My welder outlet charges our car just fine. For us, there's no way we would buy an EV if we couldn't charge at home.

Tesla is opening up their chargers to others, thank you Elon.

I've never driven or ridden in a Tesla.

But based on what I have read, I have no difficulty accepting the following critique as genuine:

"What's it like to own a Tesla? Imagine if your printer was also your car."

I've seen that as a meme on social media with a lot of LOLz but I don't get it.

Maybe because my printer prints when I tell it to print? We have a guy who handles that stuff, and he's not too swift/stuck in the '90s, so I assume the printer hardware/software is pretty good.

You should rent a tesla and fully step on the right pedal. I drove my BIL's Model 3 for a few miles and thought it was an above average appliance. An electric car is a different experience, one that compliments a loud smelly V8 'gas guzzler' & turbo JDM 2 seater nicely.

My cousin has a T3, he's a petrol head (he's just finished restoring an old 2.2l 911) and he says the acceleration still amazes him, how instant it is - says he needs to be careful overtaking or he'll put it into the back of the car he is overtaking.

Of the five cars that I own, the only one that could plausibly be replaced with an EV is my Audi and that car needs to support doing thousand+ mile road trips. For that a good charging station infrastructure is required.

--Ian

I personally do not understand why people buy shitty printers, though I acknowledge that they do.

And, to be clear, by "shitty" I mean HP. Printers designed with DRM-protected ink cartridges and the like. Because I'm not an idiot, I own a Brother laser printer which is just absolutely problem-free and works perfectly. Bought it in 2014 at the Best Buy in Poughkeepsie, NY.


I've thought about purchasing an EV in the past, but the problem is that even though I drive pretty much every day, the number of miles I drive in a year is quite small. About 1,500 miles, split roughly 50 / 50 between the two cars. So even if electricity were free and gasoline went to $10 a gallon and stayed there, the economics of purchasing even a used Tesla / e-Tron / etc., make no sense for me. Unless something dramatic happens, the '04 Miata and the '16 Juke I own now should last me until retirement, at which time they'll be replaced with an F-350.


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b54712e578.png

My brother bought his car used, and the only thing he has had to replace after about 18 months is the wiper blades. He did say that Tesla pushed through software updates about every 6 weeks, which sometimes changes the was certain things are displayed or accessed through the ridiculously large display screen.

Actual email sent earlier today.


From: Joseph Perez <address redacted>
Date: Jan 03, 2024, 4:02 PM
To: content_review@zazzle.com

Regarding Zazzle's decision to dis-approve item # 256288701303378285; the copyright on the original 1928 depiction of Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie" expired on Jan 1, 2024, and the material entered the public domain.

This fact has been the subject of considerable news coverage of late. Example: https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/01/busin...red/index.html

Thus, this design does not contain infringing material.

My experience is just the opposite. More motorheads than I expected really love their wives' Teslas.

I have several problems with the whole EV thing, but the biggest one is I don't want to be forced to buy one. The U.S. has more oil and natural gas deposits than most any other country, but we're adopting a technology that requires we get the necessary rare earth minerals from our greatest enemy, Chyner.

However, I recently had a student at VIR with a Tesla Model 3S. The "S" meant it had thingies that made it more trackable. He assumed that VIR had the charging infrastructure to support his EV, but, alas, VIR has gone in the opposite direction. They decided they didn't have the equipment to put out an EV battery fire, so they no longer allow charging in the paddock. He had to go outside the gate and into the industrial complex to use one of the Porsch chargers, which gave him 30 miles per hour of charge. I don't know why they still let EVs run on track if they don't allow them to charge in the paddock... and, BTW, the Air Force Base I work at sent out a memo a while back prohibiting EV charging on base.

I believe we started out with 249 miles worth of juice for his first track session. We did one full 30 minute session with the Novice group, and came back with 139 miles. That thing is a bullet. And comfortable without any wind buffeting with the windows down. No issues with the battery overheating. After some fiddlefucking with how we'd get his car charged and him moved around to class and such, we got back on track with something like 169 miles of juice. He did about 25 minutes of his second session and I believe we had less than 100 miles. He got to charge for about two hours through lunch, and I believe we started out his third session with about 130 miles. We did 15 minutes and he called it done for the day--no fourth session. He had just enough juice to get him to a fast charger so he could make the trip home.

I still believe there's something nefarious about the push for "clean energy" and EVs in general, but I'm finding it hard to believe anything the gov't does is actually in our best interest.

Yesterday, we got the first significant snowfall of the season. Wife and son cleaned out the driveway but didn't clean off the cars. This morning I noticed both the cars were cleaned off, and assumed my son went out and did it last night.
My wife just texted me, thanking me for doing it. As I know it was not me, I can only assume one of my neighbors accomplished this task.

That is the kind of neighborhood I have, where random acts of kindness happen all the time. I will bake a loaf of banana bread this evening and take it over to thank him.

I live where it doesn't snow. Are you saying that's why most of us don't really know our neighbors?

No, you're just antisocial. Now, get off my lawn!

Something just occurred to me...

People who drive relatively short distances, in mostly stop-n-go city traffic, are kind of the ideal case for EV ownership. We're surrounded by charging infrastructure, and have little need for either tremendous range or massive torque / high speed.

And there seems to be a race amongst EV manufacturers to move further and further away from a vehicle which suits our needs.

An EV with a genuine range of 50 miles highway, and a top speed of 65 MPH, would cover 90% of my usage. Make it a dual-motor (AWD) design, and you're up to 100%.

And yet nobody is doing this. We're seeing EVs with higher and higher battery capacities as standard, and no way to access AWD except at the very highest trim (and range) levels.

We've all seen enough at this point to know that the battery accounts for half (or more) of the cost of the vehicle. So why make it 5x more expensive than it needs to be?

Same goes for the motor, gearbox, controller, etc. It's a very rare day that I am physically able to exceed 30 MPH. If I lived in the near-north 'burbs, then there'd be short stretches where I could maybe get up to 45 MPH.


I realize that I'm probably not in the majority here. But I have to imagine that at least 25% of the driving public never travel more than 30 miles or so per day. And, in major cities, that 25% are going to be the higher-income folks with no children... the ones with greater discretionary income.

There's no incentive for Tesla to service that market. But imagine if BMW, Audi, Porsche, etc all did. Build a small, AWD EV with 50 miles range. And make it a NICE car. Small, sexy lines, two door, clean interior. Go easy on the gadgets. Give it an ordinary instrument cluster, simple pushbutton controls for the HVAC, and a place on the dashboard to stick your own Droid or iThing. They could charge Chevy Bolt prices or less, and see huge gains in market share without losing money.

And that's an eaaaaaaasy way to boost your CAFE rating, especially for brands not generally known for being on the frugal side, fuel-wise.

Never is a long time, and many people are not willing to give up the flexibility of being able to go on a road trip at the drop of a hat. You can argue that this is irrational (rental, etc), but nevertheless it seems to be the case.

--Ian

But how many people have ready access to that charging infrastructure? If you live in an apartment building, it’s unlikely that your landlord is going to spring for charging stations for every tenant. What if you park on the street? By the same token, will your employer install chargers so that you don’t have to rely on charging at home? Currently, a Level 2 charger can supply about 40 miles per hour - at least on a Model 3.

My neighbor lives in Manhattan most of the year, ended up buying an Audi plug-in hybrid instead of a straight EV because his co-op is unwilling to allow the very-expensive modifications necessary to put chargers in their garage - so he drives from NYC to MA on gas, plugs in at a service area while having lunch. He has a level 2 in Maine, we don’t have the grid to support a level 3, which would cost almost as much as his car.

I agree that short-haul EV’s are very logical for most people - me included - but America isn’t ready. I read that if 30% of Maine drivers plugged in their EV on the same night, it would crash the power grid.

Nowhere is really ready. We are behind the curve too atm, but playing catch-up. Our grid is going through a big shakeup to cater for the distributed generation of renewables, local grid capacity isn't much of an issue as far as I can see nobody is saying that local connection/grid is slowing the rollout of fast chargers.

I assume you are saying that the 30% is of total cars (ie the hypothetical) are plugged into fast chargers? That sounds like typical fear-mongering, that scenario would be what - 10 years off? Plenty can happen, and surely will, in that time frame. If it is 30% of the current EV population, either you have LOTS of EVs, or a particularly crappy network. In the latter case, given the increasing electrification of just about everything, someone needs to get their finger out - PDQ.

Actually 30% of households, level 2 chargers - I should have been clearer. I agree that it is probably 10 years out, but the US is incapable of increasing electricity generation and distribution enough to support that 30% in that time frame. One team of regulators promulgate a grand plan, then 4 teams of regulators throw up roadblocks that delay the plan for a decade or so.

The Maine legislature is considering a bill that would require 42% of new vehicles sold to be electric by 2027, 82% by 2032. It is likely to pass, and the governor has already committed to approving it. Magical thinking at its finest.
As of now, there are 480 public chargers in the whole state, essentially none in the northern 2/3 of the state. There are 6 Level 2 and 4 Tesla chargers in our county, with a population of 34,000. My cousin and her husband have a dedicated solar array to charge their Model 3 because reliability of the local power grid is sub-optimal.

You can do it in 10 years, not if you are fighting turf wars though, or building nucs. More of the same isn't going to do it, you need things like large and small scale solar, wind, hydro, esp pumped hydro - diversify the task. Aren't you on the coast - offshore wind is the latest here (old hat in Yurrop!), apparently the offshore winds are stronger and more reliable than on land.

Setting targets is dumb, better way is to tax the buggery out of ICE/hydrocarbon fuels. You get the result - people move out of the taxed items - and the wherewithall to underwrite the new energy sources. If the policy settings are right, the market will see the opportunity, and you will be trampled in the rush.

If the US could get out of its own way many things would be possible, but here we are.
For example - my cousin’s husband is a marine researcher. 5 or 6 years ago he ran the undersea site survey for a couple of test offshore windmills. Late last year, after fighting everything from the EPA to a fishing/lobstering group, they gave up on the permitting process. And one of the project partners was the state of Maine.
The Luddites here have figured out how to tie everything up in courts enough so that by the time you get an okay to proceed, you’ve already lost so much time and money that it’s no longer worth it.

Increasing taxes on things that already work to pay for things that don't work sounds like a great idea.