Has anyone regretted buying a fully electric car?
Has anyone regretted buying a fully electric car?
I need a new car, and I really want to go full electric. I'm wondering if anyone regrets buying one? What are the downsides?
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We've had three EVs for a few years now and they been great, had four in total and replaced the first one a bit over a year ago as its lease expired, so no regrets.
Lengthy road trips aren't a problem if you plan out your route in advance I get not everyone wants to do this so if this you then wait till there are more charging stations for your region. We plan stops based on charging stations that have a lot of high speed chargers (over 100kw) so we are never waiting more than 20 minutes and never waiting for a charger. It is faster to charge twice to around 80% on one of these than it is to charge to 100% once due to how much charging slows down as the battery nears completion. I would not even consider a car that does not have a 800v architecture due to the slower charging speeds if you plan on road trips.
We have done 1200 mile round trips, probably small fry for Americans but a lot for us, especially as we towing for all that. Its achievable with planning in most western countries. I want to stop at most every three hours as I want to use the loo, are people who are driving 6 more hours non stop peeing in a bottle or something?
Cost per mile is stupidly low as we charge at home when not on trips over 280 miles, 8p per kwh, with a monthly cost between the three cars of £40 for around 2000 miles a month (more in summer, about that in winter). Good luck doing 2000 miles on £40 for an ICE car. Charging when out is more expensive the faster you want to charge, ultra rapids work out about the same per mile as high economy petrol ICE, rapids or lower a bit cheaper but nothing significant. Its only going to be cheaper if you can charge at home and your energy provider has a suitable EV tariff as we do.
Absolutely zero chance I would buy an EV right now as depreciation is already horrendous and the rate of change for EVs is rapid unless you know the car will meet your log term needs and those will not change. We lease so that all the cost of the risk is with the leasing company and we know we want the improvements.
Edit: Plug in hybrids are fucking useless BTW, you are either doing a ton of miles and using the ICE all the time, or you are using the battery all the time and very rarely the ICE. It means carrying around both a full EV setup and a full ICE setup, so you have more than twice the complexity of either and more weight than an actual pure EV with the same battery that impacts both EV and ICE economy. Plus recent studies have shown that hybrids are far harder on the ICE part than a pure ICE, which is fucking awful for long term ownership.
They were only ever meant as a stop gap until battery prices dropped, which they have and its now possible to get EVs with over 400 miles of ACTUAL range not just promised range.
are people who are driving 6 more hours non stop peeing in a bottle or something?
They are stopping every 3 hours for gas, but they have a "when the pump stops better be in the car" rule. Generally two drivers, one goes in, pees, and returns to watch the pump so the second can go in and pee. If you are young and fast is possible for two people to pee in the time it takes to fill your tank with gas. (males typically take half as much time as females)
Every 3 hours?
New gas engines can drive for up to at least 8 hours depending on ascent and load without feuling up again. Theyve been getting really good at economizing. Just stop to go pee, stretch legs, take a nap.
they compensate for better economy with smaller tanks in the cars I've seen. Though I'll admit to not knowing all tanks.
For health and safety reasons you should stop, stretch your legs, and take a nap. Unfortunately I know far too many people who are not doing that. Normally they get by with it, but there are many many road deaths every year because of things people normally get by with.
Seven hours is about my limit without stopping to piss. My work vehicle, which I make the vast majority of my long trips in, gets 500 miles to the tank so it's not the limiting factor. I was reading higher up that some people fill up their car when it gets to half full? Wtf? I'll start looking for a good place for gas when it's 50 miles to empty.