Last edited Tue Mar 8, 2022, 02:35 PM - Edit history (1)

EVs, that is.

And they get really good milage.

but for work purposes I need to be able to travel long distances and in the 10 minute pit stop, make the vehicle able to go another long distance. Also sometimes I need to have room for 7 plus luggage & equipment.

If only the postal service plan to go electric hadn't been sabotaged in 2006 (and history repeating again now), electric vehicle development would be much further along, and EV even more mainstream.

& how to hypermile!

Love this channel!

Mine is a plug-in, and I fill up about twice a year, especailly during Covid. Lifetime mileage on it right now is 94 MPG. Wife's a more standard hybrid.

Our work commute is about an hour of city driving each day, and with using nothing but electric, our power bill only increased by $4 a month.

We also get our electricity from renewables (wind and solar). Costs a little more, but totally worth it.

I have become the proverbial little old lady whose car looks new with low mileage but is 10 years old.

I have a Honda Civic.

It was 54 mpg when I bought it.

Last edited Tue Mar 8, 2022, 01:33 PM - Edit history (1)

Truck is 15 years old, the SUV is 8 years old. When those were purchased, electric options weren't were what they are today. We keep vehicles for a really long time compared to many.

4 wheel drive is essential for both vehicles for us in the winter, our driveway is often inaccessible without it.

But we sold it a few months ago. We decided that, since we were both working from home, we would go down to one car. Because we needed the hauling capacity of my SUV, we kept that one and sold the hybrid sedan. When we buy a new SUV, we're going to go for either a hybrid or an all-electric.

thankfully, I don't drive a lot.

of a used hybrid when my car was totaled a few years ago. (It was parked on the street on New Year's Eve... and my neighbor has a drinking problem.) It's 2016, bought in 2019. $14k at the time, which is not cheap, but not much more than other used cars of the same age. Monthly payments, yadda, yadda, yadda. Going on 4 years later and it's been great for me, though I also don't drive very much.

Over the life of the vehicle

Yup

of a 35-40k vehicle.

With an EV your “fuel” is purchased up front (the batteries). Yes you do need to charge but the costs with normal drive is about $5 per month.

Also your maintenance costs go way down. No oil changes, no transmission issue. Brakes, windshield wipers and tires.

I have a 2015 Leaf. It is a great car. I have owned $100k plus cars which I have sold and I love the Leaf more. Granted you cannot do a U turn at 40 mph but being able to hear the sounds of nature while you drive rather than a noisy ICE is so sweet.

Used Leafs get about 70-60 miles per charge. They cost under $10k. Highly recommended.

Cost was less than $10k. Even now the price is about the same. I alway buy used since cars where and will be again (someday) a normally depreciating asset. The depreciation is front end loaded and 3 years old seems to be the tipping point and the curve slows down. I got a quote from Carvana and could get more than I paid for it but the hassle of finding another one is a pain.

Laps 125k. I’ve done all the work that cost a lot of money twice already, knock wood don’t have to do it again. One day though, there’ll be a decision to make. I’d like to have a plan and a brand new one is not part of it.

I’d like a Fiskers when they’ve made a million of them. Elon, no thanks.

What does a replacement battery run for a leaf when the battery itself fails?

Does it need to be run several times a week and cycled all the way like the hybrids do?

Many folks with hybrids don’t realize that you do have to cycle it completely at least a couple of times a week if you want the battery to last.

This is a series of interesting podcasts on the stories of people working in the transition. Pretty great. I love the one by the guy who cofounded Tesla (and it isn’t Elon btw 🧐
https://www.powerhouse.fund/wattittakes

Has 45k on it. The battery has lost 1/12 of it’s total capacity. I still get over 70 miles on it. I have no reason to replace it. Most people drive less than 20 miles per day. At this rate I will be dead before it goes to 20 miles per charge. If you drive aggressively you will get lower. I don’t plan on replacing the battery but to get back to a full 80 miles it about $4k. You can also spend $9k and get over 200 miles per charge. I just use it as a town car. I have driven between Portland and Seattle but it took twice as long. Going to the store or just running errands it is a dream.

https://insideevs.com/news/428315/ev-rides-nissan-leaf-new-battery/

P.s. I don’t do anything in regards to battery cycling. I just plug it in when the battery is below 50%. The experts say wait till below 20% but oh well.

Good info, thanks.

I have a pretty big mountain to get up and down to go to work but am def not an aggressive driver.

Bookmarking.

Direct drive (no gearbox) cannot be over rated.

I had my EV in the shop recently because of a recall- nothing wrong. When I picked it up, they said they did an oil and filter change because it was overdue.

I’m asked them where exactly they put the oil? And the filter?

Of course they didn’t change the oil. My records from them say they did, but they didn’t.

Specializes in hybrids. I asked the very cranky but 30-years-experienced appointment setter if they service electric vehicles when they need fixing.

He said “Fix what?”

I kept insisting that they didn’t do one, he was sure they did. He finally asked the technician that did the work.

And it was the dealership! I mean, they should know this, right?

I love that there isn’t a lot that can go wrong on an electric!

Is super cheap. $15 on AMZN. My total maintenance costs in owning the car for 5 years has been:
$35 windshield wipers
$350 tires
$30 air filter

Everything else is fine. If you don’t like to spend money on cars or transportation I cannot think of a better choice.

I’ve had the car for about 8 months, so I wasn’t terribly worried about the cabin filter yet. Good point though!

Presently diesel prices are running at 1.70€ per litre to 1.90€ per around here. Higher in Marseille.

Can walk most places into town, we have a bicycle to carry shopping, and we don't drive a lot.

both >18yo but good mileage and I keep them running as clean as they can run.

It may not serve for long trips or a Costco run, but for a daily commute? Yes, please.

and good weather.

As for weather, well we say, "If you don't ride in the rain, you don't ride very much."

It took a while to accumulate the proper gear, but I started with a very modest goal of riding one day a week in the first half of the year, then twice a week for the second half. Throw in a few additional commutes just because the weather's nice, and I easily rode one-third of the commutes for the year. If a person spends $600 a year on gas going to and from work that's $200 a year saved.

My husband's Prius V, bought when he was still commuting into town regularly. Two years ago I bought a Honda Fit. Not hybrid or electric but it gets nearly as good mileage as the Prius. I've only put about 1300 miles on it so it isn't using much gas at all.

Then there is our 1999 GMC 2500 Suburban, bought when we were still hauling horses around the Southeast. We no longer do that, but every so often we need to haul big stuff around. It's paid for so we're keeping it. It will be a race which will die first, the Suburban or us. It only has 170,000 miles on it so I suspect it will win. (Our previous Suburban probably had close to 500,000 miles on it before it died , but it only lived seventeen years.) The GMC gets all of 13 miles to the gallon, no matter if it is completely empty or hauling a big load.

My 21 year old son drives our Honda Civic hybrid. It has 250k miles on it and is still fine after a new battery. It is funny to watch my 6'5" kid get out of that tiny vehicle. As an added bonus, my older kids can drive a vehicle with a manual transmission.

We have an SUV to pull a trailer. It also serves as my vehicle, but I don't go into town unless I really need to. We have an electric golf cart for around town in good weather. A tank of gas usually lasts me more than a month.

My DH drives a company car. He's hoping they switch to electric in the next round of new vehicles, but he's not in charge of that.

I will be replacing my 2010 Odyssey next year and plan on that being at least a hybrid.

Yet they don't blink an eye at paying over $6 for fancy coffees at a Starbucks, sometimes more than once a day.

I am lucky enough to live a short walk from work. Even shorter on days when I'm working remotely.

Seriously, though, about twenty years ago I decided to cut back on my driving as much as possible for environmental reasons. Sometimes that entailed changing jobs in order to be able to walk to work. Some of those jobs have been good: I have a rewarding job in the nonprofit sector now. Other times I've been a barista and a cashier at a co-op.

pushes 44 mph.

I currently have a 2012 Lincoln MKZ hybrid and love it. Can't believe Toyota offered the hybrid technology free to any automaker and they all passed. Such a shame.

A gas guzzling Dodge Ram Classic truck for some purposes and a tiny little Chevy Spark for everything else. The Spark is great with gas mileage and I have not met a parking situation it could not handle. The truck is nice but parking is hell (you gotta think ahead) and it drinks gas down. The truck is getting minimal use right now.

Volvo P8 (XC40).

Dh has an ICE truck. We may get one of the electric fords at some point. We don’t use the truck much.

We both work from home. We use the car for in town trips and the truck for longer trips.

I want a Ford hybrid the Maverick, waiting for them to be available will probably buy next year, would love to have it now.

So far, there hasn’t been a compelling push toward widespread acceptance of EVs. I consider what’s been done so far dipping one foot in the waters - more than a toe, but far from a headlong dive.

This war-induced rise in crude oil prices, along with federal funds to create EV-charging infrastructure, could nudge automakers to take things further, faster than in previous years. When the price comes down more, I’m in.

The ICE is a Fit, and very good mileage.

I'm never buying another gasoline powered car again. It may be awhile since Fit still has some miles on it and the F'bird is just for driving once a week or two and I can't bear to part with it.

Once you drive an EV for awhile you won't want to buy anything else.

I have no plans to change either vehicle, but I’m also retired and thus much less impacted by higher gas price than most.

service to date. Tesla mobile service came to the house to replace the 12 volt battery. I purchased tires. That’s it in 2 yrs ownership. It’s a beast and fun to drive. It has 121, 981 miles. Battery life expected to last at a minimum, to 500,000 miles.

Very low usage, since we walk most of the time. Need AWD and safety for winter mountain driving.

CVT with PVEZ. When replacement time comes, I will get an all-electric vehicle.

I haven't driven in over a decade, now; I quit driving when I moved to the UK (hard to justify the expense with 87-octane being over US$6/gallon, when public transit was a cheaper and viable alternative) and haven't started again after moving back because I'm fortunate enough to be somewhere I don't need to.

I bought it new and it’s at a little over 55k miles.

Yellow… natch

wouldn't want to get stranded somewhere. Some people who do have them have reported being in situations where they have to wait hours for their turn to charge. Then there's the cost of the vehicles, too. At the moment I'm happy to keep my long paid for 2012 Rav4.

Charging is no longer an issue in a lot of places, particularly the coasts and big cities.

However, there still are quite a few places that would be challenging. Hopefully, Biden's 500,000 charger program will fill those holes.

miles. Everywhere I go is very close and I hate to drive. Before that I had a Mazda Protege which I had for 18 years and sold it with just over 30,000 miles on it.

I have an i3 and my wife drives a Prius... with almost 300k miles on it... (Pharma Rep)

Upgraded to a VW ID.4 last year, it's been a great car. Have done 1000+ mile road trips in it with no issues, and no gas!

New 2021 Toyota Corolla. Prescient purchase. I wanted fully electric, but just wasn't ready to flip that switch, as it would have required installing a charger in the garage. I bought it on April 28 of last year and am STILL on the same tank of gas that I bought it with! Obviously, I don't drive much, but it's perfect for me. I could see it being my last car (I'm 66).

I topped my half full tank off on Monday and when I checked the price I'd last paid, I had filled up January 27th--5 1/2 weeks ago--and only used half a tank since then.

So, higher gas prices aren't going to affect me much until the end of May/early June, when I've planned to drive to Charleston, SC from here (Durham, NC) to attend their Spoleto Festival (a performing arts festival).