my car is only about 15 months from being paid off; only paid like $5500 and financed for 3 years. Gonna drive it until it dies.
at that point, I'm seriously considering some sort of hybrid. I don't have the $ for a Tesla, but I think i could get on board with something that gets amazing mileage and don't need to shell out a few hundred a month on gas just to get to and from work.

I agree with the post made by wutamess. If I'm going to have a car payment (which I always try to avoid at all costs, but sometimes shit happens and you need to carry a payment for a bit).

Hopefully by the time I'm ready for a different vehicle, there will be an even larger market/inventory of used hybrids etc for a reasonable price. I drove my car prior to my current one for 8 years, and I'm hopeful to drive this one for about the same.

I had been out of the market for a long time a few years back and thought i wanted a truck . Jesus...the prices of trucks is just pure insanity. Used, and especially new.

That's part of the appeal, yes. Some people aren't aware that the majority of electricity generation comes from burning fossil fuels still.

Well, the government isn't offering incentives based on the computer chips included in the car ... or its stylish lines ... at least, I don't think they are.

For the owner, the total cost of ownership over time is attractive, obviously. If, that is, it ultimately shakes out that way.

I suppose it boils down to how much coal you have to burn in order to generate the electrical equivalent of a tank of gas.

FAX

What does it cost to recharge - 'fill the tank' - when on a trip?
I understand from skimming the thread that the range is 300 - 500 miles per charge.

I'm curious how long it will HOLD a charge.


you charge at home, drive 100 miles to a place with no charge stations.....you're there a week-10 days....Battery still good to drive home?

We still have brown outs in parts of the country during peak season.Hows it going work when all these electric cars hit the roads? As donger points out most of are power comes from fossil fuels just don't see the point ,what are we saving?

I cases such as these, Mr. Iowanian, I believe they recommend that you carry a charger with you.

FAX

When you do things at an industrial scale, they tend to become much more efficient. In other words, a car-sized internal-combustion engine wastes a lot of energy to heat loss and such than an electric power plant - even a coal-fired one.

Couple that with the existence of alternative types of fuel that are far cleaner (e.g., nuclear, wind, solar), and e-cars are cleaner and will become even more so as technologies advance.

Here's a pretty good, in-depth article about it.

https://www.theguardian.com/football...-electric-cars

Another concern that is seldom considered is the environmental impact of mining the raw materials needed for those batteries.

https://www.theguardian.com/sustaina...cars-batteries

And then there are questions about how much of those raw materials are actually available at all.

http://www.mining.com/electric-cars-...hium-supplies/

I suppose the argument is that it is in our national interest to become less dependent on foreign sources of crude.

That's not a reason to not do everything in our power to reduce emissions. The unfortunate part is that there aren't more options for hybrids. There also needs to be more charging stations. We'll get there.

Remember when nobody wanted an electric car because they were slow? lol

Was wondering the same?

Like how long of a life is the battery expected to last?

Not that it would require much but Where do you get the car serviced at?

Can you just take these cars to any joe blow mechanic like for brakes?

Has Musk recovered from his mental health issues he's had for the past year? Last I heard he was still having issues. Mainly from big money investors (shorting the stock) that don't believe the company is viable without huge government incentives.


BTW, the manufacture of the Li-xxx batteries and amount of resources they use is ridiculous.


If they could come up with a 100% lithium battery that didn't cause fires and explode it would offset all of the current problems. That seems to be like cracking cold fusion.

The good news is that the huge growth in e-cars is fueling a lot of research into battery technologies. I'd imagine we'll see some significant advances in the next 5-10 years.

Here's on idea that is far from production-ready, but illustrates that people are making progress on the issues.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/m9-cNNYb1Ik" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Or do what Saudi Arabia used to do with GM products....


When they broke they left them where they sat. Many with bullets in the engines, some burned.