Buying an Electric Car

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How do you feel about electric cars?


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@ValentinDerkovsky What kind of electric car do you have?

I was previously leaning towards getting a Nissan Leaf, but I'm not so sure now after reading about how it uses the depreciated CHAdeMO for Level 3 charging, and I also read a lot about "rapidgate" and it's air-cooled battery. I'm considering a Chevy Bolt now.
 
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Well, I own a tesla model S, and I have to tell you that it is a good car, however it does not deserve all the hype around it! The materials used in that car are really bad actually. My wife has a new volkswagen golf that costed only 23.000 bucks, and the materials used in that car are waaaay better! The quality of the tesla cars is actually getting from bad to worse. And I was already thinking about scrapping the older cars as they would be useless, however it is not true. I guess scrapping the tesla is a better idea :DD. By the way, don't you know how much could we get from a scrapping a tesla?! I do not really think that we would be getting that much, per example, this calculator https://www.scrapi.com/scrap-car-calculator said that I would be getting 14k for my golf, and for the tesla.... well it is way less than I expected.
 
Last edited by Quebper,
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I did a lot of read each a couple of years ago and decided on an E-Golf. It didn’t have the best range (120 miles), but the price was right, about $25000. My commute is 8 miles, round trip. so range wasn’t an issue. I also found adapters to use Tesla chargers on the E-Golf and came across another site that sold aftermarket batteries to increase range, so that car has a lot of options. I ended up coming to grips that it’s too early and tech will just get better. I got a 2018 Mazda 3 now.

I’ve driven a Tesla. Borrowed it. It was strange. I felt like I was under water, in a capsule, being propelled across the ocean floor. The driver loves it and he has a level 2 charger. The level 1 charges very slow. The maintenance is to rotate tires, wiper fluid, and air filters. That’s really all there is.

I’m glad I didn’t buy a car then. I now have an electric bike to transport me to and from work. I also don’t have to sit in traffic and I get some exercise too.
 
Honestly, the only reason I haven't gotten a hybrid or electric car is because I can't charge at home. I don't mind electric cars at all. I do think Hydrogen hybrids are the way of the future for both distance and for us smucks that can't charge at home.
 
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Honestly, the only reason I haven't gotten a hybrid or electric car is because I can't charge at home. I don't mind electric cars at all. I do think Hydrogen hybrids are the way of the future for both distance and for us smucks that can't charge at home.

Electric cars are the future it's going to help our atmosphere but then again we probably wouldn't be all electric until maybe 2060 or 2100. It's crazy how cars have only been around for 100 years and it has done alot of damage to the earth. Electric cars are efficient but one of my concerns is the maintenance.

If your car breaks it may cost you an arm and a leg to get the part replace considering an electric car doesn't have an engine. I think they install a charge port if you own a home I know tesla does this but then again I really want a tesla in the future but I have to do my research on the overall costs.

I drive a Mazda 3 it's the same car I've been driving for the last 7 years but I want to keep it for another 3 years. I think they can last up to 250K miles mines is at 160K.
 
Once electric cars run on fuel cells, then it's time to swap. Battery billionaires like Elon Musk (and Chinese Communist Party) do their utmost braking the better electric tech to take hold.
 
I don't personally own an electric car, but I intend to purchase one in the near future, plus I'm quite familiar with the technology that makes them tick.

There's very little that can go wrong in an electric car - motors are generally hard to grind to death unless they're grossly overloaded, and motor load is normally controlled by the on-board.

The achilles heel of an electric vehicle is still, unfortunately, the battery banks - lithium cells are perishable, which is why I would advise against purchasing a used one unless it had been refurbished and you know for certain that the cells installed are new. The good ones will mitigate cell degradation to a large extent by purposefully not charging the battery banks up to the hilt or discharging them to the very bottom limit - the operating range of a Tesla for instance is 3V-4V as opposed to 2.6V-4.2V - this does affect your range greatly, but it also significantly increases the lifespan of the banks from a measly 500 charge cycles to many, many thousands - more than the average lifespan of a vehicle. There's a lot of interesting papers on that subject you can look into before making an educated purchase - range that seems too good to be true indicates that the charge circuit might be squeezing the batteries harder than they should be squeezed. Avoiding the maximum and minimum values as much as possible provides you with adequate capacity and prevents early retirement of the banks, which is costly.

As far as in-house charging is concerned, it's really no different than charging a grossly oversized phone. You might be tempted to invest in a fast charge solution, but I would generally avoid those as they "current/voltage bang" the cells on purpose in order to provide a fast top-up, temperature permitting. It's good as an optional feature used in a pinch, but the slow and steady overnight charge is always preferable.

In terms of danger when in an accident, a lot of it is mitigated in modern cells which feature safe failure modes such as venting, as opposed to exploding or combusting, as well as individual, per-cell fuses that burn out in an event of an internal short - these cars are very safe, even when compared to a traditional car which at the end of the day is a controlled-explosion-powered machine.

The one thing I would definitely avoid is extreme temperatures - you will have to be mindful of where you park and for how long. Lithium isn't keen on extreme heat or extreme cold, cells currently in circulation still use liquid electrolytes. This might seem like an odd consideration to have, but the *colour* of your vehicle will affect how hot or cold it gets, particularly in direct sunlight or in complete shade. Ideally you'd want to keep it in a garage, if you have one.

In terms of value for money the car will pay for itself - petrol is cheap, but electricity is cheaper, especially if your home has means of generating it via a solar panel installation. It's as close to driving for free as you can get, depending on where your electricity is coming from - beware of the "long tailpipe" effect.

Overall, tl;dr - consider the climate you're in, if buying used inspect the cell health, skip the cheap thrill of driving a black car for something more manageable, keep your available range in mind when planning out your trips, charge slow and steady. Good luck with your purchase! EV's are pretty neat, and there are some affordable options out there. If you're particularly worried about the possibility of having to drive long distance in one, look into hybrids - a motor working in conjunction with a combustion engine really reduces your fuel consumption as maintaining torque is easier than initial acceleration - on a long stretch the electric side will take over completely unless the load is very high.
 
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If at all, I'd buy an electric scooter. A nice Razor style one with bigger wheels. Great and fun for going to the market with my backpack on.
That’s a good option if you don’t have a lot of hills and the market is close by. I looked at scooters as an option too. Their range is about 20 miles on a decent scooter. Not much power can be had due to the size of the scooter. So hills may be a struggle. Also, the weight of the rider and load need to be considered. The price is nice, though.
 
That’s a good option if you don’t have a lot of hills and the market is close by. I looked at scooters as an option too. Their range is about 20 miles on a decent scooter. Not much power can be had due to the size of the scooter. So hills may be a struggle. Also, the weight of the rider and load need to be considered. The price is nice, though.

I had a Razor with the bigger wheels [non electric]. it did well. And was still lightweight, carrying it up this one hill.
 
Last edited by AncientBoi,
Yeah I'll pass - electric may or may not be the future, but CNG is the present and costs less to buy (3k or so over a plain gasoline model for a proper factory job, ie not a fiat, versus almost 2x),
less to refill (cheapest of the major fuels, the only one that's not petroleum derived, no tax on it funding the war to conquer ethiopia, don't have to buy your own charger separately nor upgrade the standard 3 kW electric service),
cheap to continue to own (25% the tax of an equivalently powerful engine + give or take 90 € every 4 years for tank servicing, vs a few years free then 100% + who knows what every give or take 8 years for electrics),
and of course they sound and feel like a combustion engine!


If they'll manage to do 600 plus km with whatever battery can be fitted into an Up, for no more than 25 thousand €, then maybe...
 
Last edited by Ryccardo,
It has been claimed that internal combustion engine (ICE) cars are 11 times more likely to explode than electric cars. Regardless of the actual number, ICE cars explode, too.

Until I can go to a charging station and fully charge my car within 5 minutes I'm going to stick to fossil fuels
You might want to get a fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) instead of a battery electric vehicle (BEV). With an FCEV, you can fuel it like you would an ICE vehicle, except you would be using hydrogen instead of gasoline. You would also be using the hydrogen to generate an electrical current that powers an electric car that's no different from a BEV (aside from not having a battery).

electric may or may not be the future
Electric is almost certainly the future for various reasons. It's hard to say if BEV's or FCEV's will be more popular. Only time will tell.

but CNG is the present and costs less to buy (3k or so over a plain gasoline model for a proper factory job, ie not a fiat, versus almost 2x),
less to refill (cheapest of the major fuels, the only one that's not petroleum derived, no tax on it funding the war to conquer ethiopia, don't have to buy your own charger separately nor upgrade the standard 3 kW electric service),
cheap to continue to own (25% the tax of an equivalently powerful engine + give or take 90 € every 4 years for tank servicing, vs a few years free then 100% + who knows what every give or take 8 years for electrics),
and of course they sound and feel like a combustion engine!


If they'll manage to do 600 plus km with whatever battery can be fitted into an Up, for no more than 25 thousand €, then maybe...
CNG vehicles never really took off in the United States, and it's easy to understand why. In the United States anyway, EV's are more energy efficient, the charging infrastructure for EV's is much better, and EV's are cheaper to charge. The range of an EV also rivals CNG vehicles these days. The only real benefit of a CNG vehicle over a BEV is charge/fuel time, but an FCEV solves that problem.

People also forget that, unless you're driving long distances (230+ miles, depending on your battery range) in a day, the charge time of a BEV isn't really a concern, since it can be charged overnight like a cell phone. When you think about the time it takes to plug in your BEV after you get home (a few seconds) vs. how it takes several minutes to fuel an ICE vehicle, a CNG vehicle, or an FCEV, the BEV wins.
 
Last edited by Lacius,
I can't rule out the possibility someday.

I'm still driving a 2007 Prius currently, but some scumbag stole the catalytic converter out of my own driveway. I didn't replace it due to cost vs current value of the car and had the gap closed with straight pipe instead, so it reeks of gas while running and isn't exactly so environmentally friendly anymore. Luckily, I don't really go out or drive very much.
 
You might want to get a fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) instead of a battery electric vehicle (BEV). With an FCEV, you can fuel it like you would an ICE vehicle, except you would be using hydrogen instead of gasoline. You would also be using the hydrogen to generate an electrical current that powers an electric car that's no different from a BEV (aside from not having a battery).

The problems with that is that there are only 11 petrol stations in the UK that provide hydrogen and the cheapest FCEV is £53000 so until it's convenient and makes sense economically I'll stick to regular cars.
 
The problems with that is that there are only 11 petrol stations in the UK that provide hydrogen and the cheapest FCEV is £53000 so until it's convenient and makes sense economically I'll stick to regular cars.
Out of curiosity, how far do you drive on an average day? If it's less than the range of a BEV, you'd probably be better off charging at home.
 

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