[Editor's Note: The pictured cars are privately owned, not the very ones we drove.]
Can EVs ignite passion? Yes.
At the Knoxville Drive Electric Festival, we met a healthy, enthusiastic group of EV owners.
Sure, they bragged about bypassing gas stations, receiving tax credits, saving the environment and using energy made here in the U.S. However, they also touted how …
We loved our i3, plated DI3TER.
It was such a happy little driving around in town kind of of car.
My sister bought a Kia Soul EV and it's the first time in her life I have ever heard her be effusive about a vehicle. She loves the size, the H-point , and the acceleration. I have yet to drive any electric vehicle, but my wife wants one for her next car.
If the timing (and infrastructure) was better, I'd definitely be buying an EV for my next car–so the car after next.
My manager recently bought a Kia Ioniq 6 limited edition. And this past weekend took it on a 500+ mile roadtrip to see family. He loves it. The comfort, quiet, acceleration. He didn't the find the charging to be a PITA. He said they left their house with 100% battery, so to go there and back only stopped 3 times to charge, and all 3 stops combined were less than 45 minutes.
He even sent me a picture last week when their power was out after a fire at substation, he used an adapter to plug in to the car to make his iced tea!
Karacticus said:We loved our i3, plated DI3TER.
It was such a happy little driving around in town kind of of car.
ZIPPI3 lives in my neighborhood. Makes me happy (happi3?) every time I see it.
I like the fact that people buy them because they are a good fit for them.................rather than the "it's magically saving the planet".
A friend bought one and it's a great fit for them.
When they make a lightweight one I'll be hard pressed to ignore it.
I maintain that my Honda Clarity is the perfect car for me. I will drive that thing until there's no more drive left in it, and I'll love every minute of it.
Colin Wood said:If the timing (and infrastructure) was better, I'd definitely be buying an EV for my next car–so the car after next.
Be creative, live a fun life and don't be a shiny happy person.
I thought long and hard about buying another ICE vehicle before I got my Toyobaru in 2021, a major point against getting an EV as a dual-duty street & track car was the fact that few tracks had chargers. And now a lot of race series and even tracks are banning EVs because they don't have the firefighting equipment to handle them. To me those are the biggest infrastructure issues in having an EV as anything more than a daily driver.
In reply to GameboyRMH :
Good points. Yes, infrastructure still has yet to catch up on several levels. This is the case with many emerging technologies. I'm curious to see where we will be even five years from now.
GameboyRMH said:Colin Wood said:If the timing (and infrastructure) was better, I'd definitely be buying an EV for my next car–so the car after next.
Be creative, live a fun life and don't be a shiny happy person.
I thought long and hard about buying another ICE vehicle before I got my Toyobaru in 2021, a major point against getting an EV as a dual-duty street & track car was the fact that few tracks had chargers. And now a lot of race series and even tracks are banning EVs because they don't have the firefighting equipment to handle them. To me those are the biggest infrastructure issues in having an EV as anything more than a daily driver.
My current goal, which I don't know if it's going to be feasible is to pay off the BRZ ASAP, then buy a new Mustang GT while they still are just V8s, heavy, but V8. Would it be excessive? Absolutely.
I wouldn't mind a new Tesla Roadster (even though it is a convertible not a roadster). Heck, I would have liked to own one of the original sports cars, the original Roadster based on a Lotus chassis, except that they have bounced up to over $100K!
I don't care what powers it. If its a Porsche, I want one. I also drool over the original Tesla Roadster that sometimes parks next to me in my parking garage.
I have a Mach E GT and am surprised you thought the Premium to be slow. It's still a sub 5 second 0-60. The GT acceleration is a little like jumping into hyperspace.
The Mach E is definitely the most fun daily driver I have ever owned. In two years the thrill of instant torque acceleration still hasn't worn off. To be honest, as daily drivers, EVs are simply better cars than ICE vehicles. Are they as fun to drive as my 911sc or 65 Mustang? No. But neither is a new BMW 3 series or Ecoboost Mustang and I find the Mach E to be significantly more fun than either of those. 2 years, 20,000 miles and the only time it has been in the shop was for the 10,000 mile tire rotation. You can't beat that. Plus I think I lost 5 lbs not buying donuts at the gas station on my way to work. Ha ha ha!
In reply to Astamson :
Thank you for sharing your counterpoint! I was really looking forward to trying the Mach-E. After driving the Mercedes-Benz EQE sedan and Tesla Model 3, the Mach-E Premium felt like it lacked umph in the acceleration department. I'm thinking the GT would be better, so thank you for confirming that.
One thing that I'd also like to note is that I was a fan of the pumped-in engine sound for the Mach-E in Unbridled mode. Is it disingenuous? Perhaps. However, it did provide a valuable input that confirmed what you were doing on the accelerator. The Model 3 was whisper quiet, and I found myself going much faster than I should have been.
J.A. Ackley said:In reply to GameboyRMH :
Good points. Yes, infrastructure still has yet to catch up on several levels. This is the case with many emerging technologies. I'm curious to see where we will be even five years from now.
Considering where we were 5 years ago, and 5 years before that, the changes have been dramatic and pretty rapid. When I bought my Volt in 2013, there were only Teslas and Leafs and a couple compliance cars out there, and few charging options other than a smattering of free Level 2 stations and a handful of Supercharger stations for the Teslas. When the Bolt came out in 2016, the only DC Fast charge stations were 50kW units and there were few of them. By the time I got my first Bolt in 2020, Supercharger stations for Teslas were everywhere and DC Fast Charge stations were up to 150kW, and I was able to travel all over the region. By the end of 2021, I could also travel to places like Tennessee with them. Now, on my second Bolt (a 2023 EUV), long distance travel is easy, though the 55kW charge limit that was fast in 2016 is considered painfully slow now... and there are cars that easily use the 350kW chargers and the new Tesla stuff is supposed to hit 400kW.
Luckily for most of us, that's all academic, as we charge at home overnight and could, if we wanted to, have a full charge and full range every day for pennies.
I'm with Astamson about EVs being perfect daily drivers and for that use, better than most ICE even now. Certain segments can't be served by them currently, but that's changing rapidly too.
I was thinking about this last night. When I bought my LEAF in 2017, it took a substantial amount of planning to drive it 100 miles away to the $2000 Challenge in Gainesville. There was one fast charger, a 50kW unit at some random Nissan dealership in the middle of nowhere, and otherwise basically nothing, not even in a real city like Gainesville.
This year, I've done two big roadtrips totaling 5500 miles in EVs, and it's been somewhere between a non-issue and a minor inconvenience. That's a heck of a lot of progress in six years.
Tom Suddard said:I was thinking about this last night. When I bought my LEAF in 2017, it took a substantial amount of planning to drive it 100 miles away to the $2000 Challenge in Gainesville. There was one fast charger, a 50kW unit at some random Nissan dealership in the middle of nowhere, and otherwise basically nothing, not even in a real city like Gainesville.
This year, I've done two big roadtrips totaling 5500 miles in EVs, and it's been somewhere between a non-issue and a minor inconvenience. That's a heck of a lot of progress in six years.
Does this say more about the Leaf being a poor fit for regular commutes longer than 40 miles each way, or the improvement of chargers and much bigger charging networks? Or is it both? Seems like if you were in nearly any other "common" EV, at least today, you'd be able to run that 100 miles roundtrip without a stop.
If you can charge at home and mostly drive in town, they make enormous sense up to a point.
My 2013 Volt was probably the best car I've ever had at being basic transportation. Superior ride, quiet, CHEAP to operate, and the 35-40 mile range was plenty for almost all my driving, and the ICE range extender took car of everything else.
But then it started getting charge and battery faults around 100K miles and I sold it to that place that rhymes with narpana.
And thus the problem with all EVs: Once they rack up some miles and you get battery issues, they're mechanically totalled. They're disposable. It's not economically or ecologically sound to have something that expensive and resource intensive be disposable. For the EV revolution to work, they have to deliver on the promise of being capable of being the last car you ever have to buy.
I could learn to love this one: 
For the EV revolution to work, they have to deliver on the promise of being capable of being the last car you ever have to buy.
Gotta figure out that rust thing. Which nobody has figured out in over 100 years of cars.
On topic, but BIL loves his Bolt. If I could make a payment work we'd have one too.
ascott said:
But then it started getting charge and battery faults around 100K miles and I sold it to that place that rhymes with narpana.
And thus the problem with all EVs: Once they rack up some miles and you get battery issues, they're mechanically totalled. They're disposable. It's not economically or ecologically sound to have something that expensive and resource intensive be disposable. For the EV revolution to work, they have to deliver on the promise of being capable of being the last car you ever have to buy.
Ok, here's the deal. Your Volt (like my 2013 Volt) had a 16kWh battery with a 40 mile range. While, unlike a Leaf, it was liquid cooled/heated and thermally managed, it was a first gen Ev and that battery was small. Even if you use the same charge cycle rating as my Bolt (2000 full charge cycles, which is typical for what modern batteries are capable of and rated at), that's only 80k miles of battery use before the battery is un-usable for automotive use and has to be recycled/used for stationary storage. So if you got 100k miles out of it before seeing battery issues, you did pretty good (though it's still not totalled, as you can get a refurbished battery pack installed for $6k https://www.greentecauto.com/product-category/chevrolet/volt )
Now compare that to my Bolt at 250 miles of rated range. With the same 2000 charge cycles, that equals 500,000 miles of use before the battery can't be used in a car anymore. The batteries in modern long range EVs should outlive the car they are in. And as has been shown by early Teslas and Bolts, 300k miles is already being done with no issues and only minor degradation (like 10%).
A friends 2017 Bolt just before getting his battery recall done (and a new 100k mile warranty!):
I had expected my Tesla to be a utilitarian solution for my sales travel needs at work. It has been stellar at that job as a general statement.
I didn't expect to fall in love with it but absolutely have. Love the ease of use, speed, and handling. Not the same amount of soul as my GTI or the Caddy it replaced but a really fun useful machine.
mtn said:Tom Suddard said:I was thinking about this last night. When I bought my LEAF in 2017, it took a substantial amount of planning to drive it 100 miles away to the $2000 Challenge in Gainesville. There was one fast charger, a 50kW unit at some random Nissan dealership in the middle of nowhere, and otherwise basically nothing, not even in a real city like Gainesville.
This year, I've done two big roadtrips totaling 5500 miles in EVs, and it's been somewhere between a non-issue and a minor inconvenience. That's a heck of a lot of progress in six years.
Does this say more about the Leaf being a poor fit for regular commutes longer than 40 miles each way, or the improvement of chargers and much bigger charging networks? Or is it both? Seems like if you were in nearly any other "common" EV, at least today, you'd be able to run that 100 miles roundtrip without a stop.
Yeah, I'd say both. EVs are way better and chargers are way better.
Like most EV threads, hopefully this one doesn't go crazy, but I think EVs are probably the perfect daily driver for most people. Most people don't care about sound or engagement and actually prefer things to be soft/quiet. It's also convenient, and cheaper to "Fuel" (for now, who knows?) but the thing is the vehicles themselves are too expensive and the infrastructure is only perfect for a certain kind of person (usually someone who owns a home). I'd love an electric car as a 2nd car thats a daily commuter, but daily beaters for me don't ever cost 35k+.
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