Community Chat

[sunshine 919]

 No I do not and I do not want a car that drives itself,  And the elcetric cars are vey very expensive

[haddon9]

I just seems like a great big expensive headache for the average person!  In addition to current long charging times and low availability, I heard that costs for replacement batteries are in the thousands!  Most of the batteries only last about 5 years or so then have to be disposed and replaced....how is this "greener"?

[kate2357]

I don't need or want to be first for any new item...be it a car, computer, cell phone, medicine. I am willing to wait until I feel the time is right for me...which includes affordability as well as practicality. Looking forward to seeing what the various car companies, from Ford to GM to Mazda US, come up with.

[travelin grandma]

No.  I don't drive that often and it would run out of juice before I needed it.

[SilleeMee]

I saw a video of a man who blew up his Tesla b/c it would cost $22K to fix the battery. He did that to draw attention from Tesla.

[Meowingkitty]

Basically they are useless after a few years because it will 

1. Cost you a fortune to buy

2. You will need a new battery at $10,000-20,000 in 5-7 years. That is if the model is still being made and you can get a battery. Otherwise you have a bucket of bolts your stuck with and still paying monthly payments on that you can't get rid of.
3. You probably can't pass it down to another member of your family because it will undoubtedly need a new battery soon.

4. While we don't have power outages, what if I want to take it somewhere? What if there are no charging stations. How much will a hotel add to your bill to charge it? 
5. I'm sure because of the battery, the insurance and registration fees will be higher.

6. when the government realizes they aren't getting enough taxes from gas how will they charge me per mile. You know they will.

I'm sure there are more reasons.

It's a big NO. 

[RollTide2008]

My next car will be electric.

All these scenarios and excuses about running out of charge were the same reasons given that cars would never replace horses. It sounds silly.

[Meowingkitty]

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@bonnielu wrote:

If you live in California can you buy a car in another state and then drive it after the electric car mandate is rule of law????

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I bet you won't be able to register it or insure it in California. Don't know if that's true but it sounds like something they would do. 

[new nickname 4]

No, in my state, Nebraska, we have extreme temperatures.  An EV car mileage range can decrease as much as 40% in low temperatures, if you run the heater.  Oh please, I need to run my heater in 15 degrees or below, also need to run my defroster, plus I really love my heated seats in the cold.  In summer, if I run the AC, again the mileage range can decrease as much as 20%.  EV batteries are compromised if you run anything extra, and they allocate battery power to warm their batteries in the winter to run.  We are also a high wind state (it's a joke that if the wind stops blowing, you fall down).  Wind, cuts down on milage range.

My home is 18 years old, thankfully I have a 200 amp electric panel.  Older homes with less will have to upgrade their panels to accomodate installation of charging stations.  Hopefully they have a garage attached.  I don't know what apts and condo's will do.  Everyone can't hook up to the same few chargeing stations at night.

My state has 186 charging stations right now, none are in rural areas.  They have announced that with the new White House declaration, we will get federal money to add more charging stations along a "corridor", which mainly includes only the interstate 80, if you wish to go anywhere else in my beautiful state, I am out of luck.  Plus, many of our cities are 100's of miles apart.  

If I run out of power on the road, I have one choice.  Call a wrecker to tow me to the nearest power charger.  Since I already faced this problem in the summer (had a flat tire in my garage, called a service to only change my tire to my spare, they wanted $120 to come out). I swallowed my pride and called my neighbor to help me.

I understand they want to still keep the weight of cars down, so they are going more into plastic chassis to offset the weight of the EV batteries.  Nope, plastic vs metal is not safe for me in a crash.

So, Nope Nope Nope.  Not until many many issues are addressed.  Plus they need to make them really affordable, able to run long distances, in the wind, increase tow capacity.  Not everyone lives in a town where they only drive a few miles.

[Kachina624]

and

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@haddon9 wrote:

I just seems like a great big expensive headache for the average person!  In addition to current long charging times and low availability, I heard that costs for replacement batteries are in the thousands!  Most of the batteries only last about 5 years or so then have to be disposed and replaced....how is this "greener"?

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@haddon9   One thing rarely mentioned is after the batteries that came with the car are exhausted and new ones must be purchased, they cost in excess of $6,000.  There's also a considerable expense having a docking station installed in your garage.

Recently there has been a shortage of batteries due to supply chain issues.  What do you do then?