I love electric vehicles. But increasingly I feel duped

[Eagle1]

Thing is, flats are so rare these days that many/most people never have one (except for my wife who has a talent for finding nails in the road ).

I guess that is true for folks that drive on paved roads and don't live in an area where 90% of the roads are gravel. I see lot of our customers with flats because they have city tires on remote gravel roads.

 

[5030]

What exactly is the difference between a 'city' tire and an all season tire, which is what most folks run today on their buggies.

 

[Eagle1]

4 ply vs 8 or 10 ply..... Low profile R17 or 20 vs some sidewall R 60 or better.

 

[Oaktree]

4 ply vs 8 or 10 ply..... Low profile R17 or 20 vs some sidewall R 60 or better.

While I agree low profile tires look stupid...they ride like crap and are a PITA to mount/dismount, but that's what fits many modern sedans. I guess it's an attempt to fit a larger brake rotor without having the vehicle sit high, and I'm sure there's a customer base that think they look cool. Not sure you could put anything else on them and have it fit.

 

[Eagle1]

There is point to low profile tires, on the pavement. Not really suited to towing a camper down miles of gravel roads. I've towed a few rigs up gravel hills because their tires would not get enough traction to make it.
Just had a contractor put 27" wheels and low profile tires on his truck. Hope he can make it out of the holler when he hooks up his camper. Of course the front wheels fell of once all ready due to a faulty lift kit install and the fenders are beat in where the wheels hit when hits a pothole. But it look cool to him.... I've done stuff I regretted many time in my youth (still do)

 

[3930dave]

This one, on the Lightning...

'Biggest Scam of Modern Times:' Canadian Man Abandons Electric Ford F-150 After His Family Is Left Stranded

Illustrates a few things..... but one that stuck with me was his own infrastructure cost (whether the chargers cost 20k or 10k - vague across a few other articles, by the time you add 6k installation..... at even Canuck prices, a minimum of $16k CAD still buys a lot of fuel).

Rgds, D.

 

[mrmikey]

A lot of people suffer 'range anxiety' me included, not that I would ever buy an electric vehicle anyway.
Gas, if you ever get into a situation where you're going to be away from a source of fuel, you can throw a jug of gas in the bed, volts....not so much.
On a similar topic, at the local HD Friday, the amount of electric lawn equipment out weighs the fuel by 80% and the prices...holy crap. A 'cheap' lawnmower is $600 and that's nothing special, no cappuccino or expresso maker, just a blade that goes 'round and 'round...for awhile anyway.
A 42" ZT I think it was, $7,900 not a chance in he77.

 

[CH4Ohio]

You often hear that the Chinese are bringing a coal-fired power plant on-line every week, on average. (That's a startling real statistic if you think about it.) The most shocking thing that I never hear mentioned is that they're burning US coal in those plants. The Chinese buy coal mined in the US, ship it all the way to the other side of the planet (using large amounts of fossil fuel), and burn it to generate electricity.

These barges of US coal float past dozens of our power plants on the way there. We won't use it because we're too environmentally-conscious. Actually, we're too misguided.

How many ridiculous wind turbines and solar panels will we need to install to counter this trend?? Wouldn't it be better to keep it here, burn it here in the cleanest way possible, and lower our energy costs?

 

[Rockbadchild]

I do not understand why electric vehicle do not have a generator built in to be able to keep going and charge its own batteries...

you know instead of doing this...

or getting rescued by this

 

[ruffdog]

Back when "horseless buggies" first came about, there were similar arguments. The cars definitely had their issues and sometimes were left by the roadside broken. Horse driven buggy drivers would happily give them a ride to town, then tell everyone about it. All these years later, we are still improving the horseless carriage and are questioning new technology. What will we be riding in 50 years from now?