Does anyone here own an Electric Car (Tesla owners need not reply).

[Motor City Sonics]

Does anyone here have an electric car? 

 

What are your thoughts? 

How long does it take to charge your car?   

When do you charge it?   Overnight?  (I hear it costs less to charge it overnight). 

 On a longer road trip when you have to find a charging station, how long does that take? 

On a road trip, how much would it cost for a full charge?

How many miles do you get on a full charge?

How much does it cost you per month to charge at home? 

 

Is it more, less or as expensive as your last combustion engine car? 

Do you like the way it rides?  

Does it have giddy up? 

Are you glad you got it? 

 

 

Just interested.  Not looking to get a new car soon, but I think I am going electric with the next one.     The city of Ann Arbor has some Bolts and they are not super expensive. 

Let me explain something about what I am looking for.   I don't care if someone has a nicer car than I do.  Most people have a nicer car than I do.  Some folks I know say "Don't you want something newer, something better?".   No. I don't.   My car is 10 years old with a few little scars (but not that bad for it's age).   It's a Chrysler 200.   Cars are not an ego thing with me.  I want something reliable and affordable with heat/ac and a working radio/mp3 player.   

I won't buy a Tesla - for obvious reasons.

If I was rich and money was new option, I wouldn't get a sports car, I'd get an electric VW Micro Bus.   I'd live in it while I traveled to every ballpark in the country on an epic journey

But for now, I drive from Dearborn to Ann Arbor and back 5 days a week and run some errands.   Maybe 350 - 400 miles per week.  

Thanks, I appreciate your input. 

 

Edited March 28 by Motor City Sonics

[LaceyLou]

One of the managers I work with has a Bolt. He likes it but only uses it for city driving-quite a lot less than you do from the sounds of it. I have no idea how long it takes him to charge it or how long the charge lasts. 

I thought they stopped making it, though.

[Deleterious]

Driven a ton of different EV's but mostly for weekends only.  So I can't help much.

There are some good Youtube review channels though.

https://www.youtube.com/@fullychargedshow

https://www.youtube.com/@StateOfChargeWithTomMoloughney

Here is one of them analyzing how fast the Bolt charges.

 

[gehringer_2]

Fast charging is a difficult subject to say anything absolute about, and the tech there is a rapidly moving target. As general principle, it's a higher risk to the life expectancy to fast charge any battery but the devil is in the details of each manufacturers battery architecture, instrumentation, charge controller and what you find at the place you stop to charge it, even the ambient temperature can be a factor.

But if you are commuting everyday and have charging available at night, fast charging at least won't be a concern for the car's work day utility as your range is much longer than your commute. So fast charging is more a matter trying to use the car for long trips. My Sister recently got an EV and ended up less than impressed with how long it actually took it to 'fast' charge it the first time she decided to take a longer trip with it in CA. That is to say while the car performs as warranted, that didn't turn out to be quite as convenient as is implied.

I've been doing homework on EVs also, but since we are a 2 car house with reasonably efficient late model SUV, I don't envision the need to use a new EV for long distance travel any time soon.

So far the IONIQ seems impressive, and I like the Mustang just for itself. A hold up for me is that installing a charger is the pivot for doing a bunch of other electrical upgrades on the house I haven't completely sorted out yet.

[Motor City Sonics]

I know there are some drawbacks.    But we have this problem in our society where if something new or relatively new isn't perfect, the establishment will demonize it as terrible. 

I am sure there were FAR more problems with the first combustion engine cars.   No gas stations.  Few mechanics who knew how they worked, terrible road conditions............

But people seem to think that if there are problems then we should just forget the whole thing.   

Like with health care.   The establishment will take anything that's bad about universal health care and act like that's the normal for everyone, when actually, it seems to work pretty well.    It's just not perfect.     

As far as a quick charge, I think if I was going on a long trip and needed to charge up during that trip it might be a pain to wait 20-30  minutes for a recharge, but it's also probably a good thing to get up and walk around, or maybe grab a bite to eat.   

But I am thinking of the more day-to-day.     I put roughly 60 miles a day on my car.  If one full charge gets me 300 miles, that's a full work week on one charge, but I'd likely be charging overnight when the rates are lower, or plugging my car in when I go shopping (plenty of lots in Ann Arbor have charging stations, ,though I am guessing that Elon will find a way to have any non-Tesla stations shut down).

I'm going electric with the next one.    I know that much for sure.   Hopefully that's not for a couple more years at least.  Current car's now paid for.   

[RatkoVarda]

I own two EVs, Chevy Bolt and VW iD4. They are awesome. Fun to drive. Incredibly low cost to own, and incredibly convenient. Other than recalls*, no repairs at all on 2017 Bolt or 2021 iD4. For work, we don't drive far at all and I usually take Metro. For travel, we usually fly or take Amtrak, but have driven from DC area to Richmond, Roanoke, Virginia Beach, West Virginia, Baltimore, Annapolis and Philly. Planning Asheville, NC trip this Summer, farthest yet. You need to plan, so if that's not your thing, take an ICE car or don't travel far.

We usually have one car charging overnight. VW gets about 3 miles per hour added and Bolt 4 miles, that is with just a regular old garage outlet. That's all we have ever needed. When "miles left" drops below 100, we usually charge; you only charge to 80% unless you are going on a long trip, because the last 20% takes a while to fill up and also puts a lot of unneeded strain on the battery. One project this Summer is to get a fast charger installed. (Same project I did not get to last Summer.)

Looking to buy 3rd car now. Mustang Mach-E or Hyundai Ioniq were (still are) top of list. But may just buy a gas Crosstrex with thought that we would drive to Boston or Florida or Detroit more instead of flying. But the idea of changing the oil, going to a gas station (have not been in almost 4 years!) or just dealing with all the other things that break in an ICE car is holding me back.

* Bolt got new battery after recall due to fires. Some batteries were defective, but a few owners were taxing them down to 0 and then charging them up to 100. That puts max pressure on the battery. Also, I wonder is they had electrician install fast charger or not. Seen social media pictures of melted fast charger plugs and think incorrect wiring at play. So 2017 Bolt has a 2022 battery. Software upgrades/recalls done as well.

[Motor City Sonics]

7 hours ago, RatkoVarda said:

I own two EVs, Chevy Bolt and VW iD4. They are awesome. Fun to drive. Incredibly low cost to own, and incredibly convenient. Other than recalls*, no repairs at all on 2017 Bolt or 2021 iD4. For work, we don't drive far at all and I usually take Metro. For travel, we usually fly or take Amtrak, but have driven from DC area to Richmond, Roanoke, Virginia Beach, West Virginia, Baltimore, Annapolis and Philly. Planning Asheville, NC trip this Summer, farthest yet. You need to plan, so if that's not your thing, take an ICE car or don't travel far.

We usually have one car charging overnight. VW gets about 3 miles per hour added and Bolt 4 miles, that is with just a regular old garage outlet. That's all we have ever needed. When "miles left" drops below 100, we usually charge; you only charge to 80% unless you are going on a long trip, because the last 20% takes a while to fill up and also puts a lot of unneeded strain on the battery. One project this Summer is to get a fast charger installed. (Same project I did not get to last Summer.)

Looking to buy 3rd car now. Mustang Mach-E or Hyundai Ioniq were (still are) top of list. But may just buy a gas Crosstrex with thought that we would drive to Boston or Florida or Detroit more instead of flying. But the idea of changing the oil, going to a gas station (have not been in almost 4 years!) or just dealing with all the other things that break in an ICE car is holding me back.

* Bolt got new battery after recall due to fires. Some batteries were defective, but a few owners were taxing them down to 0 and then charging them up to 100. That puts max pressure on the battery. Also, I wonder is they had electrician install fast charger or not. Seen social media pictures of melted fast charger plugs and think incorrect wiring at play. So 2017 Bolt has a 2022 battery. Software upgrades/recalls done as well.

That's the kind of info I was looking for.    I think the most I'd ever drive it is to Chicago or Toronto (when they start letting Americans back in) and even then, I think I'd rather take a train or bus or anything.  To me it's worth the money to let someone else deal with the aggravation of getting there.      Dearborn to Ann Arbor and back on weekdays and toolin' around Metro Detroit on weekends.   That's about all I'm looking for now.   Thanks

[gehringer_2]

10 hours ago, RatkoVarda said:

but a few owners were taxing them down to 0 and then charging them up to 100.

I would want a battery management system  designed not to let you do that. Interesting that did that on the Volt but apparently not on the Bolt. Wanted to market max range instead of max battery life.

[RatkoVarda]

1 hour ago, gehringer_2 said:

I would want a battery management system  designed not to let you do that. Interesting that did that on the Volt but apparently not on the Bolt. Wanted to market max range instead of max battery life.

there are user settings where you can charge off hours; charge slowly (even with level 2 charger); charge to only 80% (or whatever level you like).

there is a ton of social media where people get well over 300+ miles per charge, driving that last bit like Kramer in Seinfeld.

all that's too much work for me; I just plug them in when they need juice

[gehringer_2]

4 minutes ago, RatkoVarda said:

there are user settings where you can charge off hours; charge slowly (even with level 2 charger); charge to only 80% (or whatever level you like).

there is a ton of social media where people get well over 300+ miles per charge, driving that last bit like Kramer in Seinfeld.

all that's too much work for me; I just plug them in when they need juice

the trick is understand what your system is and isn't doing (like is 100% really 100% or does "100%" already have a limit built into it, etc) and each manufacturer may put a different spin on it just to keep you confused. Especially if you are coming from a hybrid as I think most of them do not expose 'true' battery charge limits to the user. 

Edited April 8 by gehringer_2

[Motor City Sonics]

19 hours ago, RatkoVarda said:

there are user settings where you can charge off hours; charge slowly (even with level 2 charger); charge to only 80% (or whatever level you like).

there is a ton of social media where people get well over 300+ miles per charge, driving that last bit like Kramer in Seinfeld.

all that's too much work for me; I just plug them in when they need juice

[chasfh]

I have a hybrid that gets maybe 12 to 18 miles on a full charge, depending on the weather. I plug in when it’s in the garage and just let it stay plugged in. Haven’t had a problem with the battery yet, but I have a gas-powered engine backup if it goes tits up.

[Deleterious]

I wonder if these will sell.

Official: Slate Auto has revealed its *sub-$20k* electric car

[Dan Gilmore]

That looks pretty awesome to me. 

[CMRivdogs]

If we were in the market for a second car just for quick trips, errands and such I might consider it. Especially since beaters are coming close to that price on the market.