Who here as made the leap to an EV?

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sze5003

Lifer
Aug 18, 2012
14,177
622
126
I currently drive a 2016 6 speed Mazda 6 touring, actually I never had an automatic transmission car so I don't know how I'll feel about that.

It's getting up there in mileage but I'm hoping it will last. For my next car I'd love to go EV but I still live in an apartment having been priced out of buying in the current economy.

My girlfriend has a c320 AMG which I use as a joyride car sometimes. She's looking to get an SUV at some point so I may point her towards something like a hybrid Rav4 or something equivalent.

Only thing about hybrids I've heard is that they are more expensive to fix than ICE cars.

My ideal EV would be a model X but now I've seen the model 3 has gotten higher range on the battery than the X.

I haven't had a car payment in a long time and I did the math, even with a hefty down payment, a model X or a model 3 comes out to close to 1k a month which is pretty crazy for just a car, not sure I'd want to pay that while living in an apartment where I can't always charge at home.
 
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Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,392
5,257
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I think the Rivian will be sufficient. ;)

I mean, I went from a 2011 Kia Soul (0 to 60 in 9.4s) eventually to a 4-cylinder Ecoboost Mustang (0 to 60 in 5.3s) & it's stupid fast for a DD haha! The Rivian would be bonkers, especially going that fast in a TRUCK!
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,392
5,257
136
so I may point her towards something like a hybrid Rav4 or something equivalent.

So I really like the concept of the Rav4 hybrid, fantastic battery for a hybrid, but man, they really shrunk & cheaped out on the updated design! Felt like a Kia from 20 years ago, plus felt so much smaller inside (especially trunk space) than the old Rav4's. Which is weird because iirc it's actually bigger in interior measurements than the old one. Anyway, would be worth a test-drive first to see if she likes it, coming from a Benz!
 

Viper GTS

Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
38,107
433
136
For anyone who has experienced ~3s in a Tesla you aren’t going to be impressed by Rivian. It’s impressive that it’s a truck doing it, of course, but their power delivery curve is not nearly as brutal as a performance Tesla. The one I drove was on all terrains so it’s possible some of its friction coefficient calculating magic was impacting the power delivery but I suspect they are just being far more conservative with the 0 rpm torque limit. It just does not hit like Teslas do.

Honestly anyone used to performance 3/Y or better Tesla is going to be a bit underwhelmed after all of the press. Yes, it’s very good but it isn’t going to reproduce the leap you felt going from ICE to fast EV.

Also, the one I drove overheated its air compressor just doing one ride height cycle and had to be restarted before driving to clear the air suspension error. I desperately want the quad motor drivetrain but I wish a more established and capable car builder had it. I’m going to have to make a decision soon on my R1T order, currently I’m planning to switch it to R1S to delay and use my Lightning pre-order in the meantime.

Viper GTS
 
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repoman0

Diamond Member
Jun 17, 2010
4,445
3,282
136
No plans to switch for the foreseeable future. I like my old cars with manual transmissions, and don’t drive enough to justify switching from either an environmental or fuel cost perspective now that I mostly work from home.

My wife will probably end up switching first, but who knows when. She works from home too so fuel prices are pretty irrelevant to both of us.
 

Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
30,246
10,748
136
I have a 2017 Mercedes C63 AMG right now that will do 0-60 in about 4.0 seconds flat, which I am constantly impressed by, I’m not sure I can’t imagine what cutting a full second off that would feel like.


Its not just the acceleration numbers themselves its how "instant" it feels even compared to a really quick ICE vehicle.... like flipping a damn switch!

At least you already drive something fast every day/frequently so it won't be as extreme an adjustment to "ludicrous-speed" acceleration as it is for many people going from "space-normal" cars to fast EV's.

I give Tesla's and other super-quick/expensive vehicles a WIDE berth not because of any concerns about the cars themselves. Thing is I DO have SERIOUS concerns about your average soccer-mom (or dad!) tooling around in ANYTHING capable of a sub-10 second quarter-mile!
 
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Muadib

Lifer
May 30, 2000
17,914
838
126
I have a Cybertruck on order, but Elon keeps pushing back the date to manufacture the thing. The wait may be moot unless I can get a standard steering wheel.
 

quikah

Diamond Member
Apr 7, 2003
4,068
649
126
I give Tesla's and other super-quick/expensive vehicles a WIDE berth not because of any concerns about the cars themselves. Thing is I DO have SERIOUS concerns about your average soccer-mom (or dad!) tooling around in ANYTHING capable of a sub-10 second quarter-mile!

Tesla's have a switch in the controls to make the acceleration more restrained. The settings are "Chill" and "Standard", adding settings like "Sport" or "Insane" for the performance models. When it is on Chill it feels like a very good ICE car. Setting it to Standard gives you the instant torque punch. Never driven a performance model, I cannot imagine how crazy the Sport or Insane modes are.

BTW: the Valet mode locks it to Chill

I keep it at chill for 99% of my driving, but switch it to standard when getting on a highway if the ramp is short.
 
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Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,392
5,257
136
For anyone who has experienced ~3s in a Tesla you aren’t going to be impressed by Rivian. It’s impressive that it’s a truck doing it, of course, but their power delivery curve is not nearly as brutal as a performance Tesla. The one I drove was on all terrains so it’s possible some of its friction coefficient calculating magic was impacting the power delivery but I suspect they are just being far more conservative with the 0 rpm torque limit. It just does not hit like Teslas do.

Honestly anyone used to performance 3/Y or better Tesla is going to be a bit underwhelmed after all of the press. Yes, it’s very good but it isn’t going to reproduce the leap you felt going from ICE to fast EV.

Also, the one I drove overheated its air compressor just doing one ride height cycle and had to be restarted before driving to clear the air suspension error. I desperately want the quad motor drivetrain but I wish a more established and capable car builder had it. I’m going to have to make a decision soon on my R1T order, currently I’m planning to switch it to R1S to delay and use my Lightning pre-order in the meantime.

Viper GTS

The Mach-E is the same way...stupid fast but not as brutal as a Tesla. tbh tho I actually prefer how the electric Mustang drives because they toned it down to handle like a car rather than an EV, which I really liked on my test-drive Definitely changed my mind about the vehicle!

Interesting about the compressor stuff. I rarely buy first-generation anything these days (outside of my APO oven) because of my Jeep Renegade. I'll let someone else be the guinea pig lol!
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,392
5,257
136
I have a Cybertruck on order, but Elon keeps pushing back the date to manufacture the thing. The wait may be moot unless I can get a standard steering wheel.

iirc there are aftermarket steering wheels available if you don't like the yoke.

I'm just planning on Christmas 2025 at this point. Even if they ship this year, I definitely don't want a first-gen Cybertruck...let them go through a year or two of iterative development to work out the kinks haha.
 
Dec 10, 2005
23,990
6,793
136
iirc there are aftermarket steering wheels available if you don't like the yoke.
You shouldn't need to buy an aftermarket steering wheel for a car if the standard one is shit. I'd consider a bad steering wheel design a nonstarter if I was buying a vehicle costing >$50k.
I keep it at chill for 99% of my driving, but switch it to standard when getting on a highway if the ramp is short.
Maybe I don't know any better from driving mediocre cars (with typical 0-60 times on the order of 8-10 seconds) in largely urban and suburban environments, but I've never had an issue merging onto a highway with short entrance ramps (like CT-15, the Southern State Parkway in NY, or a few other spots in the NE). Seems like super acceleration is one of those could be nice to have features, but 90% of the time you're just going to be driving normal.
 

MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
21,004
19,444
136
Using the power settings will kill your tires twice as fast as a regular car. What's it cost to install new tires on a Tesla?
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
94,689
14,936
126
The Mach-E is the same way...stupid fast but not as brutal as a Tesla. tbh tho I actually prefer how the electric Mustang drives because they toned it down to handle like a car rather than an EV, which I really liked on my test-drive Definitely changed my mind about the vehicle!

Interesting about the compressor stuff. I rarely buy first-generation anything these days (outside of my APO oven) because of my Jeep Renegade. I'll let someone else be the guinea pig lol!
A Jeep is forever first gen.
 
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Muadib

Lifer
May 30, 2000
17,914
838
126
iirc there are aftermarket steering wheels available if you don't like the yoke.

I'm just planning on Christmas 2025 at this point. Even if they ship this year, I definitely don't want a first-gen Cybertruck...let them go through a year or two of iterative development to work out the kinks haha.

I hear you, but I’m not doing that. Either it comes with a wheel or I look elsewhere. I will miss first year availability if I do get one. I’m way down the list. Getting one earlier would be a nice problem to have though.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
30,246
10,748
136
You shouldn't need to buy an aftermarket steering wheel for a car if the standard one is shit. I'd consider a bad steering wheel design a nonstarter if I was buying a vehicle costing >$50k.
Maybe I don't know any better from driving mediocre cars (with typical 0-60 times on the order of 8-10 seconds) in largely urban and suburban environments, but I've never had an issue merging onto a highway with short entrance ramps (like CT-15, the Southern State Parkway in NY, or a few other spots in the NE). Seems like super acceleration is one of those could be nice to have features, but 90% of the time you're just going to be driving normal.


My Honda is NOT a fast car by any means and I never have any trouble getting on the highway. Key is to have SUFFICIENT power in the right places courtesy of proper drive-train design, power and gearing.

Also super-fast acceleration is fun but after owning/riding several Japanese super-bikes over the years I can tell you that no matter how eyeball-flattening it is, the novelty wears off pretty quickly. (and all a super-high top speed does on US roads is get people killed)

The "best" car in the world is the one that STARTS every single time you need it to do so without a hiccup. EVERYTHING else is a luxury.
 

Homerboy

Lifer
Mar 1, 2000
30,856
4,974
126
I have not made the switch yet.

I drive my cars until they are on fire and completely dead. I have a 2007 Honda Odyssey with 160K on it. AC is dead, windshield cracked, power doors busted and there's some annoying sheet metal rattle that I can not find when the RPMs hit 2K (which is often in stop-n-go city traffic). But, she still drives great and it gets me to where I need to go and zero car payment is THE BEST.

Once she's dead, then I will 100% go EV and, due to recent ramping up of his stupidity, it will almost assuredly not be a Tesla of any shape or size.
 
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Pacfanweb

Lifer
Jan 2, 2000
13,149
57
91
EV tech is not ready for prime time yet. Won't be for decades, most likely.

When you can recharge in 5 minutes like you can refill your gas tank, it'll be close.
When you don't lose a significant portion of your range when it's cold, it'll be closer.
When it doesn't cost $10-20k to replace the battery along with the 2 previous improvements, it'll be "about there".

We might not live to see all 3 happen.

Then you have to consider the mining and resources needed to supply the world with batteries as well, and the cost/destruction of that process.

Hopefully there will be a better option at some point.
 

Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
30,246
10,748
136
EV tech is not ready for prime time yet. Won't be for decades, most likely.


I predict that 10 years from now EV's will have gone "mainstream" although I'm sure they'll still be plenty of ICE vehicles on the road too.

So far nearly every "expert's" EV adoption predictions have fallen short of reality and this one is no different.... EV's are the future like it or not.

Might want to take a gander at the battery-replacement numbers for the first few model-years of the Toyota Prius too .... despite dire predictions to the contrary MOST of them are still on the original batteries so battery-replacement scare-tactics are largely nonsense.
 

Homerboy

Lifer
Mar 1, 2000
30,856
4,974
126
EV tech is not ready for prime time yet. Won't be for decades, most likely.

When you can recharge in 5 minutes like you can refill your gas tank, it'll be close.
When you don't lose a significant portion of your range when it's cold, it'll be closer.
When it doesn't cost $10-20k to replace the battery along with the 2 previous improvements, it'll be "about there".


We might not live to see all 3 happen.

Then you have to consider the mining and resources needed to supply the world with batteries as well, and the cost/destruction of that process.

Hopefully there will be a better option at some point.

(mostly) Disagree. Even with those "shortcomings" an EV fits my bill quite fine living in an suburb blocks away from a large city. And the winters here are brutal. I drive to/from work 8 miles each way. Even on the weekends, I MIGHT drive 20 miles in each direction going to friends/family/stores. I generally have no use for a super-long-range EV right now.
The battery replacement is a kicker I admit, but many/most come with like an 8 year/100,00 mile warranty. So again, based on my usage, I'm still pretty safe from having to face any sort of issue with them.

Obviously that doesn't fit EVERYONE'S bill, but they definitely fit the bill for millions of people.
 

Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
30,246
10,748
136
The battery replacement is a kicker I admit, but many/most come with like an 8 year/100,00 mile warranty. So again, based on my usage, I'm still pretty safe from having to face any sort of issue with them.

As I mentioned battery-lifespan has (so far) turned out to be far less of an issue with EV's/Hybrids then was originally thought.

Charging/generating electrical infrastructure for folks without the ability to do so overnight at home/at the office and environmental concerns with Lithium-mining devastating 3rd world countries are the real problems with EV's.
 

Homerboy

Lifer
Mar 1, 2000
30,856
4,974
126
As I mentioned battery-lifespan has (so far) turned out to be far less of an issue with EV's/Hybrids then was originally thought.

Charging/generating electrical infrastructure for folks without the ability to do so overnight at home/at the office and environmental concerns with Lithium-mining devastating 3rd world countries are the real problems with EV's.

the last one is the one that effects me the greatest. The trick is, what's the balance? I'm arguably doing just as much harm driving a ICE car as well. When trying to live a modern life, no matter what we do we're screwing the environment in some shape way of form :(
 
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nakedfrog

No Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
58,055
12,245
136
EV tech is not ready for prime time yet. Won't be for decades, most likely.

When you can recharge in 5 minutes like you can refill your gas tank, it'll be close.
When you don't lose a significant portion of your range when it's cold, it'll be closer.
When it doesn't cost $10-20k to replace the battery along with the 2 previous improvements, it'll be "about there".

We might not live to see all 3 happen.

Then you have to consider the mining and resources needed to supply the world with batteries as well, and the cost/destruction of that process.

Hopefully there will be a better option at some point.
A lot of this is predicated on there essentially being no change to existing battery tech over decades, which is kind of a ridiculous proposition.
 
Jun 18, 2000
11,114
688
126
What do you consider "prime time"? EV's today are fine for a large number of people. 5 minute charging is pointless when you charge from home or work.

As for lithium mining, go visit one of the 10's of thousands of oil pumps in the U.S. or the cracker plants or the pipelines to see how clean those are. Lithium mining is not good and we are seemingly behind in recycling technology, but that is changing thankfully.
 

K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
45,896
32,696
136
A lot of this is predicated on there essentially being no change to existing battery tech over decades, which is kind of a ridiculous proposition.

And ignores the massive rapid progress already made in energy density, materials conservation, chemistry, charging speed, cost per kWh, etc over the past decade.


Screen Shot 2022-06-20 at 11.29.59 AM.png
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
37,404
8,038
136
iirc there are aftermarket steering wheels available if you don't like the yoke.

I'm just planning on Christmas 2025 at this point. Even if they ship this year, I definitely don't want a first-gen Cybertruck...let them go through a year or two of iterative development to work out the kinks haha.
I love buying products that have had several generations of iterative development. Absent that there's usually glaring deficiencies. I'm not usually in a hurry. Plus, you save bucks, especially if you don't need the latest generation, which often has no major advantages.

My boss for my first programming job was a train control engineer. He wasn't really my boss, but in effect he was. My boss I rarely saw. I was contracted to the company who had this guy (my de facto boss) working for them who as a side thing did programming for some of their customers and I was hired to help him develop and tweak the code, customize it for his customers. He picked me from 5 candidates. One day out of the blue he told me he'd never buy another new car.
 
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