What will it take to make you seriously consider an EV?

Must be amazing

 

Well, I don't think it is tbd. As I said earlier, most charging happens at home. Even with ubiquitous public charging, you're going to prefer to do it at home. You'll pay your residential electricity price at home (15 cents or so nowadays ) or 25 cents to charge in public. Those DC fastchargers are fast, will get you to 80% charge in under 30 minutes. But you can plug in at home at night and go have sex with your wife and get a good night's sleep while you're waiting at Level 1 or 2 speeds. For a commuter car, you don't need public charging at all. In 6 months, I've never used a public charger.

For roadtrips, I do still have and would prefer my ICE. But, with a little planning, you can go cross the country in an EV right now. And the 'it's coming' part is coming really soon. Texas expects to be done building out their corridor charging (every 50 miles) -- about 100 stations, each with 4 chargers (we have 27 right now) -- by the end of 2023 (you can see their plan here). By the end of 2026 (let's say 2027 with setbacks), they'll build another 189 in county seats and don't expect charging stations further apart than 70 miles. Also by then, another 300 in cities (along with 20,000 level 2 charging ports for community charging). That's all from Biden's infrastructure bill, and every other state has been allotted money too. I'm not sure people realize how transformative it's going to be. I think when your ICE dies, the EV is going to look ready for primetime.

 

Yeah, that's why I said "much of what I want is TBD". Until range improves, my trips to Houston, Arkansas, Tennessee, etc. wouldn't be the same. Right now, I can drive from North DFW to SW Houston and back halfway or so on a tank of gas. I generally average about 36-40 mpg. I don't make decisions based upon how it is for "everybody else". And I'm not a road trip person who does the "with a little planning". I just go and drive back roads, country roads, etc. I'm a spontaneous driver who wants to explore - that's a road trip to me. I've completely changed my routes simply because I wanted to try a restaurant. It's not about driving down every pathway/interstate that most people go to or big tourist traps, etc. Sometimes it's just to try Mary's Pie's (R.I.P.) in DeValls Bluff, Arkansas on the way to Nashville, Tennessee or some other side-trip.

As far as timelines, when it comes to EVs, EV infrastructure, autonomous driving, etc. I've learned to wait. There are a lot of promises, expectations, etc. that have not come true yet, and I'm not eager to be among the first to try new vehicles - especially among manufacturers that haven't done it for too long like Ford, GM, etc. or Tesla that seems to make repairs, parts, etc. proprietary. Show me when all the infrastructure is actually in place and when range is improved a bit, etc., and I'll be more than happy to jump at an EV. All this stuff about infrastructure, autonomous driving, solid state batteries, etc. has been pie-in-the-sky hope thusfar, and I'm not ready to buy a car based upon it in the hopes that it'll be here in a year or two or three, unless I'm forced to.

 

Sort of depends on your car. If you have a Tesla, for example, here is their current supercharger map (15 minutes charging):



You could pretty much go anywhere except a few places in the great plains and rural northwest without any problems, even if you don't charge anywhere else.

 

Sure, but if you actually zoom in, you realize you're kind of at the mercy of interstates and big cities again. Many of us want to avoid big cities/traffic. Below in the spoiler's an example of the gap between and around places like Memphis and Nashville. Now, am I going to run out of charge between the big cities? No. But if I charge at a big city and start driving back roads, I may start getting worried that I'd have to head back to a major freeway/city to charge up "just in case". There was one time I went to Memphis and thought I'd go to Nashville, but decided to head up to Kansas City instead because of poor weather around Tennessee from what I recall. In a Tesla, the network may be more reliable and I may not have to worry, but when I see gaps like I see when I zoom in, I'm still wary. But, like they say, in a year or 3, things will be better.

I'm also looking at the route between DFW and Fayetteville, Arkansas and there's like 1 charging station (?) that I guess I'd probably be able to hit on that path (not counting the one in the Sherman-Denison area since I just left DFW, I probably wouldn't charge there). Is there any chance that entire thing will be filled with people charging up or, even worse, the whole thing is malfunctioning? Probably not, but I do think about it. lol. With gas stations everywhere, it rarely even crosses my mind that I won't be able to find a gas station nearby in any of my trips.

Then I just read something about a guy with a 8 or 10 year old Tesla that Tesla was charging something like $20,000+ to fix a faulty battery that would only charge to 50 miles of range or something. That kind of stuff scares the hell out of me right now. Forget Tesla, but some of these other cars that barely get over 200 miles per charge on a good day? Not even considering winter driving. Not for me, at the moment. Maybe I'll overcome the fear of having to recharge every 150-250 miles, but not yet, apparently.

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

Absolutely - sorry, I hadn't seen your next message when I responded. 100% agree that for rural driving and "wandering" type roadtripping, EV's are definitely not the way to go right now. It'll happen eventually, but it's not there now.

 

Would not recommend a Model S to anyone. If you have over $100K to spend, the EQS, eTron GT, and Taycan are MUCH better vehicles.

 

Are there good estimates of how much it costs Tesla to build a Model 3 vs how much it costs a legacy manufacturer to build an EV?

With the recent Chevy Bolt price drop and Model 3 price increase, the 2023 Bolt starts at $26,595 with destination fee and the Model 3 starts at $49,690 with the M3SR. The Bolt is a much smaller vehicle and worse equipped at the base price (I assume, but havne't looked in detail), but that's a massive massive price difference considering that the Bolt EV even has a bigger battery.

What accounts for the price difference? GM selling at a loss? Tesla selling at massive margins because they can? Is it that much cheaper for GM to build the Bolt than Tesla building the Model 3?

I am all for Tesla making as much money as they can while the market can sustain it. I am just curious whether that legacy car makers might just be better at building cars more cheaply than Tesla.

 

Quality of the EV drive system itself.

There are breakdowns of the model 3 and Y out there.

Teslas are not an ICE chassis on a battery. The CPU is quite extensive.

If you're on budget and require an EV, sure get a Bolt. Really you should test drive each.

 

2017 UBS estimate ...Chevy Bolt EV costs $28700 to build. Don't think GM makes a lot of money on it...maybe even lose.

The average cost of making a Tesla vehicle fell to just $36,000 in both Q3 and Q4 2021. The figure is denoted as COGS, or cost of goods sold, in the earnings report, which means it only takes into account the direct cost of producing the vehicle and not the cost of sales and marketing, which could add to those expenses.

 

I feel like the inevitable Elon Musk running as a Republican will convince a lot of naysayers. We'll soon flip flop as a country and Northeast liberals will drive gas guzzling pickups for their 5 mile drive to the train station and cowboys will have "a good ol fashion'd americ'n electric vehicle"

 

??? Elon is not born in America. He can’t run for anything.

 

??? What are you talking about.

 

If he has citizenship he can run for most things but not for President.

 

Elon and his ego wouldn’t run for anything else. You think he’s going to take orders from someone else?