burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

RAV 4 Plug-In Hybrid does both jobs rather well. Commute all week on plug-in power, then gas up for a trip to the beach or mountains.

LDB415 Loc: Houston south suburb

Electric vehicles are a GREAT idea whose time has come, if the year is 2050 or beyond and if we've built at least a couple dozen more nuclear power plants to support them. As of now they are a fool's gambit. We are nowhere near ready for forcing this folly on the public. And that's not scare tactics propaganda. That's just the way it is.

Walkabout08

If you have a standard clothes dryer circuit in your house then you should have no problem with a home charger for your ev since they’re identical.

traderjohn Loc: New York City

Also the wait time. How much longer will you be on the road? And of course, the obligatory privileged who would have to wait in line. I think it's great. However, the zeal to stick it to the energy companies is a knee-jerk action. The cart is going before the horse.

agillot

14v x 1000 = 14000 not 1400 .

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

Not a bad idea. It all depends on the frequency of long distance trips. If they're frequent, renting may not be cost effective.

In addition, it adds a few hours to the trip. Again, for a long trip a few hours is not a big deal but in today's instant society it's a negative. You have to travel somehow to the rental place to get the car, maybe return home to load it, then return it afterwards and find your way back home. All that is not a big problem for a trip of a week or more, but a hassle for a weekend.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Market adoption of a new technology is graphed like a hockey stick. It has to have a certain "critical mass of viability" before it takes off like a rocket as the next "must have." The first truly viable hybrid, the Prius, was conceived in the early 1990s and introduced in Japan in 1997. 11 years later, I bought one. It was the best, most versatile and reliable car I ever owned, until a drunk redneck in a pickup ran off the road and destroyed it. It had 186,565 miles on it, and still drove as if new.

Those working to make viable energy sources for electric cars know all the practical issues better than we do. Those issues will be solved by people with positive attitudes and creative minds. There was a time about 120 years ago when roads were mud, gasoline was sold in tins, there were no "filling stations", and you had to do your own maintenance on a car.

As my grandfather used to say, "Oh, ye of little faith in the future, just look to the past and get a clue about how things work." Just about every objection to cleaner forms of energy comes from people stuck in their current paradigm. Just about every solution will come from creative people who work *outside* that paradigm.

davidv Loc: salt lake city utah

I have owned an electric car for approximately four years. I charge my car from home on a 120 V system that doesn’t even seem to affect my electric bill. You don’t need any special hook ups in your garage unless you choose to charge at 220 v. There are also in the US a lot of free charging stations, you don’t get that with gas. I also own a gas car and I still prefer to drive my electric car because of the quietness and acceleration and as of now affordability of electric. So if you haven’t even driven a electric car you should try one out. are they more expensive yes, but if you consider the price as of now electric versus gas, No oil changes, and where I live because they only have emissions testing I don’t need any inspections. Even if you use pay chargers on trips to charge your car it is still roughly a third or less of the cost of gas, so over a period of time your expensive electric car is paying you back with gas and inspections and oil changes.

traderjohn Loc: New York City

Bill Emmett Loc: Bow, New Hampshire

Things in the U.S. will come with drastic changes, as far as maintenance on these EV. In 2008, our Congress allowed all the "Right to Repair" laws to expire. This lack of action allowed all the business that sell products in the U.S. to stop providing repair information for any of their products. This is also the same with U.S. Companies. World wide Auto manufactures do not supply information to repair their gas engine cars. Imagine how repair information will be handled on EV autos. Oh, a trip to a dealer, bring more money. The local mechanic, will be a thing of the past, much like the local blacksmith. These EVs are being driven down our throats, with no repair capabilities in sight other than the dealerships.

Bison Bud

I think the big question is whether or not electric vehicles really are using cleaner energy. Obviously, exhaust emissions are eliminated on EV's and that's a big plus. However, how the electrical power used to charge the batteries is generated needs to be considered and most of it is now either from burning coal or natural gas and Lord help us if anyone even suggests going back to building nuclear power plants. I don't think it's going to happen no matter how bad we might need it. We also need to consider the fuel consumed, the toxic metals needed, and the pollution involved in the manufacture and future disposal of the batteries needed. Not to mention the actual process of mining and refining of the exotic materials needed to ramp up to the scale we are talking about here.

This is what I've been referring to when I previously stated that we need to take a good look at the whole picture before we go "All In" on electric vehicles.

I have also questioned how safe these massive battery packs are in a crash and even routine charging. While gas burns readily, the heat generated by a shorted battery can be many, many, times hotter and more explosive than gas has ever been. It's something to at least consider and I for one will never charge an EV inside my garage even if it does become commonplace to do so.

Paul Diamond Loc: Atlanta, GA, USA

I think you missed the point. I'm in favor of replacing polluting cars, trucks, buses and factory smokestacks. I'm just opposed to poor engineering. It's nearly impossible to access Tesla batteries without literally tearing apart the vehicle. Poor engineering from the conception of the Tesla idea of what makes a passenger car.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I'll agree with that. I would not by any current Tesla, due to a warped design philosophy. They need competition from Toyota, which is coming.

Toyota is building a huge battery plant here in North Carolina, just SouthEast of Greensboro.

https://www.areadevelopment.com/newsitems/12-14-2021/toyota-greensboro-north-carolina.shtml

Walkabout08

It’s about time, Toyota was betting on hydrogen fuel cells for at least the past decade and only recently thrown in the towels and changed their focus to EVs.

traderjohn Loc: New York City

Not important who or what came first. Both are food. Electric work if there is access to the charging stations. How many?? A $h!t load!! If you want people to buy into it you need to have the solution, not more rhetoric. A lot like remove all guns and rifles to reduce crime. No. Where is the narrative on how to correct ...people??