this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2024
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[Dormant] Electric Vehicles
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Nope. My car had not mechanical defects at all but cost $23k to repair when the battery failed.
Your battery wasn’t still under its 10 year / 100000 mile warranty?
Some people keep their cars for a long time.
People who constantly drive new cars are fucking psychos. Why would you ever get rid of a car just because it's 10 years old?
Because I need the latest and greatest/look good. Also, it's using less fuel/electricity than the previous one, so I'm SaViNg money! /s
Literal reasons I've heard when they had to take up a loan, instead of keeping their 4/5 year old car, which was paid off. I don't understand it.
If they had owned it for a long time it was still cheaper than owning a gas car for the same length of time.
"fall apart" is a very careful choice of words here.
The battery may fail, individual cells may fail, but it will still be one unit.
And so will I.
And you saved more on gas and maintenance than the cost of that repair if it happened outside of warranty (which is 10 years on batteries)
$23 grand for a battery plus the cost of the car? I don't think they would have spent more on gas and maintenance.
I love how you've added the capital expense with the operating expenses on only one side of the equation but not the other. You know we can see that, right?
$23k is more than the cost of my last 2 ICE cars combined!
Now you’re comparing used cars to a new car.
Or do you buy $11k new cars?
No, I'm comparing two used cars to the cost of an EV battery replacement. Also, I was generously rounding up the cost of the two cars. My total was actually $12,200. $9k for a 2006 Subaru Forester and $3,200 for a 1992 Miata.
Your math falls apart when people, like me, have long drives. I could make my daily commute with an EV especially since my work has charging stations, but the 100000 mile warranty kills it for me. I do that in three years. I spend $50 a week in fuel which is $7800 for three years. I haven't even come close to spending another $14000 in maintenance during that time. I also expect to get at least another 3-5 years out of this vehicle.
Long commute > 50$ a week in fuel
Eh... You don't have a long commute buddy and I doubt you drive over 100 000 miles in 3 years!
Talk about my maths all you want, yours doesn't make sense.
Also you're acting like your battery will need to be changed after 100k miles for sure but you certainly don't take into consideration that your gas engine could blow up after your warranty expires and it's no cheaper than an EV battery! The difference is that the EV will require much less maintenance over its lifespan and is much cheaper to drive day to day.
All of my numbers are true. I drive 100 miles a day, my golf gets 40 miles to the gallon. You do the math.
Assuming $3/gal, $50/week for 3 years is 40mpg. Averaging that is damn impressive for an ICE car.
Just saw somewhere else that you are driving a golf. TDI or gas? I'm not doubting you. That's just impressive. I can get the mid or upper 30s on my 55mi one-way commute in my gas Passat...if I'm lucky enough to not hit traffic. But that takes me trying to drive for efficiency, and almost all highway. I'd be happy to average at 30.
TDI, and I drive carefully. Accelerating hard and braking hard wastes fuel. I don't drive fast on the highest either, and am lucky enough that most of my drive is medium speed county and state routes with very few stops. I would live to drive an EV, but it isn't really viable for me currently, and that was what I was trying to point out.
If you're that careful with the gas pedal your battery is going to love you for a long time and your electricity usage will go through the floor. I spend less than 20% on electricity than I used to spend on gas.
A taxi company guy I spoke to swears by 2nd generation Nissan Leaf cars, says it's saved him a ton of money.
There's a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt sown about electric cars, mainly by people who don't have any experience of them whatsoever and the petrochemical industry.
Manufacturers aren't super keen either, because unless they make their own batteries, a big part of the cost and profit of the car is outsourced and they don't get a lot of income from maintenance because there's just not a lot to go wrong with the actual driving bits of an electric car and so they're left with minor things like aircon to service.
I'm coming up on 250k miles on my Volt (plug in hybrid), mostly on battery. Works fine. I spend $50 on fuel every 3 months on average.