The Real Costs of Electric Car Ownership - CNET

[Colts Ironman]

My wife really wants one but we don't want to spend $60k on a vehicle. I do have a 240v outlet in the garage we could use for a fast charger. Her round trip commute is 50 miles so I don't think that would be an issue. I have to have a pickup for towing so we would still have a ice vehicle for long trips.

Don't get me started on the name. I have a 1980 and a 2005 Mustang. This gets back to Ford using the mustang name for marketing and that it is getting harder and more expensive to come up with new vehicle names.

I can't justify the price for a car that's not going to get me around. Using the 240v level 2 charging at home sure helps and if you do have other "practical" vehicles to use, it can save on gas but wait until the battery needs replaced...if I had other means of transport, and $60K to blow, I don't think I'd be choosing any EV. I'm going for a bad arse hot rod as my fun car but choosing one would be like having it for fun only. Our infrastructure just isn't there and probably won't be for 50-100 years for it to be very useful. I sure don't want to have to stop and sit for an hour to charge when it takes me less than 5 minutes to fill up. In some cases, time is money. We have serious energy grid problems we need fixed first. With temperatures like today, we are vulnerable to power outages, imagine throwing more electricity into our current grid so people can think they are saving money and the environment. When they can't charge at home because their power is out because of weather or our grid gets hacked, I'll be the only one on the road. Might cost me a fortune to keep my tank full but I'm not stuck

 

[Mounty09]

and probably won't be for 50-100 years for it to be very useful. I sure don't want to have to stop and sit for an hour to charge when it takes me less than 5 minutes to fill up. In some cases, time is money. We have serious energy grid problems we need fixed first. With temperatures like today, we are vulnerable to power outages, imagine throwing more electricity into our current grid so people can think they are saving money and the environment. When they can't charge at home because their power is out because of weather or our grid gets hacked, I'll be the only one on the road. Might cost me a fortune to keep my tank full but I'm not stuck

Miso is already warning of a rolling blackout today...

 

[Colts Ironman]

Not to go too political. As long as this administration is around our any one like it, we will never have the infrastructure. They're doing very little to lower gas prices so they can push this clean energy agenda which is the only thing they might have left and it probably won't get far.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

When they can't charge at home because their power is out because of weather or our grid gets hacked, I'll be the only one on the road. Might cost me a fortune to keep my tank full but I'm not stuck

But unless you have a gravity-feed storage tank or lots of cans on your property, if the grid is down, the gas stations aren't pumping. So you'll be good to go if just driving around your local area, but if you have to make a long trip, you're just as OOL as the EV driver. But, you'll have the satisfaction of getting farther from home before you run out of fuel, so there's that!

 

[jake blue]

But unless you have a gravity-feed storage tank or lots of cans on your property, if the grid is down, the gas stations aren't pumping. So you'll be good to go if just driving around your local area, but if you have to make a long trip, you're just as OOL as the EV driver. But, you'll have the satisfaction of getting farther from home before you run out of fuel, so there's that!

I can neither confirm or deny the existence or location of any such alleged cache of stored gas.

 

[Colts Ironman]

I can neither confirm or deny the existence or location of any such alleged cache of stored gas.

Are you him?

 

[indyblue]

Are you him?

And this is the intelligence of a huge portion of our electorate

 

[jamil]

Are you him?

I mean. At least he didn’t try to fill plastic trash bags with gasoline.

 

[KLB]

I mean. At least he didn’t try to fill plastic trash bags with gasoline.

Little plastic grocery bags, that was my first thought too.

 

[jamil]

Little plastic grocery bags, that was my first thought too.

It’s happened.

 

[jamil]

Woman pumps gas into plastic bag and then puts it in trunk of her car

The video was recorded by another customer at a Kroger gas station in Houston, Texas. In the footage, the woman, who appears to be wearing a black apron, can be seen standing next to a pump.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Woman pumps gas into plastic bag and then puts it in trunk of her car

The video was recorded by another customer at a Kroger gas station in Houston, Texas. In the footage, the woman, who appears to be wearing a black apron, can be seen standing next to a pump.

www.dailymail.co.uk

With the cost of gas now, I bet she'd be double bagging it.

 

[KLB]

It’s happened.

I remember.

 

[Timjoebillybob]

Are you him?

Should of used this.

Robot or human?

 

[Percolater]

Not the newest MCS design, but still the first plug to handle >350kW

An up-close look at Tesla's liquid-cooled Megachargers at Frito Lay

The Tesla Semi's Megacharger hasn't had any up-close looks in several years. Here are some up-close images of the liquid-cooled design.

www.teslarati.com

 

[jamil]

They get all the kinks worked out of lithium sulfter batteries and we'll see a lot more people going electric. With 5x the energy density and less expensive, that's a game changer.

Next generation lithium-sulfur battery solves the loss of sulfur problem

The research outcome of Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI) related to "low-cost and flexible high-energy-density lithium-sulfur batteries" was recently published on the front cover of the journal Small.

techxplore.com

 

[Cameramonkey]

They get all the kinks worked out of lithium sulfter batteries and we'll see a lot more people going electric. With 5x the energy density and less expensive, that's a game changer.

Next generation lithium-sulfur battery solves the loss of sulfur problem

The research outcome of Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI) related to "low-cost and flexible high-energy-density lithium-sulfur batteries" was recently published on the front cover of the journal Small.

techxplore.com

But we still have the lack of capacity on the current grid. We cant ignore that. Thats the elephant in the room that everyone is ignoring.

Sure, the battery tech is fixed. (theoretically) But the infrastructure to charge them isnt there. With minimal market penetration of plug in EVs we already have predicted grid shortages/outages. What happens when folks listen to Buttedge-edge and buy those electric cars?

Unless you add a wind/solar farm big enough to charge your new EV, you wont be able to charge it. This is no different than somebody releasing a new plutonium reactor based car. Great. You figured out how to power a car on Plutonium like Doc Brown. Now where are you going to find the plutonium rods required to power it? (along with the other millions of drivers who want some too. There just isnt enough to go around. )

And as somebody pointed out, when you come home and plug in your EV, the sun is setting and the winds are dying down. So while you expect your car to charge so you can go to work tomorrow morning, all that green energy necessary to supplement the power plants is GONE. How do you charge your car to drive to work the next morning when the winds are calm and the sun is down? So expect to not only add wind and solar generation, but also a big a** expensive battery bank to store the day's green energy so you can harvest it overnight.

So that $60,000 EV has now turned into a $100,000+ endeavor for solar, wind, and battery banks to support the car because the grid cant.

 

[jamil]

But we still have the lack of capacity on the current grid. We cant ignore that. Thats the elephant in the room that everyone is ignoring.

Sure, the battery tech is fixed. (theoretically) But the infrastructure to charge them isnt there. With minimal market penetration of plug in EVs we already have predicted grid shortages/outages. What happens when folks listen to Buttedge-edge and buy those electric cars?

Unless you add a wind/solar farm big enough to charge your new EV, you wont be able to charge it. This is no different than somebody releasing a new plutonium reactor based car. Great. You figured out how to power a car on Plutonium like Doc Brown. Now where are you going to find the plutonium rods required to power it? (along with the other millions of drivers who want some too. There just isnt enough to go around. )

And as somebody pointed out, when you come home and plug in your EV, the sun is setting and the winds are dying down. So while you expect your car to charge so you can go to work tomorrow morning, all that green energy necessary to supplement the power plants is GONE. How do you charge your car to drive to work the next morning when the winds are calm and the sun is down? So expect to not only add wind and solar generation, but also a big a** expensive battery bank to store the day's green energy so you can harvest it overnight.

So that $60,000 EV has now turned into a $100,000+ endeavor for solar, wind, and battery banks to support the car because the grid cant.

Sure. The grid needs an upgrade. Unfortunately the markets aren't very well aligned. Battery advancement will march on. EV production will march on. All without being subject to the constraints of the power grid until it's too late.

But, if you have solar power/batteries, it's not a big problem to charge your EV whenever you want. Seems kinda silly on the surface to charge batteries with the sun so that you can transfer that charge to your EV, with all the losses applied. It's not like you paid the source for that energy. You're paying for the means to collect and store it.

Many of the charging stations around the country aren't hooked to the grid. They're solar. And they store energy in batteries.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Not the newest MCS design, but still the first plug to handle >350kW

An up-close look at Tesla's liquid-cooled Megachargers at Frito Lay

The Tesla Semi's Megacharger hasn't had any up-close looks in several years. Here are some up-close images of the liquid-cooled design.

www.teslarati.com

That’s 20x the size of the transformer feeding my house. That’s a lot of power (not to mention what is required to cool the fluid cooling the battery, cable, etc.). That’s a lot of power being demanded from the grid for just 30 minutes (assuming just one truck). That sort of load profile gives utilities headaches.

 

[wtburnette]

But we still have the lack of capacity on the current grid. We cant ignore that. Thats the elephant in the room that everyone is ignoring.

Sure, the battery tech is fixed. (theoretically) But the infrastructure to charge them isnt there. With minimal market penetration of plug in EVs we already have predicted grid shortages/outages. What happens when folks listen to Buttedge-edge and buy those electric cars?

Unless you add a wind/solar farm big enough to charge your new EV, you wont be able to charge it. This is no different than somebody releasing a new plutonium reactor based car. Great. You figured out how to power a car on Plutonium like Doc Brown. Now where are you going to find the plutonium rods required to power it? (along with the other millions of drivers who want some too. There just isnt enough to go around. )

And as somebody pointed out, when you come home and plug in your EV, the sun is setting and the winds are dying down. So while you expect your car to charge so you can go to work tomorrow morning, all that green energy necessary to supplement the power plants is GONE. How do you charge your car to drive to work the next morning when the winds are calm and the sun is down? So expect to not only add wind and solar generation, but also a big a** expensive battery bank to store the day's green energy so you can harvest it overnight.

So that $60,000 EV has now turned into a $100,000+ endeavor for solar, wind, and battery banks to support the car because the grid cant.

Not to mention that we don't have the materials to make the EV's at a certain level of demand either...