Electric Car Ownership - Any Experiences?

[Umbran]

If you plan to have another ICE as a backup, then you won't really have a problem.

Yeah, that's the plan. My wife is a house call veterinarian. If she doesn't have a car, she can't work. And as covid recedes as a concern, we are finding more and more times when I need some transport. Add spare + errands + long trips, and the extra car starts looking useful.

 

[Tormyr]

I realize it might not be the make you are interested in, but my stepfather has a Model X, and my brother has a Model 3. I get to drive the Model X sometimes when I visit for the summer. My impressions were generally good. A few highlights:

• Range is extremely good. My stepfather drives a lot. He has put 100,000 miles on it in (I think) 4-5 years. It feels like a 100-mile day for him is average as he criss crosses San Diego county. He almost never has to find a charger unless he is heading into LA county, and even then, he can generally do a straight shot there and back if that is the only travel in the day.
• Charging is sufficient overnight. I believe they wired in a 240v outlet for it.
• Air conditioning is a bit weak at times. This is mainly an issue because of the glass top on a day approaching 38C/100F.
• Lack of Android Auto is super annoying. I'm not a fan of the Tesla user interface, although the navigation generally gets the job done.
• Maintenance is a bit of a mixed bag. Less maintenance overall is great. I think they get tires from Costco. They had to get a window repaired because a gull-wing door lifted up into a low pipe in their underground parking garage, and it took a while to get it done under warranty as he felt the door should have detected the pipe and avoided it.
• Don't let your key fob run out of battery. One time, the key fob's battery was dying, and the Tesla started to behave oddly while driving. It also activated the car alarm multiple times in the middle of the night. They problem went away after replacing the battery.
• Can use the HOV lanes as a single occupant unless the sign changes to "HOV only." So sitting in traffic is less of an issue.
• Driver assistance features work well. My stepfather only has the basics, but the adaptive cruise control and lane assistance do their jobs of helping with driving even on roads with significant curves.
• "Go-kart acceleration" takes a day or two to get used to it and then becomes really nice. You almost never touch the brake pedal again. You just push the "gas" pedal for as much overall speed as you need, and releasing it completely brings you to a stop. In slow traffic, you can creep along at 1 mph.

 

[Ryujin]

Yeah. That's the problem with the Bolt - we would consider buying a new one, except they aren't making them at the moment. Chevy had this brain-fart that they'd use that assembly line on trucks instead of small cars, but rethought it, and lost the 2024 and 2025 model years in the process.

Mazda had a similar brain fart in 2018, when they discontinued the Mazda5, which was the only really unique product they had. I had been a big fan and owned two. I was hoping that it would have been a candidate for either hybrid or EV, down the line.

 

[Umbran]

And, today we put a deposit down on a 2022 Bolt EUV, the slightly larger sibling of the Bolt EV.

We might have held out for the slightly smaller EV, but this thing was there, only had about 5000 miles on it, and was pretty much pristine. We will be picking it up on Tuesday.

 

[Tormyr]

That sounds like a good find. I hope it works out well for you.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Yeah, my other brothers have ginormo pick ups and they use them maybe once a year for any type of work. They could just have cars and rent a truck the one time a year they need it.

This is why once our (ancient) backup car gives up the ghost,. I'm not buying a second car; since my wife only goes into the office intermittently, and other than the weekly grocery run, any other visits out are only occasional (mostly doctor visits) the number of times those line up with her using the car are so rare I'll just call an Uber or the like and save a lot of money in terms of insurance and maintenance.

 

[Myrdin Potter]

I was able to install a 240 volt level 2 charger without upgrading my panel. Depends on how robust your existing panel, it basically is adding an extra electric dryer to your house. Trickle charging with a 120 volt charger is fine for my daughter and her Leaf as she doesn't drive more than 20 miles a day on a normal day. She uses public chargers when she needs a full battery.

In my house in California, I put panels on my roof last summer with a battery in the garage. I think the system will pay for itself in 4 years at the rate I am saving electricity and earning by feeding to the grid. I have considerable experience in the solar industry, but panel choice and battery choice is really location and local incentives driven. With wildfire risk causing grid outages and 2 EV in house, I wanted a reliable back-up solution hence the battery that allows the system to work even if the grid is down.

 

[Umbran]

Geeze, I forgot how many hoops there are to jump through to get rid of a totaled car...

 

[Myrdin Potter]

Geeze, I forgot how many hoops there are to jump through to get rid of a totaled car...

Insurance company does not just buy it from you? That is what happened when my ex-wife totaled my car.

 

[Zaukrie]

Insurance company does not just buy it from you? That is what happened when my ex-wife totaled my car.

same.*

*except it was me, not your ex