It sounds like you’re describing yourself as a Tesla “fanboy”.
I was planning on building an electric car as a weekend race toy but my job situation delayed that. I still might do it. I have a project car that would fit the bill but my days of building things from scratch are fading fast. I love the crate-motor engine/transmission options available but the price seems way too high to be practical for me. For $50 grand I could buy a crate motor 426 hemi bolted to a 6 speed transmission (installed) and have enough money left over to buy another car.
I’ve been following EV’s for years and would love to own one if they ever come out with a fast charging replacement for lithium batteries. I’m not going to plan my trips around a car. The car is there to serve me, not the other way around. If I was rich I’d own one for local travel and have a second car for full-service travel. In the past I kept a sports car as a 2nd car so that would serve as a backup. That’s probably what will happen when I get an EV. I’ll add a sports car back into the stable.
But right now we don’t begin to have enough fast charging stations for my liking. It’s not enough that a trip is “possible”. It has to be practical. And while I love my lithium battery power tools I’m not thrilled with thousands a tiny batteries soldered together in a car. I’ve had a lithium battery for a motorcycle fail to the point it started expanding. Fortunately it didn’t explode. My hope is that the Li replacement technology is thermally stable and less toxic to mine.
When I do get an EV I’ll also get a natural gas generator for the house. I’d like a backup for power outages due to weather events. I’m not sure what they do in California with the power outages. How many cars can a supercharger station charge if it has battery backup?
The wife and I are in the market for a new car this spring and, while I would love an EV, we live in the city with no off-street parking and no way to charge at home, so I had given up on that dream. But lately I’ve been coming back around to the idea that it might be possible with charging at work.
I got a new job in March and, in the garage where I park (when I drive in) they have some level 2 chargers that are $0.25/hour with a 4 hour max limit. I don’t drive into to work every day - I bike as often as I can/weather allows. But I’m generally driving in 1-2 times per week in good weather, much more in the winter. I’m thinking if I charge 8 hours/week at work, I will pretty much always be topped up and very rarely need a public charge point. Right now, we maybe put 7,000 miles/year total on our car, almost all of which is commuting and local travel.
Hey @FordPrefect I’m looking at the Hyundai Kona EV as a possibility. How much charge do you get on yours with 8 hours of Level 2 charging, do you know?
I need to find out how much I spend on gas annually right now to find out how long the fuel savings will take until I break even. I’m hoping I can figure out a way to make it work, just not sure if it’s practical yet.
I recently had my 2002 Camry inspected and the mechanic said it’s time to start deciding whether I’m going to start putting a lot of money into it, or get another car. I’d love to have an electric car. My husband has a newish gas car so we’d have that for long trips. I’m also looking (online only at this point) at the Hyundai Kona EV. It sounds like a great car and has long range.
Is there any source for average maintenance costs for an ICE vehicle vs. electric? I know how much I pay for my current ICE, but I have no idea what the average costs are for an EV.
This is purely anecdotal, but for the Bolt that I’ve owned for about two years now, my maintenance costs have been zero. There are only three items on the maintenance schedule. Tire rotations every 7,500 miles (which my dealer has done free), cabin air filter changes every two years (DIY with a cheap part from Amazon) and the biggie, a coolant change at 150,000 miles.
There are wear items that need thinking about, like suspension bushings and such, but the biggest cost my previous car regularly had, brake service, isn’t really a factor for the Bolt. My brakes look like new since regenerative braking does most of the work. I touch my brake pedal maybe once per drive. Maybe.
Assuming typical mileage, I would expect maintenance costs to be near zero on any 2 year old new car. Maybe 1 or 2 oil changes. The first of which the dealer should have covered. But nothing else shuld have gone wrong.
I don’t mean to sound like an EV skeptic; I’m not. But the costs that are going to differ between ICE & EV are are those from WAG 30K miles to 130K miles.
Hi @ShadowFacts, except on the cold days (below -15C) my car would charge up in about 5 hours, so 8 hours would get you 50%+ maybe even 60% charge. I have been working from home since March so my memory is a bit fuzzy on these facts, but I don’t think I am too far off.
I used to drive a bare bones Civic and when we purchased the Kona, gas was $1.25 per liter, so my calculations then were $12.50 in gas for my commute or $2.50 for electricity (Manitoba has some of the cheapest electricity around) Which worked out to a savings of $2,000 per year for commuting. Which, I figured I would break even in 5 years for the ~10K premium for electric. Gas did drop in price shortly thereafter and now I am putting 5 km a week most weeks, so the ROI is right out the window but who cares, it’s still fun to drive!
Your overall point is well taken. I just took a look at my routine maintenance receipts for my current car. Through 4 years and 31k miles, I paid just under $1,100 in maintenance. If that number goes down to a couple fo tire rotations for an EV, that’s a not insignificant savings.
One thing you need to watch out for is brakes. I had to replace the drums and rotors plus get the pads reground, they were completely rusted out. Turns out that even using the brake pedal doesn’t actually use the brakes except in extreme conditions. We are preventing further issues by driving 80km/hr approaching our driveway (we live out in the country) , pop into Neutral which does use the brake pads and use the brakes firmly.
It’s the only negative point of our ownership so far. I think that EV manufacturers are going to have to make changes to certain parts due to these new technologies.
Thanks FordPrefect, very helpful info! I’m confused about your latest post. You’re saying you had to get the brakes replaced because you weren’t using them enough? I don’t get that.
Yep, it sounds like opposite day but EVs have a feature where they flip the polarity (or something) and turn the engine from a motor into a generator and pump that electricity back into the battery. The Kona uses the regenerative braking for pretty much all stopping without using the brake shoes unless you are coming to a very rapid stop.
The car has a paddle on the steering wheel that can be used to brake as well so I assumed that using the paddle was regen and using the pedal was brake shoes, turned out I was wrong. Lesson learned, expensively, but now we and the dealer are staying on top of it.
Yeah, I wouldn’t expect brakes to be covered any more than wiper blades. Both are ‘wear’ items with an assumption that they are only good for so long. Of course, it sounds like in your case the brakes were more a ‘no wear’ problem. Good to know that is something to keep an eye on if/when I get my EV.
That sounds like the Bolt. Letting off the accelerator gives you some regen, while the paddle gives you extra regen.
I like the Tesla approach as it’s very simple. There’s just the accelerator and the brake. The brakes are always real brakes, and the accelerator is always regen. You’re driving at the most efficient if you are one-foot-driving with the accelerator. The strong regen effect takes a little getting used to, but not a lot.
I haven’t heard that the brakes need regular use, though the weather here is such that the rotors aren’t likely to get much rust.