Technology Briefing
www.circuitinsight.com
I came across this article today and thought it was something worth sharing. It mentions all the realities of battery electric vehicles that the mainstream media doesn't bother to mention. Keep some of these points in mind for your next beer fueled argument with your liberal friends (if you have any).
In no way do I advocate for electric vehicles. All four of my current vehicles are SBC powered, and my wife's Honda only appreciates gasoline as well (just not in the same quantities).
Granted, I am not your typical EV owner. I did not buy it for environmental reasons. I'm so conservative I have two right legs. I do concede that many EV/hybrid owners are douchy, but that article is chocked full of fallacies. I'll address them one by one:
19. I have zero range anxiety. I've put over 25,000 miles on my car in less than one year of ownership. Never once came close to running out of juice. My commute is much longer than the average person, as I live in a rural area.
18. Charging time -- I wake up to a full charge every morning. I don't really think about the time it takes to charge. If I drive to a job that's 500 miles away I stop at about the 340 mile mark--I don't know about you, but I need to piss, eat and stretch after 4.5 to 5 hours on the road. The charging takes about 20 minutes give or take at a nice Tesla supercharger. Not to mention, I have other options for long distance travel. Not many people own one vehicle.
17. Trip planning is easy. You put in a destination and it figures out all the rest. There are superchargers everywhere.
16. False, I live in a more rural area than 98% of Americans.
15. I'll concede this one. Frankly, the environment was not a factor of my purchase.
14. My vehicle purchase was not subsidized. Expensive is relative to your income. What is expensive to someone, isn't to someone else.
13. What repair costs? My brother has had his for 100k miles. Only thing he's done is replace the tires. This is a very common story. My new Silverado on the other hand was in the shop way too often. At that point, I don't care about the cost of the repair anymore, but loss of work time.
12. Are we really talking about the weight of a vehicle on a square body site, lol!
11. I can't speak on low temperature issues. I've never driven the vehicle in temps below 10 degrees Fahrenheit. It is fine in those temps.
10. Low top speeds? Not sure this is a factor for 99% of drivers, but I think the slowest Tesla is limited to 145mph...
9. Highway range...my car gets within a few percent of its advertised range at 75mph. sometimes it gets more.
8. High energy consumption under heavy loads...doesn't this apply to any motor or engine? If I romp around in my truck, it's range is reduced by a much greater factor than doing the same in my Tesla. I accelerate quickly quite often and still hit target range.
7. Aesthetics, this is up to the person. I won't argue there are some silly looking hybrids and EVs.
6. It's a free market economy. What about the poor souls who worked in the horse and buggy industry? This is a socialist argument.
5. The big three are jumping all in on electric technology. They're chasing Tesla as it is now the most valuable car company in the world.
4. who cares, I'm not driving in the third world.
3. I am a very ordinary consumer. Driving my Tesla is easier than any other vehicle I own. Seriously, who wrote this article?
2. Again, who cares if it can be your only vehicle. I have two dodge diesels, a 1-ton square body, a 1975 F-350 supercab, a 7.3 diesel excursion, a v70xc Volvo, an AWD Honda Element, a Toyota Venza Hybrid, several motorcycles. This is America last time I checked. Own what you want. Drive it when you want.
1. This may be the largest fallacy on the list. Teslas are not hard to sell, they are hard to buy. The waiting list for a new one is so long that I could sell mine for $10-15k over what I bought it for new in less time than it took to type this response.
TL;DR this has been the easiest vehicle that I've owned to date. Zero maintenance. All I do is hop in and commute every day.
