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I took my car in for service today and noticed an EV charging and started talking to the workers about it. They said there is no cost and never will be a cost to charge as Kia corporate covers this for all certified dealerships. They said the only maintenance you need are tires, cabin filters, and brake fluid changes. I would think there are other things they are forgetting like replacing windshield wipers, but if gas prices stay high the costs of owning over time could become comparable to gas powered vehicles.
However, the range is the issue. Currently it is 100 to 520 miles and would not work for me, since I would never get a home charger and run up my electric bill. That defeats the whole purpose, plus my utility company uses primarily fossil fuels so it's not green either.
I asked my boss once about getting a charger at work as there aren't many around and it would draw people to our store but he said no.
When I retire I plan to trade in my car for an EV. By then I expect charging will not be an issue. In the meantime SO would like to get one when he trades in his current car in a few years. His work has chargers that are free and we’d still have my gas car for any long trips we might take. He drives about 50 miles/day round trip to work so it would work well for us.
However, the range is the issue. Currently it is 100 to 520 miles and would not work for me, since I would never get a home charger and run up my electric bill. That defeats the whole purpose, plus my utility company uses primarily fossil fuels so it's not green either.
If the whole point is to avoid high gas prices, would you not still come out quite a bit a ahead even with a home charger?
If the whole point is to avoid high gas prices, would you not still come out quite a bit a ahead even with a home charger?
No. My utility is one of the most expensive in the country. Most expensive in New England, in the top five in the country which includes places like Alaska and Hawaii.
I guess it's nice when an employer provides free charging stations, but I suspect as the popularity of EVs grows other charging stations will require payment since electricity isn't free. My rich Tesla neighbors have solar panels, which I guess helps.
The local utility company has 2-3 chargers in front of their building a block away from where I work. I walked by a little while ago and there were 2 cars charging. I am seriously thinking of buying a hybrid around retirement (2-3 years). I live in "fly-over" country and I am also concerned about not enough charging stations if I decide to travel. We'll see what it's like at that point.
A Tesla with a 100kwh battery has a range of 335 miles. So 10 kWh of charge is roughly equivalent to a gallon of gas. We also have expensive electricity. Our ‘all in’ with taxes and surcharges is about $.31 per kWh. Charging at home would cost us the equivalent of $3.10 per gallon of gas.
ApatheticNoMore
5-16-22, 2:41pm
My bf seriously looked into electric cars when he got a car. I got a car when I was unemployed so feared the price of spending on an electric of even hybrid would be at the cost of economically making it, so I drive a honda civic now, oh well.
I mean sure Teslas have a long range. But when you look at more affordable cars like Nissan Leafs, especially the cheaper (lower range) models, the range drops. And that's really a more realistic price point than a Tesla. So it presents some problems.
If you are able to charge every night even the limited range is probably ok, you can just charge at night, that would be possible at this apartment as I park near the door, so I kind of wish I had an electric car, but not really for most apartments. Though there was a two story apartment someone was running a cable out of the upstairs window to the street for. So if you're motivated enough I guess ....
APM, one of my neighbors was trying to do that - charge their EV with a cord out the window. The problem is that you’re never sure what parking spot you’re going to get since there is no assigned parking. I heard through the grapevine that someone complained (condo complex) and the guy stopped putting the cord out the window. I haven’t seen the EV in a few weeks so maybe he sold it since he couldn’t charge it at home.
I have been completely satisfied with my EV experience of the past 3 years.
I have been completely satisfied with my EV experience of the past 3 years.
You have your own house plus a place to charge it. Apartment/condo dwellers without a place to plug an EV in are screwed if they want an EV. I live in a pretty affluent NW suburb of Chicago and the only public chargers I see are at Walgreens and a few other stores.
You have your own house plus a place to charge it. Apartment/condo dwellers without a place to plug an EV in are screwed if they want an EV. I live in a pretty affluent NW suburb of Chicago and the only public chargers I see are at Walgreens and a few other stores.
I have also been completely satisfied with my Hummer H1 ownership of the past 23 years. Different vehicles for different applications.
Here, though, electric power is 11 cents/kilowatt-hour, and I own 35kWh of solar generation capacity so I basically don’t pay much at all for electric power most of the year. Our rural electrical cooperative has several free charging stations around the island as well. I have a 110 mile range EV, charging it by plugging into a regular wall outlet suffices. It requires basically no service, which is wonderful - my new-ish Toyota pickup just required weeks of complicated and expensive logistics to get repaired/serviced, which sucked several days of time dealing with.
sweetana3
10-31-22, 1:41pm
We talked about all the options available to us. Our decision was to reduce use of car to only necessary combined trips. No more shopping or driving as recreation.
Hubby looked at hybrids and standard gas models and decided based on significant reduced usage and cost difference to get a standard gas Honda Civic so he could have all the new safety features he wanted. I would much have preferred keeping the Civic we had but gave up that argument.
Ordered it and now we wait 3-6 or more months.
Teacher Terry
10-31-22, 10:56pm
I know 2 people that just bought them but paid 50 and 60k. I have paid less for houses:)). Anyway the car I have will be my last unless some moron totals it.
I know 2 people that just bought them but paid 50 and 60k. I have paid less for houses:)). Anyway the car I have will be my last unless some moron totals it.
I paid $10k out-the-door in 2020 for a 2017 Fiat 500e with very few miles that still looked new.
A brand-new Chevy Bolt EV has a MSRP of ~$32.5k, before any tax credits and such. A Nissan Leaf is $29k.
If I end up buying another car someday, it will probably be the electric Ford F150, and then I could retire several other vehicles, which would be a great savings in bother.
Teacher Terry
10-31-22, 11:08pm
Bae, that’s a great price for the Fiat.
Bae, that’s a great price for the Fiat.
I believe it was due to governmental interference in the market. The car itself should have sold for $75k+ when new, but they were selling them as California-compliance vehicles for about $34k, before credits. I believe Federal and California credits probably then knocked a whole lot off to California buyers.
But, nobody in California bought them, mostly. They leased them for 3 years. Because California had/has some zany rule that "new" EVs could use the HOV lanes with only a single passenger. For 3 years. (Mine still has the CA magic HOV-lane sticker on the side). So, after the 3 years had passed, there was simply no market for them in CA.
A fellow here on the island did the math, and opened up a small electric car dealership, selling only just-off-lease CA cars that he had shipped up here. Washington State had/has a regulation exempting *used* EVs from sales tax. So the thing was basically free, compared to what it should have cost.
Perfect storm of governmental assistance :-)
And now due to Covid supply chain fun, I suspect it's worth $20-25k. Wacky times.
SO would like to get an EV when his current lease is up in 2 1/2 years. He drives 50 miles/day and we have a private 2 car garage that we could put a charger in. We're in the middle of a bathroom remodel where one of the things we have to do is put a separate circuit for the GFCI outlet in the bathroom. It can't share the circuit with anything, not even the overhead light. Doing the work to install a new circuit means we have to move the panel out of our bedroom closet to an exposed wall with 3 feet on each side of it. TLDR version, electric work is adding $5,000 to the cost of our bathroom remodel so that we can have a separate circuit for the electric outlet in the bathroom. No other improvement involved for that expenditure. Since this is nonnegotiable we've also decided to have the electrician run 40 amp electricity to the garage and also big electric to the backyard for a future A/C unit at the same time. This will be adding about $2,000 to the electrician's bill but seems like money well spent compared to $5,000 we have to spend for literally no improvement to our life other than that the overhead light won't shut off if the GFCI outlet pops.
This is why I am happy I can plug mine right into the wall right now.
I'd need additional circuits installed in the garage, and my old electrical panel would need replaced, which is $$$
littlebittybobby
11-2-22, 12:47am
Okay----Too bad Huttsun & Nash went outta business; they wuz so ez on gas, why---you didn't NEED to plug it in. Specially if you didnt have to go driving around, just for something to "do". See? But yeah---summa you kids hafta have the very latest tech gimmick, irregardless. Besides--the whole EV consumer movement is just a way of lighting the candle at the other end. I'll just leave it at that. Yup. Thankk Mee.
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