elliott937 Loc: St. Louis

Since we've had the pleasure of learning other new concepts, I'm curious to ask if any of you are driving, or have had, or planning on purchasing an electric car, something like the Nisson Leaf or any other?

rplain1 Loc: Dayton, Oh.

Not in the near future - I currently drive a hybrid which gets me 60+ MPG on my road trips and about 50+ around town. I usually drive around 30,000 mile per year so an electric would not work for me until there are many more charging stations and longer range per charge.

CWGordon

...had a Prius several years ago. Comfortable, quiet, phenominal
mileage. Only a hybrid, not pure
electric, but an interesting and awesome engineering concept. Pure electric does not YET pro
vide the distance range I require as I travel too often and as another writer wrote, not yet enough charging stations. Though w/o the power and acceleration as some of my more extreme vehicles have had, the performance was more than just ok. I was quite satisfied.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Nope. I’ve had a Prius and now a Honda Insight, both getting over 55+ consistently. Charging stations are too scarce for me to even think of a total electric. The 55+ mpg is plenty good enough for me. Besides, I've read that the making of the electric batteries causes more pollution than the gas engines emit. True or not, I’m not sure. Actually, these are/were my wife’s cars; I’m perfectly happy with my F 150 4x4 that gets 20+. I live on a farm and pull both a horse and a flatbed trailer some, so an electric vehicle wouldn’t do me much good.

LWW Loc: Banana Republic of America

Why would anyone want to drive a coal
powered car?

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

I have a friend who recently bought a high end Tesla. We went out for breakfast. After breakfast I said, harold, show me hoe the car comes to you. We left the restaurant, stepped outside, and he pushed some button on his fob. The car started and backed out of it,s spot and made turns in the parking lot and stopped in front of him. It that worth $90,000? To him Yes, to me No.

DIRTY HARRY Loc: Hartland, Michigan

Myth: electric car well-to-wheel emissions are larger than gas car well-to-wheel emissions.

Short answer: Electric car well-to-wheel emissions are far, far less than gasmobile well-to-wheel emissions.

New technology always makes lots of people uncomfortable. It’s just a part of human nature to fear the unknown. That’s the way it was with radios, telephones, and air travel before we got used to those newfangled things.

Unfortunately, there are always some people who spread false information about new technology, especially if it threatens to interrupt their source of income. That’s precisely what is happening with the electric car revolution right now. The people who have become wealthy selling cars and the fuels that make them go are petrified that electric cars are going to deprive them of the enormous profits they are used to, so they manufacture falsehoods designed to scare people away from considering purchasing one.

CWGordon

When I bought the Prius a few years back, it didn’t seem to be everything I needed, but I think if no one buys them there will never be $$ put towards adequate R &D. Car development goes nowhere if people aren’t interested in developing the technology. Support may mean buying before a product is fully developed.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Not yet. Hybrid user here (Prius).

I frequently take trips of more than 300 miles. Current electric cars lack sufficient range for an uninterrupted trip, and charging stations are not common enough and charging takes significantly longer than pumping gas.

My prius gives me 55-65 mpg depending on whether I'm running around town or on the interstate. Also there's a seasonal variability, slightly lower mileage in the winter. I find the hybrid significantly more convenient than an electric would be.

Amtrain

I cannot find the article someone sent me recently but the highlights of the article were:
Gas powered car cost .10 per mile to operate, Electic was .78 per mile.
Gas powered can make a 300-400 mile trip in 4-5 hours. Electric had to be charged and including charge time took 11 1/2 hours.
This was the one thing that got me. The typical house today had a 200 amp circuit. An electric car needs at minimum 60 amps to recharge. If there were 10 houses on a short street and 4 of those house owners owned an electric car, no one else could buy one because a 5th car would overload the service to that street.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Those numbers sound fishy to me.
Federal mileage rates are a bit above $0.50/mile. That takes into account maintenance costs and depreciation. Hybrid cars might take a bit less, but the fuel cost is not the highest cost of ownership for a car. The gas cost for my Prius is on the order of $0.06/mile at $3/gallon. My truck cost about $0.25/mile (unless the snow plow was on it, when it was probably more like $0.35/mile).
300-400 miles in 4-5 hours is breaking most speed limits. I take about 6-7 hours to go 300 miles on interstates with a couple of breaks to stretch my legs (maybe 5 minutes each).
The typical house has a 200 amp service. The house next to it has a 200 amp service. All the houses on the block probably have a 200 amp service. No problems no matter how many houses there are. (Some old houses might have a 60 amp or 100 amp service. I'm not sure it really takes 60 amps continually to charge the car. If you're charging it overnight it could require less current).

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Or nuclear powered, or powered by fracking-generated natural gas.... It is like the myth of "hydrogen powered vehicles". Advocates say "hydrogen is everywhere". Well, yes, but you have to expend ENERGY to break the bonds in water molecules so that you can later release the energy in your vehicle. So hydrogen is not a source of energy but merely a means of transferring energy from coal, nuclear, gas - or possibly solar - into a now explosive vehicle.

My neighbor has a roof covered with solar panels with which he charges up his automobile. $30,000 worth of photovoltaics to charge up his $60,000 car so that he gets "free" energy..... sounds more like an expensive hobby.

chippy65 Loc: Cambridge

Hybrid / Electric sounds good but I am getting 57 mpg (UK gallons) from a CitiGo/ VW Up!

Small can be good

Burtzy Loc: Bronx N.Y. & Simi Valley, CA

I too have a roof covered with solar panels. I got them six years ago. And with the savings I get from literally halving my electric bill, they are nearly paid for. I will move into profit this year. Maybe I will get an electric car next if battery life and charging time is improved. At that point, the panels will be offsetting the car payment. Ultimately, electric should be cheaper than gas and better for the environment. It just takes a long time to recover the initial outlay. But my panels will likely outlive me, so my heirs will get a cleaner and cheaper world in which to live.

wildimaginations

I bought a used 2014 Tesla Model S from Tesla.com.

It came with 42k miles on it. It doesn't have all the fancy features such as auto pilot or auto summon but I'm happy with it as a normal driving car. I paid $48k and in the deal, I got a 4 year warranty and free supercharging for the life of the car. So I only have to pay for tolls, parking, insurance and registration.

Even though I have a charger in my home, I rarely ever use it as I just stop by the local supercharger and charge for free. Yes and while waiting for the car to charge up, I usually get out and stretch, walk, window shop or read.

The car has served me well with only 3 occasions to bring it in for warranty repairs. I get a free car loaner while it's in the shop. The car is rated for 265 miles but in the real world, I usually get around 220 miles. The battery has degraded some, so instead of charging up to 265 miles of range, it will only charge up to 256 miles.

I figured out the cost of the driving the car at 3 miles per kilowatt. Less if I drive over 75mph.
On the car's dash, I drove 46,089 miles and used 15,070 kwh. I looked at the cost of electricity in my home to run at .22¢/kwh.

15,070x.22=$3,315.40

$3,315.40 / 46,089 miles = .07¢ per mile. ( Please check my math as I was a "C" student in that subject. )

I can't justify the cost of a new Tesla Model S at over $120k but a used one is just as good and since it has already been "broken in", there are very few things to go wrong with it.

The only reason the Tesla was a great deal is the Supercharging network throughout the USA. No other auto manufacturer can/will offer such a dependable service. I've had this car for 19 months and have not looked at any other car ever since.