Posted on 11/15/2022 9:32:35 AM PST by SaxxonWoods
Electric vehicles are among the least reliable cars and trucks in the automotive industry today, according to Consumer Reports rankings released Tuesday. Reliability issues with all-electric vehicles were expected, since most automakers, with the exception of early EV-leader Tesla, launched fully electric models in just recent years. Consumer Reports surveyed owners of more than 300,000 vehicles to make predictions about the reliability of 2023 model year vehicles.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Not so. Since I upgraded my solar array and other related equipment at the end of August, literally 91.8% of all the power we consumed came from solar. The other 8.2% came from the grid -- however my power utility generates power. My house (including charging the EV at home) has consumed 3,978.3kWh, pulling only 327.9kWh from the grid because the rest was provided by solar. During the first year I owned solar (but no EV, and for half the year I had 2 natural gas appliances before I converted them to high-efficiency electric ones), the solar provided about 55% of all the power I needed.
It's not for everybody. You have to live in a good place for solar, own your own home, plan to live there for at least 10 years to recoup the costs, etc.
But it's given me a hedge against energy inflation. Basically I've replaced most of my future energy costs (which are unknown what they'll be) with a somewhat fixed known cost (the HELOC payment I pay each month to pay down the HELOC loan I took out to buy the solar equipment last year, do other energy improvements to the house, and add onto the solar equipment this year after studying the data for a year). So if energy costs go up 3% per year per kWh and per gallon of gas and per cubic foot of natural gas (since part of the project was me converting my natural gas appliances to electric), by avoiding most of those costs I save more money next year than I did this year, then more the year after that, then more after that. Of course, if the Dims make energy costs go up a lot faster than a reasonable 3% inflation rate, my savings in future years is even more.
Meanwhile, my costs go down. The cost is the HELOC payment. As the HELOC balance is paid down, my minimum payment goes down too (much like when paying down a credit card balance). So next year it costs me less money than it did this year. Then the next year it costs even less, then even less after that. Basically, think of the HELOC payment as the cost for saving on energy inflation. As the years go by, it costs me less (lower HELOC payments) to save more (the skyrocketing energy costs I'm avoiding).
Thanks, great input. I could certainly use an EV for a reasonable portion of my/our driving. Would still want an ICE for driving over 11,000ft mountain passes at below zero temps, going fishing/hiking/photo-ing in remote areas, towing, etc. EVs seem like a great fit for urbanites. My F150 has 1000 mile highway range, 700ish in more challenging conditions.
“And unlike a lot of other sources of copper that thieves plunder, they can be sure that the EV charging cable is not live when they cut it.”
Good point, though I read about people plugging into a charge station and coming back later to find the charge handle stuck in the vehicle and the cord gone. And their vehicle isn’t charged much either since the cord got cut during the charge process.
“...charging station plug in receptacles need to be standardized.”
YES, it’s insane they aren’t.
As much as we like our EV, I honestly don't know if it's worth it without practically free power, except as a diversification of energy sources (so that if the Dims mess up gas you have the EV, and the Dims mess up power you have the ICE pickup).
For example, our EV gets about 3.1 miles/kWh around town. It reads as getting usually 3.3 miles/kWh, but that's after the power has already been converted to DC and been stored into the EV's battery. Assume an almost 10% loss in the AC-to-DC conversion and then in storing it into the battery.
Then there's the true cost of power at your home vs the stated cost your power utility says you pay. For example, Alabama Power says we pay 10.66¢/kWh, but that's not true. On my last two power bills I paid over 14¢/kWh. Their stated rate is before riders and a 4% state tax. On their website they tell you what the various riders are, but not exactly how they're calculated. There's only 1 rider that they tell you how is calculated: and that's the only one that is applied as a flat monthly rate (thus easy to calculate). So I deduct from my overall bill the total flat monthly costs to get the overall usage charge. Then I divide that by the # of kWh I bought from them to get the true cost per kWh. Last month my bill was $28.68 for 92kWh. My overall usage charge was $13.08 ($28.68 total bill - $15.60 for the flat rates). My per kWh charge then was 14.2¢/kWh (the $13.08 usage charge divided by 92kWh).
By that math, with no solar it'd cost me 4.6¢ per mile I drive the EV (14.2¢ per kWh it'd increase my power bill to drive it 3.1 miles for each of those kWh). Which is much better than a gas car's cents per mile cost, but maybe not enough to offset the cost of buying an EV and installing charging equipment.
There are other considerations too. Like if you're about to spend money to replace one of your ICE cars anyway because it's about bit the bullet (the situation we were in with my wife's car). So in our case I was about to spend about $10K on buying her yet another used ICE car (like both of us have driven during our entire marriage, which each one lasting an average of 7 years, and cars of the quality and mileage we buy now costing $10K because the cost of used cars has gone up). To me, that means the decision to go EV instead of ICE didn't include the first $10K of the price of the EV because I was about to spend that much on a car for her anyway.
When they plug in then run inside to grab a cup of joe and come back to their EV with no cable attached....then what?
This was just slightly less predictable than the sunrise in the east.
it has been my observation over the years, that if an electronic is going to fail, it’s usually on powerup
more electronics, more chances to not turn on
It wouldn’t be true fascism if the government let you make decisions like that.
It has gotten kinda obvious that unsupervised electric charging is not a wise move....
but some folks will have to learn the hard way.
Instead of advertising, they fund Tesla-stans on social media. It appears there are a bunch on FR.
Wake me up when EV tech has advanced so they can be fully charged within 3 minutes at a gas station charging station and the national infrastructure is there that you can charge at any gas station in the US that carries EV chargers alongside the gas pumps. Otherwise I’ll take a half a loaf right now with a hybrid and no range anxiety
When I was young and dumb, I bought an under powered car. I got sand kicked in my face when I drove in the Chicago area. I am not an overly aggressive driver, but I need a car that is capable of passing on 2 lane highways and merging onto crowded highways.
Good job of producing your own electricity.
I was talking about EV’s in general. Most EV owners do not have enough solar panels. They simply move the burning of petrol in their city to their electric power plant which more than likely burns fossil fuels.
So are white goods appliances.
In the name of green, and feature rivalry, home appliance electronics has become more complex and less reliable. It uses less energy, has more features, but is less reliable, in my personal sample space over 40 years.
I had a simpler Maytag washer that was in still running in its 30th year.
I’ve been saying that copper theft would be a problem for years.
Then there are these teething problems you linked to:
On that we’re in agreement. One reason I chose to produce my own electricity is if the Dims succeed in making everybody’s power into the 3rd world equivalent of Commiefornia.
I think at least a DOZEN sales people knocked on my door for installing solar panels.
But even with central air, my electric bills were averaging less than $40/month. Now with price increases this year just under $50/year. Yes, everything is cheaper here. So I have not bothered with solar panels. But if democrats take over Florida, then another story.
They were not reliable over 100 years ago. Just when will this miracle occur that they will be?
Answer is never.
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