Atlantic Xpat

Anyone here eschewing 5.7 litre hemi's etc and running an EV?

dbd33

I laugh at a colleague who has a Tesla. One day he emailed that he would be late because he had a flat tyre and was waiting for the CAA. I responded with something helpful like "change the bloody thing, you wimp" and he explained that it doesn't come with a spare type. A wag offered "Tesla, doesn't it have an onboard 3D printer so you can make one?". Other than the tyre, nothing has happened to the Tesla and he's been commuting about 50 miles each way in it for three, maybe four, years.

Another colleague has a Nissan Leaf but that's less than a year old so probably not useful for comparison.

Former Lancastrian

No desire to run an EV until the infrastructure is built for recharging. Just found this article

Range anxiety – the fear of not making it to your destination without recharging – is a big concern for those buying an electric vehicle (EV). We’ve done the research and ranked 20 battery EVs currently on sale in order of range when fully charged.

It’s important to note that we are listing purely battery-powered vehicles here, so plug-in hybrids are not included.

https://www.motoringresearch.com/adv...st-to-longest/

Going the distance: electric car range from shortest to longest

• Audi E-tron 95kWh – NEDC range: 300+ miles. ...
• Jaguar I-Pace – NEDC range: 336 miles. ...
• Tesla Model X P100D – NEDC range: 336 miles. ...
• Hyundai Kona Electric 64kWh – NEDC range: 339 miles. ...
• Kia e-Niro 64kWh – NEDC range: 339 miles. ...
• Tesla Model S 100D Dual Motor AWD – NEDC range: 393 miles.

So you are now say planning a trip from say Winnipeg to Calgary which is 1329.22 km, 825.94 mi, 717.72 nmi. So where do you plug in especially if in rural Saskatchewan

christmasoompa

I have a purely electric car, and a hybrid. But probably a bit different in the UK where we don't do big distances! Having said that, we can get from Berkshire to Cornwall on a single charge so don't need to stop that often anyway.

Love them, and not sure I'd go back to any other fuel now. We had a knackered 12 year old 4x4 that cost us hundreds a month in fuel and tax previously, so it's bliss not to have those bills anymore.

christmasoompa

Looks like there is quite a lot of chargers on that route actually - https://chargehub.com/en/charging-stations-map.html. More than I was expecting! Probably a few Tesla superchargers as well but only looked at that one map.

dbd33

There are very many of them in Ontario. Even tiny rubber boot towns have banks of both types of chargers. I saw on the news that the Provincial government is trying to outlaw them so as to discourage the use of EVs but I didn't follow the story closely.

dbd33

The range issue would only matter if the EV was your only car. As I see it the case for the EV is that it could provide cheap transport for commuting and that would allow the acquisition of something more suited to long distance driving; instead of making do with, say, a Focus which isn't ideal for either, one would have, say, a Teslette for the commute, and, say, a Maserati Ghibli, for long trips (the concept of going to Winnipeg is lost on me but the same logic applies to going to Miami).

Partially discharged

Rubber boot towns? That's a new one. I assume you're referring to a TSC town or a town where 'eyetalian' coffee is spelt 'expresso'

I have a good friend here in Ottawa who has a Nissan Leaf and he is a card carrying active Green Party member. I've been in the car and it was fine and very quiet. He uses the Leaf only in and around Ottawa.

dbd33

Dunno. I once worked with someone who was born in Ontario and that's the expression he used for everywhere north of Bloor St.

Novocastrian

This is a sensible post but there's a better alternative: I drive a Toyota CH-R simple hybrid (petrol/electric) which allows me to run in EV mode for short, daily trips around town or in hybrid mode on longer journeys. It delivers petrol consumption of <4 l/100 km on motorways/autoroute drives (~70 mpg to you). I know you'll be pleased to hear that the drive-train (not the engine)is the same as in the Prius.

dbd33

It's not pretty though, is it? If anything it's even less attractive than a Hyundai Touring.

Novocastrian

When it comes to cars I've always been a pragmatist.

dbd33

As am I, with domestic appliances.

Atlantic Xpat

Quite. We run two cars, currently, both SUVs. Over the past couple of years our mileage has declined - the Mrs has a <10km return commute & I work from home 4 out of 5 days a week. That's offset by the necessary running around taking kids to various activities but an EV, even with a modest range would likely fit our use case pretty well. It's making the financial case for one work that is proving challenging. Low mileage (so savings vs. gas are less) and few mainstream dealers sell EV's here. (No demand so no supply. Of course if there was supply there would be demand.). So one has to buy through an independent dealer or directly out of province which adds to the cost. Truth to tell, I don't think I can make the numbers work vs. a smallish petrol powered vehicle which kind of saddens me. Wondered about others experiences.

We'll retain the faux-offroader-thats-really-a-minvan as thats required to haul the gas guzzling toys around. It's the tediously dull RAV4 that we have to replace this month at end of lease.

magnumpi