Electric Vehicles are a key part of our tomorrow and how we get there. If we can get all the fossil fuel vehicles off our roads, out of our seas and out of our skies, we'll have a much better environment. This community is where we discuss the various different vehicles and news stories regarding electric transportation.
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I'm on both sides of this. Had an EV for nearly 4 years and had to go back to gas for work (construction, moving/having tools, materials and supplies).
I cannot wait for an affordable small ev pickup. Even a not that affordable one. I just can't do $100k for an oversized monster like the Lightning. But give me a $60k Ranger/Frontier style (basically the smallest truck they make these days, without a full SUV on the front) and 500km range and I'm in.
I hate getting gas. I hate it so much.
I can't wait to replace our service vans with EV. Fuel costs are a killer, as is the downtime from servicing, not to mention the cost of brake pads and rotors which chew out semi regularly due to the weight we carry.
Unfortunately the only electric vans have terrible range when empty, and far worse when fully loaded. 250k is insufficient.
I'd probably settle for a hybrid, BYD Shark style. Something with a big enough battery for urban use, and a little petrol motor on board to give you range when you actually need it.
Once upon a time I knew someone with a small contracting business. Needed to move sheets of plywood and tools and whatnot around town. Anyway, fed up with one of the pick ups breaking down, he wound up at a used dealer to replace it. He ended up leaving with a wagon instead of a truck, and later on replaced the other trucks he had with wagons. Seems to be a win, it's been about a decade now.
People always forget that when you leave home with an EV, you always have a full "tank".
I think ford forgot that Truck makers went big on chassis sizes is for the exemptions for fuel economy signed into law a decade ago.
They could have made a ford ranger EV that was normal truck size from the old days. They went against that because of mentality of current truck drivers. At the same time, the truck drivers who want EV trucks probably aren’t driving the 3 gpm monsters they sell today.
If you’re loud enough on social media, you might get your modest size EV truck in 3-5 years.
I mean, I can't get rid of my S10 because there's no new truck on the market today sufficiently small enough to allow me to compensate for my enormous penis.
If someone made an ev kei truck that wasn't shit, I'd be so happy.
Ford made the much smaller Maverick truck starting in 2022. It was a hybrid, not an EV, but they definitely are looking into that market.
Currently using a prius C. In theory I'd prefer to have an EV, but I just don't have a consistent place to charge, and I already outright own my existing car.
Currently working on trying to reduce my use of my existing car. Because at the end of the day an ebike will always be better than any type of car.
I was talking to someone I know well about this, she was in an EV and went back to petrol. Two factors, range anxiety and the EV was "soulless"
That's the same kind of thing people say about vinyl records vs CDs, digital video vs film, 48+ vs 24fps.
All I hear with that kind of complaint is: "It's too good, I'm not used to it. I want what I'm used to, even if it's worse."
Vinyl I find is a much more holistic experience than makes listening to music easier for my ADD.
It becomes a process where I can feel the record, read the liner notes, enjoy the album art, and since it's not easy to just skip a track or change to a different artist I find I'll actually listen to an entire album instead of just individual songs.
As for cars, I don't like a lot of modern regulations forced into vehicles. I really like small, simple machines with analog controls that are intuitive to use. Modern cars in general have grown in size that make them less pleasurable to drive. They also are rife with touchscreens and so many systems are so interwoven with software that it becomes a pain in the ass to modify them.
I don't want something that sings at me if I put a bag on the back seat but don't fasten a seat belt. I don't want something that alerts me that I'm speeding. I don't want an infotainment screen that controls my AC which makes it hard to upgrade my stereo. I don't want my car to have a cellular antenna. I don't want "software updates" that change how my car runs. I don't want an entire system locked behind DRM.
I want a car that looks good, not like current copy and pasted of each other's makes. CR-V? Rav-4? Rogue? They all look like similar piles of plastic.
Cars are something I actively enjoy fixing and working on. They are a hobby and a love. Modern vehicles are turning into iPhones where everything is decided and controlled by the manufacturer.
Those are great reasons to like vinyl records. They have nothing to do with audio quality.
As far as preferring simple cars, EVs can be just as simple as you want. Look at the Carice TC2. Which is quite cheep for a hand built car.
And all the things you don't like, are in all the new ICE vehicles also. The power-train doesn't matter to any of that.
The sound is different. Or I should say, it is supposed to be. Because of the limitations on vinyl it needs to be mastered differently. Most modern releases don't necessarily take this extra step in the production so vinyl may sound worse than a digital release.
And yea. It just mostly means that I typically buy 20 year old used vehicles and there aren't EVs from back then. Though wrenching on an EV is different than on a ICE.
If they had an EV that met my criteria, I wouldn't mind buying one. But I don't think I'd replace my ICE cars for it. It would be in addition, though probably get driven more regularly than the ICE cars especially for taking the kid to school.
All that said, we both work from home and the most we drive is usually to school or a nearby shop. We'd get by with a 20 mile range car.
I keep the 01 MR2 Spyder because I love having a convertible and my 03 WRX which I've lifted and drives 95% of the time just when it snows and I need the AWD. It probably uses only a tank or two of gas for an entire year. Both of those are used so infrequently that I had to buy and keep them on battery tenders or the battery would be dead between when I take them out.
Our main car is my girlfriend's hybrid accord. We fill the tank every other month, so cost of operating it is around $20 a month. I spend way, way more in insurance than anything else to drive so little. Because the cost to operate and maintain it is so low, it's not worth the expense to buy a new EV and drop the cash on upgrading my electrical service, replacing my very old panel with pushmatic breakers, and installing a new circuit (or my goal being a sub panel) in the garage.
The soul of a petrol/diesel car, what's that new strange noise, did I change the oil recently, is the cam belt about the explode, acceleration until you have to change gear, inconsistent acceleration, don't cook the brakes going down hill, did I remember to sacrifice to the car gods with morning, how I wish my EV had a soul
Everyone i know who had actually owned an EV has realized that range anxiety is largely a myth.
I've looked at a few EVs, and I do keep going "Well not yet" because of the goddamn interiors and controls. All of a sudden they don't have to worry about mechanical linkages and they can't fucking help themselves but make you shift it into drive by tonguing a clit on the ceiling.
I know your mommy didn't let you go into art school, doesn't mean you get to take your creativity out on me.
I was an early adopter, and I went back to gas. My car only had like a 30 mile range though, which was cut in half during the winter. I'd consider that new Mustang SUV though, that looks like a bad-ass vehicle.
My parents bought one of the mustangs. They are pretty conservative people who live in FL now. My pop says it is his second favorite car ever behind the 98 BMW 540i he had and they’ve owned a lot of cars. It’s wild to me that he loves this electric car so much.
By all accounts it's a fantastic vehicle. Idk why they put the Mustang name on there, which earned it a lot of scorn, when it seems like it can stand well on its own. I know I dismissed it as stupid myself because of the name, until I learned more about it.