Posted on 03/25/2025 1:06:48 PM PDT by from occupied ga
It’s become vogue on the right to trash electric vehicles. And, mostly, we’re right to. Most of them are garbage retrofits that rely on a garbage network of chargers which are made by garbage ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) manufacturers who have absolutely no idea what they are doing. What they are manufacturing is virtue-signaling, not cars with anything even remotely resembling good EV—or any other type of—engineering.
And then there’s Tesla.
There are EVs, and there are Teslas. And though they are both clearly electric cars, they are two completely different animals. This article aims to give you a permanent mental “ka-chunk” when you think about EVs in general and Teslas in particular because they absolutely, positively should not be grouped together.
excerpt - you can continue reading at the link if you want to gag
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
I've been making this same point for years. Like Apple computers, Teslas are mostly about image. Virtue signaling. And to a certain extent, it's a cult, not a rational buying decision.
Go to https://www.plugshare.com/ and set the filter to 145kW or faster to find the ones that charge my EV in 15 minutes to get it to 85%. (The last 15% take forever because it charges slowly at that point.)
So don't get an EV if you want to use it for road trips from Alpine, TX to Mission, TX where there are no fast chargers. The same for if you regularly drive trips from Lincoln, NB to Custer, SD. But ours works fine for most of our road trips (weekend trips in the southeast, or trips from Alabama to the northeast during the warm months).
But road trips aren't where the gas savings of an EV are. I wouldn't have gotten an EV except my wife and I drive tons of home charged miles. The only reason we prefer to take our EV on road trips is because it's our newest, and most comfortable, car. On the few road trips with no fast chargers, we'd take the gas pickup.
I never intend to own one.
Attention Greenies: Where does the power to charge the vehicle come from? Coal fired power stations.
“The state I spend a lot of time in, Hawaii, Gas cars are way cheaper to operate then EV’s.”
Residential rates are about 43 cents per kwhr. That is about 11 cents per mile.
At $4.50 a gallon and 30 mpg that is 15 cents per mile.
“Attention Greenies: Where does the power to charge the vehicle come from? Coal fired power stations.”
Only about 15% of our electricity comes from coal.
The state I spend a lot of time in, Hawaii, Gas cars are way cheaper to operate then EV’s.
+++++++++
There’s nothing cheap in Hawaii. Somethings are more expensive than others, but nothing is cheap. Last April while visiting Hawaii for my son’s wedding I found out. Went to Waikiki beach for the day. I bought my daughter a smoothie and I got a large coffee for a cool 25 USD. Ouch.
My Model 3 LR has a 75kWh is usable pack it will accept 250KW from a V3 Tesla supercharger all day every day from 20% till near 80% it slows down in steps setting at 70% then again at 75%. There is 45kWh from 20% to 80% in that pack. At the full 250 it would take .18 of an hour or 10 minutes to do that much charge. The slow down from 70 to 80 adds a couple min. Typical is 20-25 min from 20/80 you can add 175 in 15 over the same SOC range which is 3 hours in the seat at typical motorway speeds. I rarely average more than an actual moving 60 mph up or down I35 to and from Austin in any normal hour of the day. Sure at 3 am you can rip it at 75 or 80. Try that at 6 pm or 7 or 5 anywhere along that stretch of road from.Austin to the Oklahoma border good luck. It’s gridlock in the cities and three lanes of moving but bumper to bumper between the cities.
“Attention Greenies: Where does the power to charge the vehicle come from? Coal fired power stations.”
Less than 10% of Texas grid is coal. Today at 10am solar and wind was 62% of the grid it also was selling wholesale power for ONE HALF CENT PER KILOWATT HOUR. No gas turbine or coal could ever touch that price even with free coal and natural gas.
My Teslas plural charge from my roof tops with solar panels putting out power for 3/10ths of a cent per kWh read that again in case you didn’t catch it. When the sun shines my panels make power for fractions of a cent per kWh. They paid for themselves years ago and have been putting money in my back accounts ever since.
The funny thing is Hawaii is where electric cars could make the most sense. Since they are islands, you’re just not going on any long range drive across multiple states.
That is if the electrical infrastructure could handle the load and it cannot.
Electricity on my island is over $0.55 per kWh.
Due to my location I have to have 4WD vehicles.
I left the insane So. California freeway system years ago.
My my best 4WD fuel economy is 17 MPG at 60 mph.
So ;
“The ratings are based on EPA’s formula, in which 33.7 kilowatt hours of electricity is equivalent to one gallon of gasoline (giving a heating value of 115,010 BTU/US gal)”
The electricity required to go 60 miles will cost
me 33.7 X 0.55 = $18.535. Ignoring charger costs, time and effort.
For gas it will cost
3.6 X 5 = $18 and it takes only minutes to fill.
Never mind that my 4WD(2015 4 runner) cost $27,000 and you can’t get a electric 4WD that cheap.
or that I can park the vehicle in my carport without worrying about a fire.
Engineering wise electric is way more efficient.
But without safe and easy to recharge batteries,
they aren’t just acceptable yet.
BTW the environment was very impacted by your electric power plant, did you factor that in ?
“That is if the electrical infrastructure could handle the load and it cannot.”
You nailed it there!
But we can get Gasoline and Diesel from Canada with no issues!
Big island Hawaii. Our market is too small for the mainland USA to bother with. We are treated like Alaska. For refined goods.
Good for you. Sounds like you hit the perpetual energy mother load. /s
Based on REAL numbers, an EV gets almost 4 miles per kwhr.
$0.55 ÷ 3.8 x 60 = $8.70. Less than half the number you presented.
It’s become vogue on the right to trash electric vehicles. And, mostly, we’re right to.
I'm not against EVs. I'm against them being mandated by folks that think they will somehow fix a climate problem that they've been convinced exists and is the existential problem of our era.
“Never mind that my 4WD(2015 4 runner) cost $27,000 and you can’t get a electric 4WD that cheap.”
LOL! You can’t get a 4Runner that “cheap” either!
Teslas start at about $41K.
The Toyota 4Runner starts at...$41K.
Not perpetual, just solid investments with a virtually guaranteed rate of return. When you can get bulk panels at the time for 15 cents per watt of capacity. In sunny Texas yeah that’s a solid economic investment. I don’t have to be grid tied my inverters stand alone mode at a click. The grid buys power first from solar that’s law passed by Republicans who have held the majority in both houses and the governor for 20+ years I will add.
Sneer all you want but some people make good investments in the system we have to play in and again it has been Republicans for 20+ years that’s on them.
Maybe but none of those things have anything to do with why no one should drive them.
“I believe that there are some use cases for an EV to be practical even in a free market with no govt incentives or mandates.”
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