Tag: electric cars

On Electric Cars

A couple of years ago I wrote this about electric cars. What I said holds up.

I can now add almost two years of experience actually driving one to the mix. Here are my observations.

Choose the person who installs your outlet or charger with care. Not all installers know what the heck they are doing. Some will try to “help save you money” (or cut corners) by using materials not rated for the draw. This can result in charger failure, or fire. Likewise, pay attention to signs that things are not as they are supposed to be. I do not regret choosing a plug in rather than a hard wired charger; heaven forbid it dies, I order a new one on Amazon. It arrives in a day or two, I bolt it to the wall, and I plug it in.

Choose your manufacturer with care. I have no regret choosing Ford over Tesla for many reasons, not the least of which is “easier access to trained repair people.” There is only one Tesla dealership in town, and there’s several Ford dealerships. Same logic applies to Toyota, even to Jeep.

It’s not hard to actually pay attention to your remaining charge. Now if you were the person who put off gassing up your regular car until you were running on fumes, maybe electric is not for you. And if flying cars are ever a thing? Absolutely not for you! That meme online of the Tesla being charged by the side of the road using a gas generator is the same idiot that would have been waiting for AAA to show up with a gallon of gas.

The weather will absolutely effect your range. In very hot or very cold weather expect to lose a bit of range. Plan accordingly. EVs might not be the right choice for those of you in very cold climates yet.

Road trips and towing are possible, but challenging. I’d still recommend using gas, hybrid, or PHEV for those uses. Sure, range is improving and access to charging is improving. I am having a hard time imagining a future where you charge to 100% in the time it takes to fill a gas tank. For my use case that’s ok, but it’s not for everyone.

EVs are still probably not an option for most apartment dwellers. Sure, there are complexes that have a charger. Maybe two. For over a hundred units. And public chargers do exist. But, well, see all of the above.

It’s going to take a serious amount of time to solve these issues. We need infrastructure. And the law of supply and demand makes that a chicken and egg issue: there won’t be massive demand for EVs until there’s massive ability to quickly charge them, which won’t be cost effective to build until there’s massive demand for EVs and the ability to charge them. I won’t pretend that’s anything other than a hard, expensive problem to fix.

EVs are still not for everyone. But at this time, they work for me.

Drive

Ford Mach E, courtesy of Ford Motor Company https://www.ford.com/

There’s lots of talk these days about electric cars. Europe says it’s gonna happen — well, except for five countries. California says it’s gonna happen. Most of the rest of the states are not so enthusiastic. There are of course pros and cons.

Not everyone should be considering them. But it looks very much like I am the poster child for who should be considering one:

I drive a regular daily commute of under 20 miles one way. Furthermore, I drive that reliably 5 days a week.

I have a garage where it’s easy to install an outlet. Plug it in Friday night when I get home from work and don’t worry about it.

Surge pricing for power you say? Fine, most home charging systems can be set up with a timer to start in the wee hours of the morning.

I live in a town with reliable electric infrastructure. Even if Lake Mead dries up and Hoover Dam is no longer producing lots of electricity, the sun is still shining and solar power will continue to work. If the sun stops shining, we all have much bigger problems than charging our electric cars.

Thanks to the casino industry, chargers are everywhere. Looks like there’s a dozen public charging stations near me, each with multiple charging units. Malls have them. Some big employers have them. It wouldn’t surprise me if hospitals started installing them since I’ve met many doctors who love their Teslas (heh, and one pharmacist who hates his). And the car or your phone will have an app telling you where the nearest chargers are.

Let’s also address some of the arguments against electric cars. Road trips? There’s a gas car in the family so that’s a non-issue for me. That vehicle is a small SUV with a towing package, shutting down the “but what about hauling” argument before it begins.

“Just as dirty as gas cars, but moving the pollution elsewhere”? Electricity can be made more cleanly than it is today. Petroleum based solutions cannot.

But what about maintenance? This may still be a valid argument regarding Tesla and Rivian. But now you can buy electric vehicles from VW, Nissan, Ford, Chevy, Cadillac, Hyundai, Kia, Volvo…. and you can get your electric car serviced at the many places that sell those cars.

And what about the price? There are some models under $30k. Not many I concede. This is not yet a solution for people making less than $15/hr and living in apartments.

I’m not saying it’s the answer for everyone. I’m not saying California is on to something. I still think “can I make it from Vegas to LA without stopping for a charge” is a valid metric. But it may be time for people to start looking at whether it’s a good option to consider for one of the family vehicles.