Interesting article on company developing an electric class 3 truck and motorhome chassis.

[Voyageurs]

I wouldn't try to replace the Jeep, Truck, or long haul vehicles with EV right now, but the city car might be a candidate. I have 2 years to make that decision.

Yah. And for us we only have one vehicle so it needs to do everything. But in our case it’s pretty easy for an electric vehicle to cover it all because our demands are pretty light. Our most common road trip is 470 kilometres in a day. And very worst case sceenario we have to make the return trip the same day so around 950 total round trip. (Rare) Pretty easy in an EV, especially if you don’t have to tow.

Everybody needs to assess their needs, their routes and their travelling habits. We know folks who would find a 15 to 20 minute charge stop totally unacceptable. I have no problem with that. For us after a few hours behind the wheel a 15 or 20 minute break is welcome...especially for our bladders and our chihuahua.

Buy what you like and fits your budget and then drive it like you stole it.

 

[redbaron]

Buy what you like and fits your budget and then drive it like you stole it.

That is the attraction of EV...nothing like the acceleration.

 

[Voyageurs]

That is the attraction of EV...nothing like the acceleration.

True. People think people buy EV’s for environmental reasons. That may happen to some degree. But the big reason is the test drive. It’s pretty much over after that.

Jmho.

 

[Neal]

Most people that bought an EV have not yet reached the point of a battery replacement I presume? This is also going to be an issue in resale. What is the lifetime on batteries and what is the cost for replacement? When is the recommended interval, if published, for replacement?

 

[Voyageurs]

I can’t speak to other brands. There is no replacement interval for a tesla. The batteries going into todays Teslas are expected to last the life of the vehicle.

Many of the batteries from earlier Teslas are already north of 400,000 kilometres and going strong and the technology has changed a lot since then. All the taxi cabs here are older model S’s and they get supercharged everyday and they have a ton of miles on them.

Battery catastrophic failures is a different thing of course. Warranty’s from various companies range from 8 to 10 years. Outside of warranty rebuilds are more common than replacements mostly by 3rd party shops. If I did something to my battery not covered under warranty or insurance it would cost me 13000 bucks. Older Teslas are even more. Then again, a crate engine for a Mercedes is 20,000 plus. It’s all relative. These are premium high performance sports sedans. No idea on other brands.

 

[Bob K4TAX]

While I see some merit to EV's today, I don't think they are as environmentally friendly as the advertiser's tout. Reasons:
Principal sources of US electricity in 2019 were: natural gas (38%), coal (23%), nuclear (20%), other renewables (11%), and hydro (7%). Over the decade 2004–2014, the largest increases in electrical generation came from natural gas (2014 generation was 412 TWh greater than 2004), wind (an increase of 168 TWh), and solar (increased 18 TWh). Over the same decade, annual generation from coal decreased 393 TWh, and from petroleum decreased 90 TWh.

These sources of electricity are where we find the energy required to charge electric vehicles. And the chargers and chemical process in the batteries is far from 100% efficient. Designs and methods will improve, but I am sure I do not want to be the new kid on the block with an EV. I'll let "others" drop the big bucks and be the first to find out.

Agreed we need to move away from fossil fuels but at present natural gas is at 38% and coal at 23% to make up 61% of the electric generation demands for the US.

 

[Voyageurs]

While I see some merit to EV's today, I don't think they are as environmentally friendly as the advertiser's tout. Reasons:
Principal sources of US electricity in 2019 were: natural gas (38%), coal (23%), nuclear (20%), other renewables (11%), and hydro (7%). Over the decade 2004–2014, the largest increases in electrical generation came from natural gas (2014 generation was 412 TWh greater than 2004), wind (an increase of 168 TWh), and solar (increased 18 TWh). Over the same decade, annual generation from coal decreased 393 TWh, and from petroleum decreased 90 TWh.

These sources of electricity are where we find the energy required to charge electric vehicles. And the chargers and chemical process in the batteries is far from 100% efficient. Designs and methods will improve, but I am sure I do not want to be the new kid on the block with an EV. I'll let "others" drop the big bucks and be the first to find out.

Agreed we need to move away from fossil fuels but at present natural gas is at 38% and coal at 23% to make up 61% of the electric generation demands for the US.

Yah. All valid points and most of them I know nothing about because I’m not american. In BC all the power produced is hydro although at different times of day (early morning) we buy cheap power from other places where coal or natural gas is used. Still the vast majority of power consumed here is hydro. I believe Canada still has 7 percent of its power coming from coal all scheduled to be shut down over the next decade. There are some seriously large hydro projects coming on line in that time period as well although most of that is for export to the US.

EV’s are not a panacea. They work for some and others not. Way fun to drive though.

 

[Neal]

This morning, while I was out putting wood in the dragon, I was thinking about all those people who recently were stuck on the freezing highway in Virginia. The whole affair was bad, but what would it have been like if all those vehicles had been electric cars instead?

 

[Voyageurs]

I watched that video. It was informative. But I’m not sure why he selected “Keep” mode instead of “camp mode”. Camp mode essentially shuts the car part of the car down and just keeps HVAC and entertainment systym active. It uses about a third less power this way. The only reason I can think of that he used “keep” was maybe to simulate having to roll a bit every few minutes in like a traffic jam situation. But if you are actually stranded and stopped it would be much better to use “camp” mode. Any dry run tests we did overnight we used “camp” mode.

All just my humble opinion. Not an expert.