# What are your electric vehicle plans? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 22, 2020, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614 "2020-10-22T18:45:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 92
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/1846 "2025-01-09T04:05:15Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Yeah, I really don’t understand why more cars (EV or not) don’t go this route. The phone is a great front-line key, and the backup/valet key fits in your wallet where you can mostly forget about it. You’re of the wrong age if you carry a wallet (& I do myself). A lot of young’uns carry just their phone with a DL & _maybe_ one actual card on the back of their phone in their phone case. If their phone is lost/stolen they wouldn’t have a backup. I also don’t run with my phone, & frequently intentionally leave it at home when I drive to a park or the track to run. Yes, I could use the backup RFID keycard in that case but I’m not the only one who goes out w/o a phone. I have run shorts that have a built-in key pocket but it’s not large enough to hold a CC. I also have bought a no-tech basic key for my car; it was about $5 & looks more like a house key in that there is no chip in it. It will unlock the doors &, if I put it in the ignition, will work the accessories (windows & radio) but it won’t start the car. I use it when I’m trail running (lace it into my shoes; no electronics if it gets wet in a stream crossing) & at races & the gym. It’s a great low-tech anti-theft device as there’s no remote to let anyone else know what car it goes to (if they even realize it’s a car key) I also don’t drink & drive; there ain’t no drink that I’ve had that is worth the $10-$15,000 that a DUI arrest costs - between legal fees, court costs, sobriety classes, insurance surcharges & other misc. fees/costs, & that’s just for getting pulled over, not causing any damage/injury/death. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/1847 "2025-01-09T04:06:53Z")
I like my fob because it has a physical key inside it, which allows me to open the driver’s door should there be some kind of fault with the accessory system or the fob battery dies. Also, I often go out to the car of an evening and sometimes my phone is not with me. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/1848 "2025-01-09T04:13:48Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > You’re of the wrong age if you carry a wallet (& I do myself). A lot of young’uns carry just their phone with a DL & _maybe_ one actual card on the back of their phone in their phone case. If their phone is lost/stolen they wouldn’t have a backup. Young Tesla drivers have the valet key which looks like a credit card with their credit card and ID. > [@Spiderman](#): > > I also don’t drink & drive; there ain’t no drink that I’ve had that is worth the $10-$15,000 that a DUI arrest costs - between legal fees, court costs, sobriety classes, insurance surcharges & other misc. fees/costs, & that’s just for getting pulled over, not causing any damage/injury/death. I don’t drink at all. I hate the stuff. What does this have to do with anything? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/1849 "2025-01-09T04:15:26Z")
You can also pair an Apple Watch, and as I mentioned, a ring. The keycard is waterproof and durable. You can lace it into your shoe if you want, or strap it to your arm or whatever. The young’uns can’t drive anyway, so it’s sorta irrelevant. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/1850 "2025-01-09T04:17:52Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > The young’uns can’t drive anyway, so it’s sorta irrelevant. Young’uns meaning 20-somethings ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/1851 "2025-01-09T04:21:19Z")
I was exaggerating, but referring to the fact that Gen Z has a lower rate of getting licenses than earlier generations. Only 81% of 20-24 year olds have them. When I grew up, it was \>90% at age 16. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/1852 "2025-01-09T04:21:23Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Young Tesla drivers have the valet key which looks like a credit card with their credit card and ID. Putting your backup together with your primary is not a great idea. **Dr. Strangelove** at least has them in separate pockets of his pants so if one gets dropped (& unretrieveable - sewer)/lost he still has a backup ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/1853 "2025-01-09T04:31:25Z")
Good point. I do the same. It would have to go in a different pocket, like a fob. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/1854 "2025-01-09T04:31:54Z")
I like having independent backups in pretty much all situations. But if the young-uns are taking just their phones then they are losing backups on more than just the car. They’ve lost their ID and their ability to pay for things. Oh, and there is another backup method as well. Get a friend or family member to install the app on their phone. If you’re locked out, give them a ring and they can unlock your car from anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/1855 "2025-01-09T06:30:31Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > He said they would never catch on unless they added in recordings of muscle car sounds so aficionados could have them make loud ‘vroom, vroom’ noises. When I got my Bolt I looked into replacing the noisemaker, a somewhat high-pitched _hummmm-ummm_, similar to Teslas with something that sounded like the [Jetson’s flying car](https://www.myinstants.com/en/instant/jetson-car-move-40932/). Nothing even close was easily available. There was a programmable unit but it was $230, too rich for me. What _was_ available were ICE simulators, like a flathead V-8 or a Lamborghini. Hell, if I wanted a throwback I’d want something like an [SD60M](https://www.american-rails.com/images/9238875323523986090182372476236.jpg). If you’re gonna go, go big. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/1856 "2025-01-09T13:45:09Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > You’re of the wrong age if you carry a wallet (& I do myself). A lot of young’uns carry just their phone with a DL & _maybe_ one actual card on the back of their phone in their phone case. If their phone is lost/stolen they wouldn’t have a backup. Let me get this straight: “young’uns” refuse to carry a thin card and prefer a physical key or fob? Sounds like you are describing my elderly parents. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/1857 "2025-01-09T13:50:43Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > If you’re locked out, give them a ring and they can unlock your car from anywhere. In that scenario once you’re inside with no keys, cards, or phones yourself, can you activate the car and drive it? If so, how? Still learning about all this stuff. For my non-EV non-Tesla, the same sort of remote unlock from a friend’s paired phone works. But without a fob (dead or alive) or paired smart card or paired phone physically present at the car it ain’t goin’ anywhere except on a tow truck. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/1858 "2025-01-09T14:26:34Z")
gone are the times where I had a car-key superglued on the inside of the bumper … IIRC it saved my bacon once … if the fob craps out on my wife’s (newish) car, there is a physical key within the fob, but you must pop off some sort of a mask over the co-pilot’s doorhandle to get access to a physical key-lock hidden behind it… then you must find out if your fob has enough juice to get the start-button primed… does sound complicated … and quite often fobs crap out pretty binary (iow: going from 1 to 0 without much prior warning) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/1859 "2025-01-09T14:44:50Z")
> [@Al128](#): > > there is a physical key within the fob, but you must pop off some sort of a mask over the co-pilot’s doorhandle to get access to a physical key-lock hidden behind it I have the same sort of hidden physical keyhole with a cover, but only on the driver’s side. It was easy to use the second time but there was a bunch of head-scratching trying to make sense of the manual’s inadequate description. “Push this and pull on _what?_” was more my initial reaction. > [@Al128](#): > > then you must find out if your fob has enough juice to get the start-button primed… At least on my car, that part is purely passive. The fob has a transmitter that requires a battery for normal operations at a distance. And also has a passive RFID chip in it that only needs to be held next to the magic spot on in the cockpit to be sensed and start the car. Assuming your car is the same basic idea as mine, you can test this by removing the battery from the fob to simulate a totally dead fob battery. Of course that doesn’t simulate a fob whose chip has died for whatever reason. Since that NFC chip isn’t used in the fob’s normal ops, it could be dead for months and you’d never know it. It’s worth trying to do all that stuff once on a nice day when you’re not in a hurry. When you really need it you’ll remember how a lot better from doing than from reading. ---
**Author:** ![Capn\_Carl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Capn\_Carl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capn_Carl)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/1860 "2025-01-09T15:41:42Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > That’s also good news for me personally because once I do make the switch to an EV (probably my next car), it’ll get driven like it was stolen. Nice to know that won’t impact my range much. 😁 Sometimes I drive that way, and I’m sure it’s using more juice but the difference is not even perceivable. I often drive to/from my mother’s house. If I baby it I use 2%, if I hammer it, I use 2%. Now the longer duration of power use on a track will use up the charge much faster. IIRC a video I watched of multiple 1/4 mile passes in a Model 3 like mine showed a loss of about 2% with each pass. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/1861 "2025-01-09T15:43:48Z")
> [@Capn\_Carl](#): > > What $5M ICE car?. Formula 1, maybe? ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/1862 "2025-01-09T15:54:40Z")
I don’t have a complete list, but I think there are now many street legal hypercars in the $5M range. Check out the Bugatti W16 Mistral. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/1863 "2025-01-09T16:39:04Z")
Googling _street legal hypercar_ came up with this 2022 US News and World Report [article](https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/features/fastest-street-legal-cars) listing 12 of them. To save y’all a lot of clicking the top and bottom prices are, Tesla Roadster $200,000 Pagani Huayra Roadster BC $4-million They approach 2,000hp. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/1864 "2025-01-09T16:41:46Z")
I expect most, if not all, those $5M hypercars are hybrids. Not to save gas or anything plebeian like that, but to get the instant torque. So they probably spent a lot of time optimizing the size of its battery. Enough to get the torque, but not so much it slows the car down too much. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2025, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/1865 "2025-01-09T16:49:35Z")
Not that it’s anything like a $5M hypercar, but the BMW I8 was like that. The battery was effectively the afterburner for monster-quick launches. The ICE kept it going after that. I exaggerate a bit for effect, but not too much. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614.md?page=91) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614.md?page=93)