EV Myths | Voice of the DBA
source link: https://voiceofthedba.com/2023/02/24/ev-myths/
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EV Myths
I ran across an article on EV myths, this I thought was interesting. The myths are things that I see in comments on all sorts of articles or hear from people. They are:
- EVs take forever to recharge
- EVs can’t travel far
- EVs are slow
- EVs are unreliable
- EVs are super expensive
I haven’t experienced any of these, with my EV charging fairly quickly, I go up to ski in mine, it’s fast (perhaps too fast), it always works, and it’s in line with luxury cars.
The last one gave me pause, because my Model Y was the most expensive car I’ve every bought. It actually bothered me for months in the summer of 2021 until my wife got me to sit down and think rationally about it.
The car is a $55-60k car. That is pricey, and not for everyone, but it’s in line with a petrol car from BMW, Audi, Mercedes, etc. Most of the other EVs, Polestar, Ionic, etc. are similarly priced. The basic Model 3 is in the 40s.
Pricey, but not crazy.
The high end Teslas (X and S) are like a high end 911 or BMW.
I’ve had no maintenance in my model Y in 17 months. I’ve had it always charged when I start the day, so I almost never need to charge during the day. The times we’ve had to charge during the day (our summer trip in the mountains), the time was more than gas, but not much more than a pit stop for coffee and the bathroom.
There was another article from the Atlantic, which I’ve seen reposted a few times as they are supposedly a world class, trustworthy journalism site. I think they are, but they harp on costs, which are like other cars. They can get high quickly. I agree that starting the Ford F150 around $50k but quickly going to $80 isn’t great, but it does give options to others.
From what I’ve learned in a year and a half, the vast majority of the time, 95%+, I got less than 120 miles in a day. I could likely live with a 200-220mi range car. YMMV, but it really depends on you doing a little work to understand how you drive, how often, and how the car sits. There are days we go 250miles and need to charge, but that’s rare.
Honestly, the more I drive the car, the more it’s just a car. The exception is longer trips, in which case, then my driving becomes like a trip through Wyoming or Montana with a diesel vehicle. I do a little planning.
2 Responses to EV Myths
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bluecollarcritic says:
The problem with EV vehicles is in the long run they aren’t the green energy savers their advertised to be. Some parts in an EV as compared to fossil fuel vehicles last a far shorter period of time. EV’s are also dependent on the availability of electricity, electricity that is being created via the consumption of fossil fuels so with EV’s we’ve only moved the point were fossil fuels are consumed, not reduced their usage. When an EV catches fire due to teh battery they are far more difficult to extinguish.
Lastly, EV’s are highly computerized and susceptible to being controlled not by the owner but others. This is also being implemented in fossil fuel vehicles but in EV’s its a standard unremovable feature where as in fossil fuel cars at least for now a mechanic can remove these control devices.Just look at California in the US which is a prefect example as much of the population there has EV and this past summer the citizens were told to reduce their usage of electricity due to issues with the grid being able to provide enough juice. And still that state in the US is going to make EV’s mandatory by 2035 when they doesn’t have the infrastructure to support such an impact on the grid.
EV’s are wishful thinking and work only so long as a minority of teh populace are using them because we don’t have the grid necessary to support that much additional electricity needs. In the end the promise of using EV’s instead of fossil fuel vehicles fails to deliver on it’s promise. I have no ill will to anyone who has an EV, I even looked at one, but they aren’t practical unless a minority are using them.
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way0utwest says:
you’re a bit misinformed and also reading into media news on some of these points.
EV fires are different to put out. More difficult with many current methods, but that’s merely a question of adapting what fire trucks and other responders required.
EVs are far more efficient with the kW consumed from fuel. The US generates about 60% of power from fossil fuels, not a higher number, so moving to EVs does in fact reduce both fossil fuels, and the amount of energy needed to move things around. Over the long run, they are much great savers of power, both in power used to move them around, but also in manufacturing as there are far fewer parts and it’s simpler to put them together and run them.
The charging needs are about what clothes dryers need. You can go to high levels, but that works. Many places have this, though in CA, the calls to reduce power usage weren’t for EVs specifically, but all large appliances. That’s a separate issue as the US hasn’t done a good job of maintaining grids. We can do better, and should, as our power needs everywhere keep rising.
Can’t argue the control, but that has really changed anywhere. There are many things in modern cars even a mechanic can’t easily, or even possibly, remove. However, being paranoid about someone else controlling things just strikes me as silly in the modern world. It’s a modern world.
We have the power available, but the grid needs some work. Not a lot, because we’ve deployed clothes dryers on 30/40A circuits throughout the 1st/2nd world. Third world, something else. The bigger issue isn’t the power or grid, but a lot of living space haven’t been designed to support charging parked vehicles. In many cities, and even in suburbs, there are plenty that would struggle to charge easily without having to go somewhere. More public charging helps, but that mostly means that while a majority of homeowners could likely move to an EV, the minority of non-homeowners/apartment/etc. people would struggle. That’s a lot of people.
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