Community Chat

[Lilysmom1]

We are pondering this question.  Most of our driving is highway, not city.

What are your thoughts?  LM

[Desertdi]

@Lilysmom1   The  Phoenix metropolidan area has experienced tremendous population growth over the past 20 years....(now around 4.4 MILLION)...but I have not seen even ONE  public charging station in my neighborhood.

Besides......I love my car, and want to be buried in it.    (I heard you can do that in Texas)    !!!!!!      di

[ThinkingOutLoud]

I would look for a hybrid.

[Pook]

Always gas.  Until charging stations are as readily available as gas stations and it does not take as long to charge then just not practical to go electric and have to wait in line until otheres done charging unless someone is only staying local and can charge at home.  There also seems to be issuses with electric car breakdowns and towing capabilities.  The way everyone is always in a hurry - just not practicle.  

[catter70]

I'm pretty sure my gas powered car will out last me as I only put on about 1500 miles a year. It had 8900 miles on it when I bought it and now has around 12000. I think they need to think this thru a lot more before rushing into anything. Cars are expensive, batteries are expensive to replace, what happens to the old batteries, where that lithium comes from for the batteries, the power grid, etc.

[haddon9]

Right now I'm leasing a 2020 Honda HRV. My lease is up in a few months and I'm thinking of just buying the car.

I just don't like the idea of spending a lot of time charging a car. What happens in the event of an evacuation?  As an example, a hurricane is coming to Florida...people in the Keys are scrambling to leave the single lane highway and fueling up their cars.  How will that go when everyone would need to spend significant time charging them?

On a more everyday note, I can't imagine everyone charging up their cars overnight.  How would that work on the electric grid?  What about people who live in apartments?

I don't think in the long run they are really much better for the environment. Since they need to be charged  most electricity comes from fossil fuels.  The batteries for the cars are not environmentally friendly and only last so many years before they need to be replaced which can cost many thousands of dollars.  Where to the old batteries go?

I don't understand the push for them.

[cookie16]

We just bought the car we were leasing for 3 years. Only gas for us, not interested in electric.  Love my Jeep Grand Cherokee.

[phoenixbrd]

Recently we bought a new car....gas and lovin' it.

[qualitygal]

We'll be keeping the car we have, just like the stove we'll be keeping.  

[gardenman]

Living in an area where lots of road salt gets used in the winter would make me nervous about an electric car. Salt water is conductive and corrosive and there's significant potential for things to go wrong in a big way. It'll be interesting to see what happens as more and more electric cars hit the snowier parts of the country. By and large, they've been more of a warm weather type of car so far with California and Florida leading the way, Texas is third, and Washington state fourth. None of those states are known for how bad their winters are.

In general, combining lots of electricity and salt water is a bad idea. I have a suspicion electric vehicles in northern climates will be short-lived and battery replacement will be less of an issue as they may outlast the motors and the rest of the electronics in the cars.