Yesterday. Would you buy and EV?

[bnold]

I drive 104 miles a day for work. My last car was free and lasted 75,000 miles. It died at 340,000 miles. I spent between 7500-12000$ in gas over the vehicle life.

An EV wouldn't of paid off

Current work vehicle is a van I paid off 4 years ago and have owned for about 8 years. I spend at $5 a gallon about $4330 a year in gas. And the vehicle only cost me $15000 when I bought it in 2014

Until Ev's come down to sub $25,000 and battery degradation worries are gone, I'm out. I keep my vehicles on average 10+ years and a few hundred thousand miles.

You are correct sir.
I agree, we should all get free vehicles.
Add a boat, plane, cell phone, house, healthcare, and food while we are at it.

Why are we comparing the cost of a used or free car to a new car? I mean Carvana has a used Leaf at $11k right now.

What was the new cost of that van and free car adjusted for inflation today?

Nissan Leaf $27k new today ($20k after tax credit)
I think the cheapest new car in 2022 is right at $20-21k

 

[bnold]

Then there’s the rape of the enviroment to mine for lithium, the Chinese low cost or even slave labor in making the parts and then there’s the toxic waste disposal of the batteries.

Sounds like a loser for the environment and the manipulation of the people who have to mine for the resources and make the parts for them.

Yup, only thing the world mines lithium for is EVs.
Fantasy land.

If you can only purchase products which raw materials and production from countries who are ‘responsible’ towards environment and people then I commend you as that is a difficult quest. I’d venture to say the US is pretty environmentally irresponsible in many cases, all a matter of scale I suppose. How do you determine the level of irresponsibility to what is ok or not for your liking? Is there some sort of metric?

 

[JasperFrank]

I think the metric is a strange dance between 1st tier manufacturers and consumers.
In the world of computer refurbishing, I've seen a lot, and had far too many WTF moments when you are faced with a device that is intentionally designed not to be repaired. It is difficult to get across, to those not in the industry, just how bad E-waste is. Not to pick on Apple, but i will, when they came out with the Clam Shell E-Macs, you knew something was horribly wrong when they designed the battery in the case, held in by adhesive, and you basiclly had to break the laptop to get it apart. Apple had designed the BIC Lighter of Computers. My thought of horror is that Car Manufactuers will follow the same, now well established, model of designing cars with a planned life span. There is no 2nd or 3rd tier economy here. They sold you the BIC Car. They are the ONLY people that can fix it, and when they decide not to support it, at their whim... you are screwed.

 

[bnold]

Don’t disagree with that.

Seems as though manufacturers of all things are going that way.

My little Kubota B2710 for instance started leaking diesel at the delivery valves. Just old brittle seals.

The only thing Kubota will sell is a new $1,000+ pump when $0.50 in o-rings needed replaced. No documentation on the repair process either.

So I ordered new o-rings and a tiny locator pin (dropped it and couldn’t locate!!) from an outfit in Germany. Cost about $20 with shipping and back running with no leaks.

We consumers have requested this… Cheap as possible. Cheap means Kubota doesn’t have to carry inventory for component parts. Inventory cost $$.

 

[hiddentacocatneddih]

You are correct sir.
I agree, we should all get free vehicles.
Add a boat, plane, cell phone, house, healthcare, and food while we are at it.

Why are we comparing the cost of a used or free car to a new car? I mean Carvana has a used Leaf at $11k right now.

What was the new cost of that van and free car adjusted for inflation today?

Nissan Leaf $27k new today ($20k after tax credit)
I think the cheapest new car in 2022 is right at $20-21k

My van I currently drive was 15000 1 year old. The drive train still yields the same miles per tank as it did when we bought it.

My dad got leaf used at their dealer and they had to scrap it. The battery was bad and it was twice the cost of the value of the vehicle to replace. They used it as a golf cart till they found a scrap place to take it. There wasnt anywhere willing to take it

 

[ultrarunner]

Did they try Craigslist...

Seen advertising for EV with spent batteries.

 

[bsekf]

Have been doing a little searching and I can't find a 2-3 year old EV for under $40K. Might better buy new.... but they aren't available either. Am I looking in the wrong place?

 

[ultrarunner]

Not from those I know…

It’s often the perks that go with it… preferred company parking, single occupant use of carpool lane during commute hours, tie in with work/home PV arrays.

One early adopter cited free Tesla charging and no more vehicle inspections…

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Have been doing a little searching and I can't find a 2-3 year old EV for under $40K. Might better buy new.... but they aren't available either. Am I looking in the wrong place?

No, that sounds about right.
And then you can attempt to charge it during rolling blackouts

 

[AndyMA]

Thats my biggest problems with EV’s, too.
The up front cost of car & home charger with electricity going way up in price (thanks to the extreme cost of windmills and solar)

Then there’s the rape of the enviroment to mine for lithium, the Chinese low cost or even slave labor in making the parts and then there’s the toxic waste disposal of the batteries.

View attachment 751373

Sounds like a loser for the environment and the manipulation of the people who have to mine for the resources and make the parts for them.

Thats my biggest problems with EV’s, too.
The up front cost of car & home charger with electricity going way up in price (thanks to the extreme cost of windmills and solar)

Then there’s the rape of the enviroment to mine for lithium, the Chinese low cost or even slave labor in making the parts and then there’s the toxic waste disposal of the batteries.



Sounds like a loser for the environment and the manipulation of the people who have to mine for the resources and make the parts for them.

Extreme cost of windmills & solar? Where did you come up with that? As an engineer for the owner of 2nd largest installed base of solar and wind turbines in North America I beg to differ. Solar system are much cheaper to build than natural gas plants. Natural gas plants average $812 per kW. Utility solar plants are considerably less than $200 per kW, Also keep in mind the cost to run a solar plant in zero. Certainly not zero for a natural gas plant. Also maintenance costs ar much higher on natural gas plants

Andy