I have been driving electric cars for the past 6 years. I had a Nissan Leaf,...and now a Tesla Model 3 and a Model Y. Best - Cars - Ever - Period. To put things into perspective when I say this:
1. I grew up at the drag strip. My father raced.
2. My father later owned a Ford-Lincoln-Mercury dealership.
3. I learned auto mechanics and did my own vehicle maintenance.
4. I modified and raced a '89 Mustang on the track for several years.
5. I modified and off-roaded a 2006 Toyota 4Runner for several years.
Just to be clear,...I am a total "gear head".
My story is that I wanted to be independent of the electrical grid for many years,...I've been following the solar, wind, and battery technology since the 1990's,...well before conversations of "global warming" and "climate change". In 2016, we needed a new roof on the house, and the prices were "affordable" with zero-down, low-interest loans being offered,...and we pulled the trigger on a full rooftop solar array and storage battery. Well, we were making so much power,...our meter running "backward",...that we had over $1000 in energy credits on our bill, and literally no way to use it. Meanwhile, running back and forth from work we were spending roughly $200/month on each of our vehicles,...$400 a month in our budget just for gasoline,...and then there was the normal vehicle maintenance,...more $$$,...drips of this and that on the driveway,...keeping flammable liquids in the garage,...all of that. I am looking at the roof saying to myself,..."I have a fuel station at my home. Why am I spending money on gas?" So, I took a test drive of a "plain jane" entry-level, Nissan Leaf. Well, that car was about $8000 less than the Toyota Tacoma I was driving,...and, that little car had some street performance,...electric motor torque. Fun little car. I traded in that truck that day. So, I drove that car for 3 years, parked it outside,...still had the Mustang in the garage,...no charger,...simply plugged it into a standard 15A wall outlet. Perfect. I was spending about $0/month in "fuel",...not $200. Plus the payments were significantly less than the Tacoma. Now,...the return on investment on that solar array was really coming down,...it paid for all my electric,...and a car. We were saving about $300/month despite having the payments on the solar. So, the following year, the lease was up on my wife's Toyota Rav4 Hybrid. The monthlies on a new lease on the updated Rav4 Hybrid went up about $150/month,...we walked out. On a "whim" we clicked onto the Tesla website,...looked at the monthlies,...and it was about the same as the Rav4 Hybrid,...and we were not going to spend some $200/mo in gas,...but only about $0 in electric. Literally cheaper to buy a Tesla Model 3 than a Toyota Rav4 Hybrid to own and operate. So, that was our next car,...soooooo, much more of a vehicle than the Nissan by every metric, including mileage. Now, we were saving about $500/month in our budget with no more stops at gas stations, essentially zero maintenance, no electric bills,...and we are driving nicer cars with a lot more performance. In 2020, a semi-tractor destroyed the Model 3 on the highway,...but was still drivable for another 500 miles on our vacation,...strapped the body panels on with a roll of duct tape,...literally. Drove like new,...inside the car,...getting in and out,...that car was tank. The auto body shop took one look at the car and said it was "totaled",...they weren't going to make any attempt at repairing it. We got our money from the insurance company,...it was worth MORE used than new,...my wife wanted the new Model Y,...so we ended up with that. A year later, I turned in the Nissan for my Model 3,...got the performance software,...that car is rocket! In the snow,...better than the 4Runner and Tacoma,...even with it sitting slammed on the ground, lacking any ground clearance. I can punch that accelerator on a wet road going around a corner, and it doesn't spin the tires, it just hooks and slingshots you forward. My track Mustang had over 500hp to the wheels,...and scary to drive on the street,...zero traction. That Tesla would absolutely leave it in the dust,...not even a race.
Would I even consider purchasing anything with an internal combustion engine as a daily driver? Never, never, never.
I still don't have a charger for my Model 3,...don't need one. We put in a Level 2, 48A charger for my wife's car.
Something else to consider:
1. Most of the "bad press" that EVs have are FUD,...targeted opinion pieces to make ignorant people have fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Trillions of dollars of market share are being threatened by fossil fuel companies and automotive companies. "Big oil" is now becoming "big electric" and that's a HUGE threat to the status quo,...and there are millions of dollars being pumped into the media to misrepresent how "bad" EVs are, etc.
2. Those that have not paid attention to the media BS and actually are driving the cars,...love them. Sure,...every so often someone posts a video on their "bad experience",...but here's the deal,...it too is BS. I will click onto them and just roll my eyes at the utter nonsense,...but if you don't drive an EV,...you don't know that it's nonsense.
3. The grid will be fine. Oil companies will be fine. EVs are "rolling batteries", and if you have a vehicle-to-grid, reversible charger,...you can feed your home and the grid. As long as there are plastics and other polycarbonate materials,...oil companies will do just fine,...we just don't need to burn it anymore.
4. The charging network is increasing significantly as we speak,...those antiquated arguments about "inconvenience" are going away quickly. Charging speeds improving quickly. Battery chemistries are changing year to year,...better performance and mileage,...the technology is rapidly improving. Tesla has been known to make hardware updates on their cars,...monthly,...crazy. Most legacy automakers, it takes 1-3 years to do what Tesla does in 30 days. Over-the-air software updates,...every few weeks,...the cars get better and better with new features added all the time,...unheard of before.
5. "How long does it take to charge?" Depends on the charger. Depends upon how far the battery is depleted. No straight answer. I will tell you though, I set my battery to charge up to 90%, go to work, come home, it is at 70%,...plug it into a 15A wall outlet,...by 2am its "full" again. Set the battery warmer and climate control for the times I leave to and from work,...the car is warmed, defrosted, seats warm, steering wheel warm,...no more scraping snow. Just get in and drive. Out on the road,...long trips,...Superchargers about every 40-60 miles, near restaurants and shopping,...you can watch movies in the car,...it's a whole different thing, and very convenient. Hotels and shopping centers now have chargers,...often for free.
If you want to whine and complain about missing your old lifestyle of paying for electricity, vehicle maintenance, and gasoline,...I can't help you.
If you have never driven an EV before,...to be blunt,..."Shut up! You don't know what you are talking about." The first thing you should do is DRIVE the vehicle. Butts in seats. That's how Tesla sells,...no advertising dollars at all,...people drive,...then they buy,...they are that good. Before you comment on that statement,...DRIVE the car first. It's a whole different thing you've never experienced before.
Thanks for the informative post, good points... I'll admit, and maybe it's just me, but I love shifting gears with a manual transmission, I would really want an EV with some semblance of gear shifting... I have heard some have that ability...
Not sure where you live, but here in western Canada there are large distances with low (even zero) population, and these are areas I enjoy exploring roads like that... Because that is where the best photos are...
