Is the electric vehicles better or worse?
In: Other
I rented a Volvo Polestar last year to go from Vegas to Phoenix and back because that’s all Hertz had. They’re pretty fun and cool to drive, I really like the feel of one-pedal driving (the car regeneratively brakes when you ease off the accelerator, feels like an ‘infinite’ engine brake on a manual transmission). You can also pass someone lightning fast on the highway if you need to. Climate control was pretty cool – I could keep it running for a set amount of time while we were away from the car, which is a big plus in the desert.
The major tradeoff is getting a charge back into the batteries for road tripping. We relied exclusively on the Electrify America DC Fast Charging network, which were sparse, broken, or all parked up. It takes about 40 minutes to get to 80 percent, and that does not include waiting for a space. You had to stop at every station along the way– the charging stations were so far apart, that you couldn’t skip a station due to the battery being too small. I broke down the cost of using DCFC and it was approximately the same cost as if I were to use my subaru Impreza 2013 for those same miles.
It was definitely nice to find “level 2” chargers at public (at a mall) or private (flamingo casino) parking garages. These were free and added a small fraction of miles back while we were up to other things, I’d say 15% in 4 hours each time.
I would consider purchasing an EV if I still had a gas car for roadtrips, upgraded to level 2 in my garage, and still worked from home. They’re good for city driving but the charging infrastructure is not quite there yet.
It really depends if you have at home charging and often you go significant miles from home. Most of us will save a decent amount of money on fuel costs driving electric, my savings are roughly 50% compared to gas. Without the ability to charge at home there is likely no fuel savings AND charging at public stations can be painful given the long charge times sporadic charger availability. I don’t have an issue finding a super charger for my Y on the 3 times a year I go more than 100 miles from home. If you’re routinely putting 200+ miles on your car per day you really need to see what charger availability is like in your area and think about if you want to deal with the longer fuel stops.
Drivingwise, the instant torque is IMMENSELY satisfying to drive. Remember Mazda’s old zoom zoom commercial? The “slow” Model Y(Long Range) has a faster 0-60mph than a new Police Interceptor Explorer. Anywhere you are, if you want to be going faster you just breathe on the accelerator and boom, your going faster. It’s also very quiet which makes driving and having a conversation very pleasant compared to gas vehicles. You do need to get used to the one pedal driving/regenerative braking. That’s a hard one for people for a couple weeks, with your foot off or barely on the accelerator your car uses its momentum to recharge the battery and slows down quickly. This is designed to replace 80-100% of your braking and so to coast you need to find the feather point on your accelerator pedal.
Maintenance-wise, it varies slightly by vehicle but its significantly reduced compared to non-EV’s. My Y has no scheduled maintenance. Period. You also barely use your brakes with the regenerative braking and so I’m hearing many people are getting 80-100k miles before changing brake pads. Tires and washer fluid are your maintenance. Obviously there can be issues, but after the drivetrain, which is very well warrantied, you’ve really only got suspension and steering to worry about with any regular frequency.
Cost wise, in most states, you still spend a small premium for EV’s but I think we’ve passed the point of cost parity when comparing to comparable non-EV’s. Cheaper fuel(charging at home), next to no or actually no maintenance, and a battery and drivetrain warranty that cover nearly a decade of use.
TL;DR: If you can charge at home and aren’t often more than ~100 miles from home(or you have a second vehicle to make long trips in), you really should be considering an EV for your next vehicle.
(Note that this is with our current technology)
Pros:
-High torque available at any RPM means EVs accelerate faster
-Packaging flexibility means weight can be distributed with fewer restrictions (better cornering and stability)
-Some EVs can have independant torque vectoring for each wheel (better cornering and stability)
-Closed-system electric motors never need an oil-change
Cons:
-EV batteries are HEAVY AF (Worse cornering and acceleration)
-Batteries wear out with time (Performance and autonomy decrease with use.)
-In-wheel motors in some EVs increase unsprung weight (Worse stability)
-EV maintenance institutional knowledge is limited outside of large corporations
They’re silent, there’s no transmission (you can get smooth continuous acceleration from standstill to top speed), they use regenerative braking so there’s almost no wear on the brake pads and you don’t have to worry about overheating the brakes on mountain roads. They’re mechanically much simpler. They’re generally heavier than an equivalent gas car, and the battery generally has less range than a gas tank (although 300 miles of range is plenty IMO). They’re more expensive. Being able to park at home and charge is a lot nicer than having to periodically fill a gas tank, but charging on the road is slower than filling a gas tank. Finding a charging station when traveling takes some planning, unlike finding a gas station.
As a vehicle, I’d say electric is objectively superior, but it’s more reliant on infrastructure, and in some regions the infrastructure is lacking.
With an EV, there is no more oil changes and a lot of the regular gas engine maintenance is no longer applicable.
If you want a (literal!) plug and play car, an EV is hard to beat!
Speaking as someone who is visually impairedblind on my left side) I feel EVs need some form of loudener on them. While I’m generally in favor of quieter traffic, not being able to hear an EV coming does, in fact pose, a serious safety concern for those of us who literally could not see one coming.
Way cheaper to fuel. Not great for road trips but fantastic for commuting. Typically very fast. Much more reliable, lower maintenance. Their batteries are faster than many gasoline cars, so secondhand not as valuable, though this gap has narrowed hugely as batteries have improved. Nonetheless, there is no EV today that will run fine in 20 years without huge investment to replace the battery, even if you keep it hidden in an air conditioned vault the whole time.
You get all of the possible power instantly. The car accelerates from a stop INSANELY quickly.
You’re most efficient at lower speeds. Gas engines use gears to keep the engine low power while moving at high speed. Electric cars don’t use gears, so the faster you are going, the more power it’s taking.
The car never has to warm up. A/C and Heat turn on basically instantly.
The car is extremely quiet.
Since you can plug in an electric car at home, you always start your day with a full charge. It’s also cheaper to charge an electric car than it is to fill a gas car. This price has been going up, but I don’t think electric cars will ever be more expensive to recharge than a gas cars refuel.
So for those who have an EV, but don’t have solar power, what was the percentage of increase in total electricity cost per month?
If you scored the pros and cons of each car from the perspective of a regular commuter, it’s hard not to conclude than an EV is better. It is virtually silent when you drive it, it has more storage capacity because electric motors are smaller and are often incorporated into the wheel and there’s no transmission. The acceleration is beyond comparison at this point. A Tesla in the 50k price range can beat most super cars off the line. The total range is not much different to an ICE at this point. You’ll get around 300-400 miles with each. The only disadvantage of an EV is that you can’t simply refill the tank in 5 minutes and be on your way.
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