the Volkswagen ID4 I really love that car unfortunately it was its first year of production and ended up to be a lemon. I would still purchase one in the future. We need to work on the cold effect as well as more charging stations.
Off peak rates are coming Some place are .40 cents durning the day and .12 cents at night. The newer EV’s have bidirectional charging with large batteries. People can charge them at .12 at night and have them power the home durning the day to avoid the .40 cent peaks. They can supplement home battery storage. A ford lighting or an electric Hummer have batteries 12 times the size of a Tesla power wall.
Until we as a world can figure out how to properly dispose of or recycle the batteries I am not a fan. Same for wind turbines. They are not as environmentally sound and efficient as they are sold to be and should never be placed in lakes or oceans. Just my opinion.
Hi Larry
1. How did the Baja 1000 go?
Havenāt seen any press on that
Hope you got through it safely and maybe caught a win
Thoughtful comments are electric cars. I like them too. My personal driver who is a gear head finally bought a big Tesla for his chauffeur business said it was the best car I ever bought my problem is my gas powered car a Buick Torx all-wheel-drive wagon is awesome However I have to put $$60,000 out of my pocket to upgrade to an electric car of similar quality and size. And at my age
Gonna be 74 soon gotta be real careful about the spending and keep my reserves so I donāt run out of dough. Should I live like my mother to 92 or more? Donāt read your thoughts every day, but I catch him every once in a while. My son T4, the electrician and business man from Bethlehem turned me onto these and Iām still liking them. Youāre a thoughtful dude.
Cordially. TH3
www. Tomhillradio.com.
Imagine if electric cars were the norm and someone tried to sell you on the merits of an internal combustion powered car. You would think they’re nuts for proposing such a stupid idea…….
Iām considering the gmc sierra ev. 500 miles of range and good towing capacity. I like the technology and how it drives. No oil changes etc. however Iām not ever going to say itās cleaner. Itās just different in the way that they pollute and itās not right in your faceā¦
Thanks for posting this.
I have been a passenger in EVs many times and driven them a few times. There are already quite a lot of them in Vancouver, Canada where I live. I think they’re great and look forward to when many more are on our roads everywhere! I don’t own one yet but expect that will come soon and our fleet will be electrified as well. Cheers to progress and a healthier Earth!
I would get one, it makes sense. Soon the transit electric vans will have the range needed to make the switch.
Larry – Great post to help open my mind! I live in MT and electric in the winter does not work yet. Will go for a test drive next time i am near a Tesla dealer.
As a second car around town or back and forth to work while charging at home, where other car is internal combustion… maybe. We’re not there yet with availability and ease of charging, speed of charging, and size of batteries.
My son is a buyer for CarMax. They will not put an all electric vehicle on their lot. Yet.
Iāve been on both sides of the opinion spectrum on electric cars and after much investigation Iāve landed squarely in the middle. The one category in which e-cars win hands down (IMO) is styling. But thatās about esthetics, and the deeper question is about sustainability.
Our dependence upon petroleum based products continues to grow, and e-cars are no exception. Learning the amount of petroleum products involved in the manufacture, delivery, operation and maintenance of e-cars was surprising to me. Then understanding the amount of waste and damage to the environment generated by battery production and disposal helped balance the scales in my mind. When considering all factors involved, e-cars are not any more or less environmentally friendly than gas-powered vehicles.
Hydrogen power intrigues me, as it is the cleanest in every way and should be relatively inexpensive to produce.
For now, we would do well to understand the advantages of both, realize there is no need to judge one another but respect each otherās preferences and just enjoy the ride. I spend a lot of time on the highway, and my biggest concern is left lane bandits, regardless of how they power their vehicles.
Hey Larry, really appreciate both of your daily messages and have been enjoying and sharing for years. I have never commented, but couldn’t resist on this topic, which is the true and very high environmental and energy cost of the batteries used for plug in electric vehicles…overall hybrids have a better cost-benefit analysis. Check out this analysis
https://youtu.be/0e8dRP04mqk?si=ty94fX0iRbe57VbE
All the best and Happy Thanksgiving!
Josh Fodor
Never driven one and won’t consider it, yet. Electric cars are still in their infancy but they will mature to a point that they are a viable option for many more people. They aren’t zero emissions, they just move the emissions from the cities to wherever the power is produced. That can still be a good thing. Power companies can manage and clean exhaust easier than cars can. Electric cars don’t have the range that many need, but that could be solved with interchangeable batteries, just like our battery powered tools. We use almost all battery powered tools now but it took 30+ years for them to reach the point of being a viable alternative to plug-in electric. With time electric cars may do the same. They are good for some people now but not everyone. My prediction is that we are going to look back in ten years and say, “I can’t believe I paid to install a power port in my house to charge my car!”.
Hey Larry love reading everyday. Iām still on the fence when it comes to electric cars. Iāve recently become very interested in the Stark Varg motorcycle though. Just needs a little more range. I love your Baja stories. Iām 64 and still riding motorcycles on and off road. Your stories are very inspiring!
It’s interesting reading everyone’s opinions. So little is understood about energy infrastructure in civilization, on both sides. It reinforces the need for better education.
I will never own an electric car. If you have just come home from a long trip and your car needs charging and you have an emergency and now what are you going to do? The inconvenience of having to wait for the car to charge for 1/2 hour where I can fill up in 5 minutes and be on my way. I can see the practicality of delivery trucks which have a limited range everyday such as Amazon.
I recently bought 2 honda all electric, we love them!
Amen! What we have done for the past 100 years is not going well. Time to change for the better. Electric still needs improvements but that will come with time.
2017 Tesla Model S bought new and now has 125K miles. Range is still over 300 miles on a full charge. At home chargers have improved dramatically and I now get high 30ās per hour while charging and I think of charging like I do with my cell phone so vehicle is always ready to go. Supercharging network is vast and easily found right on vehicle touch screen and I coordinate need for bio breaks or food to be where chargers located so highly efficient and no range anxiety. Lotās of misinformation and ignorance surrounding EVās and with real world experience for over eight years I share only that the combustion engine, as we know it, is dead and most just donāt know it yet. Highly recommend Tesla and one of my sons and his wife, live in California, have a Model 3 and a Lucid that they both love owning and driving daily. Sure, range needs to improve to 500 per charge, more efficient heat pumps, charging speed and methods need to improve and environmentally friendly materials need to be further developed and that will all evolve positively as adoption rates increase. One last note is that I replaced my tires last week and was happy to learn that Goodyear now offers EV specific tires that are insulated for further sound deadening that makes the ride even quieter and the tires marketing says vehicle range increases while cost was lower than tires Iāve purchased in the past. I envision our home to have EVās in some form for the balance of my life. Happy Thanksgiving to allš¦
Oh yes, I like Electric cars, I enjoy the fact that it’s a better alternative in the attempt to keep the earth better than we met it, and I believe God enjoys seeing that we take better care of what He’s given to us.
I’m getting one of it very soon.
They have their place for sure. But not practical for everything partly because the infrastructure isnt there yet to accomodate charging them and when it comes to billing another party for the charge. For example we are in a service business where our techs and installers drive the vehicles home and if they dont have a charger at home for the vehichle and a way for it to be billed to me then it doesnt make sense. Secondly for heavy vehichles they done really exist yet on an efficient level. The other thing is, I have heard they require more carbon gasses to produce them than a regular gas vehicle and during the life of the vehicle the carbon emissions required to produce, run (charge) are about the same. Then you have the battery waste and relatively short lifecylcle of the battery. I am experimentinig with one fully electric vehcile in the fleet that my son drives and was willing to install the charger at his home. We are two years in, so far so good other than it doesnt like the really cold weather we experience here. It burns through its charge pretty quickly having to heat the inside and the electric motors as well. Its distance drops to almost half its normal distance.
We own a 2026 Tesla Model 3. It’s an amazing vehicle. Fully integrated technology and my phone is a key! It preheats the cabin and seats on schedule. It drives for me when I enter the address of my destination. It cost less than many newer luxury vehicles and it offers more practical and user friendly comfort. Tesla is in it’s own class. Did I mention the sound system? The car even puts on a light show!!! I am grateful to have this technology in my lifetime. I am also grateful to no longer have go to the gas station.