Interesting Demographics of U.S. EV Ownership

[hmp10]

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/21/us/electric-vehicles-republican-voters-dg/index.html

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

They just make sense, better in most ways, soon to be better in every way.

 

[momo3605]

They just make sense, better in most ways, soon to be better in every way.
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Not sure where you live but states like CA are making EV ownership very expensive and difficult. Charging at home costs as much as gas unless you spent $50k on a solar system, and now CA has made solar systems useless too! I’m tempted to just go back to a Dino oil burning V8 super saloon like an M5 or CT5-V after my lease is up lol.

 

[Amster]

Not sure where you live but states like CA are making EV ownership very expensive and difficult. Charging at home costs as much as gas unless you spent $50k on a solar system, and now CA has made solar systems useless too! I’m tempted to just go back to a Dino oil burning V8 super saloon like an M5 or CT5-V after my lease is up lol.

I'm in CA. I do have solar, so I'm finding it cheaper, and maintenance is less as well. But even if the cost of EV ownership were the same as ICE, there's no way I'm going back to ICE. My last car was a PHEV. After driving that around for a year, I knew my next vehicle would be a pure EV. I was just waiting for the right one.

 

[momo3605]

I'm in CA. I do have solar, so I'm finding it cheaper, and maintenance is less as well. But even if the cost of EV ownership were the same as ICE, there's no way I'm going back to ICE. My last car was a PHEV. After driving that around for a year, I knew my next vehicle would be a pure EV. I was just waiting for the right one.

Lucky for you that you are grandfathered in to NEM 1 or 2. The newly started NEM 3 makes solar completely pointless without an added expense of powerwalls/storage. And even then they are too small to handle EVs.

I've been driving EVs since 2013. I honestly love the responsiveness and performance characteristics over modern turbocharged motors. But yea, i'm still undecided. I will continue to cling to EVs until they stop making financial sense. Sounds like that's pretty much happening now with the introduction of NEM 3

 

[Chrry]

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/21/us/electric-vehicles-republican-voters-dg/index.html

That is super interesting. Never woulda thunk it. It’s good to know that both sides are truly liking EVs and taking the climate crisis serious.
Unlike what is told to us by the media or whoever it is

 

[Chrry]

I'm in CA. I do have solar, so I'm finding it cheaper, and maintenance is less as well. But even if the cost of EV ownership were the same as ICE, there's no way I'm going back to ICE. My last car was a PHEV. After driving that around for a year, I knew my next vehicle would be a pure EV. I was just waiting for the right one.

I don’t know what all of those acronyms mean but TFTI because I do NTK or I’ll be OOTL and super uncool with my son

 

[xponents]

I don’t know what all of those acronyms mean but TFTI because I do NTK or I’ll be OOTL and super uncool with my son

Ill just let you know that despite being a gen z, I have literally no idea what you just said

 

[Lucken]

Proving that people of different political beliefs may have more in common that we think.

I hope that's as political as this thread gets.

 

[CLTGT]

Love my Lucid for what it is, but my replacement will more than likely not be an EV when it comes time. Charging in the southeast just takes more planning than I am willing to do and I would rather not deal with the worry. The cost of gas is no where even close to a consideration as I drive less than 6000 miles a year in a car that costs well in excess of $100k.

If the charging availability changes drastically, that could change, but my wife is already telling me to sell it and ditch the EV experiment.

 

[Lucken]

Love my Lucid for what it is, but my replacement will more than likely not be an EV when it comes time. Charging in the southeast just takes more planning than I am willing to do and I would rather not deal with the worry. The cost of gas is no where even close to a consideration as I drive less than 6000 miles a year in a car that costs well in excess of $100k.

If the charging availability changes drastically, that could change, but my wife is already telling me to sell it and ditch the EV experiment.

Can you not charge at home? Do you take that many long trips where this is an issue? If so I can understand your sentiments.

 

[CLTGT]

Can you not charge at home? Do you take that many long trips where this is an issue? If so I can understand your sentiments.

I do charge at home and this car has been pretty much relegated to that do to the charging infrastructure where I have considered taking the car. I have made several trips to Chapel Hill from Charlotte, but there have been times where a charge was required on the way home. The wife's car can make a couple of those round trips easily before needing gas. I considered taking the car on a trip we did from Charlotte to New Orleans to Seaside, FL and back to Charlotte. My wife wanted to go through Laurel, MS and that is in the middle of a charging desert, not to mention the tire worries in New Orleans and then the uncertainty with charging in Seaside and Lower Alabama. My son lives about an hour south of Nashville and taking the car there was also problematic. so, given the worry and uncertainty I experienced looking into those trips, I have just quit thinking about even attempting that kind of trip. It's just too much trouble and worry.

Heck, on my way back from Chapel Hill this past weekend, I had to actually wait for a spot at the EA charger in Greensboro, NC. On the plus side, every spot worked. The downside was that every spot was taken and I had to wait 15 minutes before a spot opened up. Not enough alternatives to move on to the next one as the next one is in north Charlotte anyway.

I am not saying it is impossible, just not convenient or as easy/worry-free. My wife will not like it the first time we have to wait 15 minutes for a charger to open up so I am glad I was alone on my most recent journey.

I did get a bunch of comments about the car though while I waited, including an obviously inebriated gentleman who loved the car and proceeded to shout about how it was the nicest looking one there charging. He proceeded after about ten minutes using his mode of transportation, his own two feet.

 

[Lucken]

I can't argue with your logic, EVs aren't for everyone at this point in time. There's no question that taking significant trips with an EV, even a Lucid, requires more planning with the potential for more worry. With that said it does work out for most people, some of whom really enjoy the preplanning.

 

[hmp10]

I do charge at home and this car has been pretty much relegated to that do to the charging infrastructure where I have considered taking the car. I have made several trips to Chapel Hill from Charlotte, but there have been times where a charge was required on the way home. The wife's car can make a couple of those round trips easily before needing gas. I considered taking the car on a trip we did from Charlotte to New Orleans to Seaside, FL and back to Charlotte. My wife wanted to go through Laurel, MS and that is in the middle of a charging desert, not to mention the tire worries in New Orleans and then the uncertainty with charging in Seaside and Lower Alabama. My son lives about an hour south of Nashville and taking the car there was also problematic. so, given the worry and uncertainty I experienced looking into those trips, I have just quit thinking about even attempting that kind of trip. It's just too much trouble and worry.

Heck, on my way back from Chapel Hill this past weekend, I had to actually wait for a spot at the EA charger in Greensboro, NC. On the plus side, every spot worked. The downside was that every spot was taken and I had to wait 15 minutes before a spot opened up. Not enough alternatives to move on to the next one as the next one is in north Charlotte anyway.

I am not saying it is impossible, just not convenient or as easy/worry-free. My wife will not like it the first time we have to wait 15 minutes for a charger to open up so I am glad I was alone on my most recent journey.

I did get a bunch of comments about the car though while I waited, including an obviously inebriated gentleman who loved the car and proceeded to shout about how it was the nicest looking one there charging. He proceeded after about ten minutes using his mode of transportation, his own two feet.

Just curious, as you have home charging: in assessing the convenience of EV vs. ICE, do you factor in the time you spend in a year standing at a gas pump filling up an ICE vehicle? Or the time (and money) you spend taking the car in for an oil change?

I've traveled from Florida to Alabama, Atlanta, Asheville, Charleston, and Savannah in our Lucid and will be making a trip in it to Charlotte, Blowing Rock, Chapel Hill, and Durham in April. I know I will spend more time charging than I would spend gassing up and perhaps also encounter some EA frustrations. However, I have spent / will spend considerably less time cumulatively doing this than I spend cumulatively over the same time frame standing by a gas pump with our Honda Odyssey . . . where I also sometimes have to stand in line.

 

[hmp10]

. . . I’m tempted to just go back to a Dino oil burning V8 super saloon like an M5 or CT5-V after my lease is up lol.

After two top-powered Teslas and now a Lucid Air Dream Performance, I just don't think I could stand getting behind the wheel of a clunker again.

 

[WildRide47]

Lucky for you that you are grandfathered in to NEM 1 or 2. The newly started NEM 3 makes solar completely pointless without an added expense of powerwalls/storage. And even then they are too small to handle EVs.

I've been driving EVs since 2013. I honestly love the responsiveness and performance characteristics over modern turbocharged motors. But yea, i'm still undecided. I will continue to cling to EVs until they stop making financial sense. Sounds like that's pretty much happening now with the introduction of NEM 3

For those of us who do not live in California, what does the NEM stand for and what does it say that makes solar charging pointless?

 

[Amster]

I don’t know what all of those acronyms mean but TFTI because I do NTK or I’ll be OOTL and super uncool with my son

I had to look up every one of those acronyms! I guess I'm OOTL.

 

[hydbob]

For those of us who do not live in California, what does the NEM stand for and what does it say that makes solar charging pointless?

Net Energy Metering. The 3.0 version essentially increased the static charge per month with a grid connection fee based off the kwh rating of your solar array. It doesn't make it pointless but recovery of cost went from 6-7 years to 15+ years.

 

[momo3605]

Net Energy Metering. The 3.0 version essentially increased the static charge per month with a grid connection fee based off the kwh rating of your solar array. It doesn't make it pointless but recovery of cost went from 6-7 years to 15+ years.

For those of us who do not live in California, what does the NEM stand for and what does it say that makes solar charging pointless?

Yea like hydbob said, you use to be able to sell back to the grid at 1:1 pricing to what you paid. So if you generate 50kwh a day and sell it back to the grid, and then you use 50kwh during the evenings, your net cost was 0. Now on NEM 3, the utilities have reduced the price that they pay for your solar generated power to 1/5th of what you buy for. So time of recovery went up to 15+ years

Now...you can reduce the time of recovery (i think under 10 years) is if you pair solar with battery backup but you have to essentially operate in an off-the-grid mode. Fill your batteries during the day from solar, and use what's stored over the evening/night. But regardless, it's impossible to do it with an EV since the car batteries are so much larger than the powerwall type batteries. If anything, this is actually why we need V2H the most! A 90-110kwh battery would be game changing compared to the little 10kwh powerwalls that tesla sells for $10k each...

 

[joec]

This article demonstrates perfectly the fact that what citizens want and what state governments prioritize are completely out of whack at times.

Given this finding, there should be robust EV charging infrastructure in every state. Not just the ones who voted for this person or that. I guarantee EV adoption would be a lot higher in states like Wyoming if the state invested in making ownership more viable. Investment in public charging, state tax incentives for leasing, purchase, and home charging installation would get those numbers up across the country. And benefit all of us who like to road trip out of our own states every now and then.