Saving money wasn’t the reason, but we do on operation. The price per mile is the equivalent of gas at less than $1/gal in a Prius. Our electricity is fairly cheap here. YMMV
Saving resources was part of our reason. We have electricity that is primarily produced by hydro, wind, and solar, with some natural gas in the mix so we are using less fossil fuel produced energy.
For us, the primary motivation was about the emissions the car produces from daily operation. None vs lots.
And the bonus is it is super fun to drive, low maintenance, and very convenient. I don’t miss going to gas stations or having to get the oil changed!
Love the fun driving it, the convenience and never having to go to a gas station.
I had been part of our electric company’s plan where we got 400 kw for free,but when covid hit and we were home during the day, that deal, which charged more for the peak time, wasn’t worth it. So now I have been invited by the electric company to be part of a pilot program (I think there were about 50-75 of us invited) to get a $20 credit for listening to the zoom (did that already) then a $25 incentive for joining it, and then $7.50/mo for letting them access our car to see that we are not charging during peak times (the differ in the winter and summer but I have my car set to charge just after midnight) so this is a nice little plus for me.
100% this! That’s our motivation too. Neither saving money nor resources is quite right.
I don’t particularly want to “save” gas. I just want to divest my life from the petroleum industry entirely. I don’t think that can really be done — because plastic — but an EV is a step in the right direction.
Going into our third day - 72 hour - power outage. Took the Tesla to the local charger which is up. And we are lucky that it is not classified as a ‘high usage’ charger which means it allows me to charge to 100% (and not only to 80%). That charger is close to home and near a good coffee shop. BUT, since it’s cold AND the charger is close by - the battery doesn’t have time to condition and come up to optimal charging temp. So it was like 20 minutes to add less than 100 miles.
Still love the car - but at this stage would absolutely not ever be dependent on this type of vehicle as a sole source of transportation.
Also, thankful we have propane … another thing CA is targeting…at least it lets us run a generator.
If you use the navigation on a Tesla to navigate to a Supercharger, it will precondition (heat) the battery for faster charging. Obviously, this can consume more energy on the drive. Also obviously, if the drive to the Supercharger is short, the resulting increase in charging speed may be less.
Yikes, sorry about the power outage. Do you regularly charge at home? I try to keep my car charged up as much as possible, but obviously sometimes when you just get in from a long trip you will be low. I bet the gas stations are struggling too.
Yes. I am well aware of that feature. As I stated since I live about 2 miles from the Super Charger that is not enough time to precondition.
Anyway… the honeymoon is over. Apparently when EV owners are out of power for 3-5 days…the local ‘low use’ charger stating comes a ‘high use’ station and now limits me to an 80% charge.
Oh…and the Ford trucks are now at the Tesla station…and a Mercedes was there (parked across two chargers) with a tech running diagnostics on the new Mercedes adapter to the Tesla chargers…Get off my lawn people!
Again, fun car…but a bit of a PITA>
Meanwhile the ICE Toyota Highlander and the F350 are simple to keep fully charged. HA
The F-150 Lightning drivers in your area are probably using their trucks as home backup batteries – and getting some more electricity for home use during an extended outage just means driving to a charger, charging up the truck, and bringing the electricity home.
Your Tesla wasn’t charged up when the power went out?
So you needed to go charge it because? I would assume bc you needed to drive? Why not charge closer to your destination or on the way home, so the battery would be preconditioned? Why would you need to charge above 80%?
For that matter, if your ice cars are so great why are you relying on your EV at all during a power loss?
I’m baffled because we were without power recently and our EVs were great, both for providing power and for transportation.
Maybe look into a backup battery and get Tesla to work on V2H so you could bring power home.
A 15 minute round trip drive (so not enough to condition the battery) plus 20 minutes to gain a 100 mile range (which is really more like 75 when you consider the hills and cold) makes it inconvenient. That’s 35 minutes vs about 15 to do the same at the closes gas station. With much greater range at the end of those 15 mins) And the cost savings are negligible (at .35/Kwh) at best. I am able to determine what is an inconvenience to me and what isn’t … others of course can make those judgements for themselves.
When the power went out the Tesla was at about 80%. Then we drove it and parked it at about 60%. Given our history, when storms and power outages are predicted or hit we like to keep the cars fully ‘charged’. Up until now that has meant gas or diesel. So…went to go charge to 100% (with cold battery). Had coffee…brought the car back home at 100%. Drove it today. Back to about 70%… back to the charger in hopes to bring it up to 100%. But now I can’t … limited to 80%
We have had to evacuated due to fires. We have been without power up to 5 days at a time. DH - before my life with him - had to evacuate due to flooding and landslides. It’s life in the mountains - 30 minutes from San Jose HA!
We have an old tractor and thus a 100 gal of diesel tank. The F350 runs on diesel so in a pinch we are covered. Guess that is our version of a ‘battery backup’. :). Guess we could add a flatbed to the stable and tow the Tesla with the F350…ya never know.
Oh gosh, life in the Santa Cruz mountains! My kids lived there for 2 years and during the first year, they were without power for a total of 2 months! I would not have recommended an electric car for them. But I am wondering if maybe you need to think about it a little differently with an electric car. Maybe you don’t need to have it at 100% all the time. Maybe you just need to have enough to get off the mountain to a different charger. Idk. It sounds like you have lots of backups so maybe your Tesla is not your emergency car.
I assume you’re familiar with the charging curve? I don’t know Tesla specifically but it wouldn’t surprise me if you spend as much time charging from 80 to 100 as from 10 to 80 when DC charging.
I think what I’d do in your situation is charge to 80 and then top off to 80 when out driving, preferably later in the commute so preconditioning isn’t an issue (although the nav setting issue ucbalumnus mentioned is important too).
There’s a comfort factor when driving down to 20% or so but that’s really just a matter of getting used to it. Sounds like you’re in an area with ample charging.
If you know the area…you know that mountain road… getting off is sometimes not possible. No, it’s not the emergency car. It’s the fun mid life crisis car
It gets charged to 80% on a normal basis - which is probably 59 out of 60 day. It gets charged to 100% if there’s a longer trip and if we are in the situation I’ve described.
Of course, if you are going down the mountain, your EV may reach the bottom at a higher state of charge than when you started. But going back up will take more charge than driving the same distance on a flat road.
