‘Cash for Clunkers’ can cut gas prices, climate change

As evidence of Russian atrocities in Ukraine mounts, the U.S. is once again grappling with our dependence on foreign oil. Although we produce more than we consume, we imported about 670,000 barrels per day from Russia last year — more than we imported from Saudi Arabia. At recent prices of $100 per barrel, that’s nearly $25 billion that fed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war machine. The U.S. ban on Russian oil helps, but is small compared to total Russian exports.

So, how can we cut oil consumption and energy costs? President Biden wants electric vehicles (EVs) to comprise half of all new car sales by 2030 and proposed higher incentives to do so. But selling more EVs does little to reduce the existing fleet of internal combustion engine light-duty vehicles (cars, SUVs and pickup trucks). Think of the existing combustion vehicle fleet as a huge bathtub. The tub is filled by sales of new combustion vehicles and drained when old ones are scrapped. The flow of new combustion vehicles into the tub falls when people choose EVs. But the 250 million combustion vehicles in the tub today would continue to run, propping up oil demand and prices, funding war — and fueling climate change, since they generate nearly 17 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. And those vehicles last a long time: even if EVs suddenly became 100 percent of new vehicle sales from today on it would be about 20 years before the fleet of all light duty vehicles on the road became 90 percent electric. The best way to empty a tub is to open the drain. Policies that accelerate vehicle retirement can do so.

It needs to be said, that I do not advocate for full electric
cars. I do talk about my experience, because there are things
you discover when you use an electric car.

I do believe that some folks are under some false impressions
when it comes to electric cars, but I also believe that
electric cars are not for everyone. What the Left wants to do
to move to full electric in a short time frame is just
idiotic. First of all, man IS NOT driving the climate warmer.
Nature is the sole reason this warming is taking place.

We burned much more harsh fuels from the 1950s through the
1970s. I lived in Los Angeles in 1970, and I can tell you
that the air was much more filthy then. The difference
between the air back then and how it is now, is like night
and day. Yes, there are more cars, but no, the air is
cleaner. To claim it is worse, they have to go through all
sorts of hoops to make their case. And then NONSENSE.

Factories have been cleaned up. Long haul trucks are
cleaner. It’s just undeniably better today.

Is a move to electric a good idea over time. Look, I’m not
advocating for that, but it does make sense for me.

I’m filling up my car (to full, 115 mile range) for six to
ten bucks. Most often is is between $5-$6 dollars, but it
does go down to $2 at times. Of course that means I was
closer to full than at other times, but let me say this.
My Mercury Mariner would cost me $90 to fill right now.
On that $90 I could go around 345 miles. In my i3s, it
would cost me around $25. I live on a fixed income, so
that makes a difference to me.

When I bought my i3s, I kept the Mariner. I reasoned that
there could be times when I’d need it. This year I have
driven the Mariner 60 miles. Four of them were to get it
smogged before registering it for another year.

I just don’t need it.

What about long trips in the i3s? I can get around 75-90
miles on 2.4 gallons of unleaded regular, with the small
Rex (range extender) engine. It’s obnoxious as can be in
town, but on the highway you don’t hear it. If you really
tried, you might, but you’ll forget about it and not
hear it.

So in that odd situation where I’m going on a longer trip,
the car still meets my needs. I have a five gallon gas
container. If I toss that in the back, I can go between
225 and 270 miles on just the Rex. With electric tossed
in, I will achieve 300-350 miles between the need for
a fill up.

In the last six months I have not used the Rex gasoline
generator. It has come on twice for maintenance in that
period of time. That’s it. It runs for ten minutes as
you travel, and then remains off for three months.

I have been able to travel from Glendale to Victorville
easily. It’s a 78 mile trip. I have never wound up there
with less than ten miles left, and I have wound up there
with as much as 45 miles left. How can that be. I drove
out there in very heavy traffic. It took 3 hours and
four minutes to get there. My car got such excellent
mileage during that trip, that I only used enough power
to normally take me 35 miles. Think about what that
would have run me, if I had been driving my ICE vehicle.

While this sounds like my mileage is not meeting the
optimal range, the 15 has very steep inclines for a
part of the trip. It does take a lot of energy, but
if I watch it, I wind up with 20-30 miles left on the
charge.

One other thing I should mention. The i3s has oodles of
power. I can tap on the gas at 65 and be going 90 in
mere moments. It has passing power every step of the
way to highway speeds of 65-70. I have to be very
careful about asking for more power, because it jumps to
where I want to be very quickly, and then beyond. I’m
often amazed at how fast I am going when I only wanted
to speed up a little.

If I can get along with this vehicle going all over southern
California, it stands to reason a vehicle with more range
than mine, should be no problem at all.

My ICE engine Mariner is a hybrid. The i3s beats the pants
off of it with regard to power, and costs.

Now, on to some ways to save gas and power. My Mariner
Hybrid was a great training vehicle for a full electric
experience. I was able to learn how to use the least
amount of gas possible. Easing into a full stop is a
very good idea. That starts by easing off the gas when
you know you are going to be stopping. The Mariner would
coast a very long ways. Stopping was something I did far
before I would with other cars.

Going down grades was another place to save. If I couldn’t
just coast, I could give the car a very little boost with
the gas engine. It really extended my mileage, if my trip
was down hill most of the way. Of course, going back
would be up hill, and then I’d use more gas. Still it
seemed to save me more going downhill, than I would use
extra on the uphill portion returning.

One more way to save gas was to start off slowly when
moving on after a stop. Generally when you do that you’ll
feel like you might impede the traffic behind you. To be
honest, I’ve found that looking back I almost never found
that I was holding people back. To the contrary, almost
every time I looked back, I found one of two thing to be
true. 1) Traffic was way farther back than I expected.
2) The vehicle I was concerned about, was no longer even
there. It had turned off. 3) In that rare instance
someone pulled around me, it was mostly when I was
already going over the posted speed limit by several miles.

Hybrids are nice because they will turn your car off when
traffic stops. On a crowded freeway, this helps a lot.
As it moves ahead slowly, you can use the hybrid battery
to move up, leaving the gas off.

None the less, my electric is by far a lot more preferred
these days. I’ve not been unhappy with the purchase, and
I have been surprised at how much I enjoy the electric,
and found it much more accommodating than I thought it
would be.

As for the argument that it would be stupid to go out
and buy a $50,000 vehicle to save on gas, there is some
truth to that. My Mariner was 15 years old when I bought
the i3s. It was coming up to the time when I needed to
give serious thought to replacing it.

Instead of spending $50+ for a new ride, I found an i3s
$5,000 under market. I purchased it for $27,400 when
others in the same condition were going for $32,000 plus.

I looked until I found the car that had every single
thing I wanted on it. It had the interior I most
preferred. It had the moon roof. It had the rims I
wanted. It was the model with the “s” sport mode. It
had moderate miles. It had the Rex feature.

I had wanted the red version at first, but when I found
this car, it was the dark blue version. Since buying it,
I found I prefer the dark blue version much more. It
isn’t even close.

Last week I spotted a red version right next to me, and
we traveled side by side for about a mile and a half. I
was very happy to be the one in the dark blue version.

Folks can find a number of reasons why not to buy an
electric, and it may be as simple as them growing up
with ICE cars, and them wanting to remain in that market.
I say good for them. This car is working much better
than expected. I needed new model anyway, and it would
have cost me in the same range to go with an ICE car,
so it made sense. And then the cost of energy, was more
of a plus than I had expected it to be.

I have calculated the cost of driving either of my cars
over specific distances. The electric is taking me
around 350% as far as the ICE vehicle would for the
same cost outlay, gas vs electricity.

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