electric cars catching on?

[garrett]

cool tool! thanks for sharing

wish the numbers would work out for me... i would need the lease to be ~100/mo to just break even. I've been getting ~20mpg on my 38 mile round trip commute. A $200/mo lease + down payment + full coverage insurance makes it too much. Plus I have no charging option at my work place, so I would be depending on just my home charger at .12/kwh or public paid charging.

With the overall cost of my 4Runner (gas, maintenance, liability only insurance) being so low, just can't justify a new car right now. Electric/hybrid electric is definitely appealing for when the time comes.

[paddlenbike]

The longer you wait, the better they will get. Price will come down too.

[04 Rocko Taco]

Every time I see this thread bumped, I cant help but think of the new Tesla Model 3, and why it could be the most important electric car ever.

http://gizmodo.com/why-teslas-model-...ric-1605923541

Which of course leads me to think of The Oatmeal's review of his Tesla S. (you should read both parts, and his piece about Tesla for the full enjoyment)

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla_model_s

[troyboy162]

Elio will probably fill the gap for most people better then anything electric if looking purely at the numbers. Although if you thought a prius was unattractive then this is hideous. Personally I think it looks ok given it makes good on what it offers ($6800, drivable power, A/C, and 80mpg)

[04 Rocko Taco]

Elio will probably fill the gap for most people better then anything electric if looking purely at the numbers. Although if you thought a prius was unattractive then this is hideous. Personally I think it looks ok given it makes good on what it offers ($6800, drivable power, A/C, and 80mpg)

Couple of guys in my wifes office are on the waiting list for the Elio.

[troyboy162]

There's one guy at my work too. I just learned its FWD. I had figured at that price and efficiency, they would have just driven the rear with a belt or something. It might make a pretty good snow car with studded tires.

[YotaFun]

Neat Tool.
I tired it out but I just don't think currently a leaf would work out for me do to range and no charge station at work, or in general anywhere on the east coast I feel lol.

I am curious though, there are at least 5 Tesla Model S rolling around Delaware, 2 of which do the same commute as I do, I am curious what the range is...

[paddlenbike]

The Teslas have a 208 or 265 mile range, depending on whether you get the 60kw or 85kw battery. The Leaf won't work for you at all, like you said, unless there was charging at work. It may not be worth your trouble, but a lot of companies will put them in at employee's request, mostly because there is good PR associated with it. Also, have you checked the website plugshare.com to see if there is a charging station nearby?

The UCD website also shows that a car has to get 4-5X the gas mileage of the 4Runner (which would mean damn near 100 miles per gallon) before it would make financial sense, when you factor in the car payment and increased cost of insurance. The only reason the Leaf works is because it costs 5X less to drive than even a Prius.

I wouldn't advise anyone to buy one right now. Next year you'll get a 150 mile Leaf for the same cost as what I'm paying. That's why I leased, I want version 2.0.

By the way, on Saturday I took the Leaf for it's first visit to the gas station. To get propane, haha.

[paddlenbike]

Apparently these things are catching on. There are 668 parking spaces in the parking garage I use and over 160 electric vehicles are now using that garage. That's almost 25% of the cars in our garage that are electric. Consistent with the "all good things must end," the free parking for EVs just went away due to the sheer number of them.

My wife commutes 60 miles a day and a new charging station was recently added across the street from where she works. There are eight chargers in front of the Target store, but there's a little problem--Prius owners somehow think their cars are electric:


Now what on earth do you think these Prius owners do with the plug that is dangling in front of their car? Do they think those huge pedestal-mounted things are parking lot soda dispensers? Air for their tires? Lucky for my wife, there are four more chargers in a remote section of the lot where lazy people don't go, and another two chargers on the other remote side of the parking lot.



There are enough Prius owners that think their cars are electric and ACTUAL electric cars running around that it is becoming difficult to rely on public charging. New signs should be added that say "Prius owners: your car is not electric." Tesla owners currently have it good, with under-utilized 7+ stall supercharger stations popping up all over the place. Eventually, more of those will be needed too.


It's exciting to see this many EVs on the road, even though many of the perks like free parking, free charging and lots of charger availability are slowly going away. I was sitting in traffic the other day with a Harley on one side of me and a loud F350 diesel on the other and I could barely hear myself think--which made me wonder what our city streets will be like someday when there is no vehicle noise and uncatalyzed Harley and diesel exhaust next to us. I'm no tree hugger, that that idea sounds nice.

[DHC6twinotter]

There are hardly any EVs on the road around here. I think I've seen one Leaf here in Fayetteville. I did see a Tesla Model S up on Raleigh, and I'm sure there are more EVs up there, but I only make the trek up that way about once a month.

The Tesla Model lll could be game changer, and I would definitely consider one for a DD.