why don’t you drive an EV?

After a great deal of sturm und drang (we hadn’t had a car for over a decade prior), my family leased a Bolt EV in late 2018. With the exception of having massive transmission / transaxle issues about a year in (all taken care of under warranty) it’s been great. Well, we also have to make sure to get the right street parking spot in order to charge it at home, but that’s only been a problem once.

Who else drives electric? If not, why not, or how soon do you anticipate you will be able to switch?

at the time of our last car purchase (v much due to situation out of my control) we couldn't afford an EV and there weren't chargers in my building. Now it's two years later, EVs are cheaper, and there are chargers, but I'm stuck w the car we got >:(

but I will switch at the first opportunity

Last summer I bought a RAV-4 hybrid. It’s the bees knees. I wanted an EV, but I’m a renter with a difficult landlord who wouldn’t let me consider plugging in. Still, I get ~40 mpg, which ain’t nothin.

“ass hat landlord” was not a rationale I had considered before.

The weirdest thing btw is the sloshing sound that the battery pack makes shortly after I plug it in. I assume it has something to do with the thermoregulation of the battery cells. Or perhaps the whole thing is like the mop in fantasia.

I don't own a car, but if I did, I would buy electric. The only thing that would make me think twice is remembering a friend's experience during the California wildfires last year. The Tesla was pretty much useless for getting them out of an evacuation zone due to power outages: they ended up leaving it behind. Vicious cycle, yeah.

i would like an EV or hybrid, but my main use for a car these days (besides a v short commute to work that can also be done by bike but not by public transportation) is stuff like camping/covering long distances in the fifth largest state in america aka not conducive to EV at least until there's a an e-truck with good mileage and ground clearance (aka the rivian, which i cannot afford)

ideally i'd take one of these fellas to work: https://www.urbanarrow.com/en/shorty

and have a not-often used truck for trips outta town

I've got a hybrid Fusion, supposedly gets 42 city/40 highway but the average MPG is more like 35, which is pathetic for a hybrid. though maybe the cold has something to do with that.

will probably be getting a full EV as my next car, whenever that happens

The NHTSA mandates that reversing an EV or hybrid produce a certain amount of noise at certain frequencies to alert pedestrians that there’s an otherwise silent car in motion. For this reason, whenever I back out of my parking spot, some MIDI noisemaker under my hood produces a shriek that sounds like an army of mosquitos.

Supposedly the best thing for EVs in really cold weather is to have them plugged in all the time.

I was stlil under the impression new non-luxury cars are like ~$15k. I am very wrong.

I don't drive an EV because I don't own a car and the car share doesn't do EVs yet. I'm busy building a charging network and trying to covert uber drivers to electric right now.

specific user such as imago

is ~40mpg considered.....good.... in the states

Miles are like twice as long as kilometers. Think of it that way.

here is a picture of the most popular car in america

https://i.imgur.com/vlOVuV7.png

^^ also twice as long as a kilometer.

Coming down a two-lane one-way the other day, one of those trucks tried to get past me, but had to slow down because a Hummer was parked in a space next to his lane. Good times.

da big boys

Gas drops below $1.50 and everyone gets frisky.

lotta litres in a gallon

ballpark 100 liters per

I’m still impressed that they doubled the number of doors on pickup trucks at some point and I barely noticed.

We got a Nissan Leaf last January and we’re very pleased with it. It was a scary step but there has been no downside so far. We still have a minivan for longer trips or hauling stuff.

You know who drives the Tesla on our block? The Pentecostals.

I know, right? Like you didn't think they could be even bigger assholes, but there you go.

our regular car lease is up in 2021 so starting to look around now

got my eye on this https://www.caranddriver.com/kia/soul-ev, successor to https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a26144426/2019-kia-niro-ev-driven/ from which i steal this:

https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/niroev-sidebar-edit-1556807455.png?crop=0.757xw:0.714xh;0.136xw,0.133xh&resize=768:*

also this one i guess but i think we want to the cargo https://arstechnica.com/cars/2020/05/another-competent-korean-car-the-kia-niro-ev-reviewed/

If the Kia EVs were available in the dc area we probably would’ve gotten one of those instead.

Meanwhile Ford has apparently been hard at work building an unlistenable banshee that only runs for 45 minutes on a single charge

https://jalopnik.com/my-brain-cant-process-the-noise-the-seven-motor-ford-mu-1844483324

Yay for crazy R&D though

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2020/07/kia-denies-report-that-the-soul-ev-is-cancelled-for-america/

we have to change cars next november (lease runs out). this was top of my list. looks like it's not going to be an option :(

was really hoping a 3 year lease was going to get us to a world where there were more options for family sized evs.

The good news is it’s not like you can go anywhere

I’ve been driving Hyundai ioniqs around recently. That’s a nice mid-size family car. Enough room in the rear seats and a good sized hatchback boot. Slightly lacklustre DC Fast charging performance is compensated for being a really efficient car. (More km/kWh)

Supposedly the best thing for EVs in really cold weather is to have them plugged in all the time.

(Roy Scheider voice) you're gonna need a longer extension cord

why don’t you drive an EV?

Because we have a rock-solid old Subaru that seems destined to make it to the age of 30, but if it dies eventually, I'm thinking we'll go EV.

BTW we recently learned that the Chevy Bolt is apparently designed such that the box for a 55” flatscreen TV fits PERFECTLY in the back with the seats folded down. Like somebody had to have made a CAD volume with just those measurements and made sure it would fit.

https://www.carboncounter.com/

i'm actually considering getting rid of my car, as i am fully remote now

at least the pandemic has brought on a few good things

loooool https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2021/03/29/vw-volkswagen-name-change-voltswagen-electric-cars-tesla-competiton/7048576002/

*looks at calendar* uh premature 4/1 still seems more likely.

haha apparenty nope

We know, 66 is an unusual age to change your name, but we’ve always been young at heart. Introducing Voltswagen. Similar to Volkswagen, but with a renewed focus on electric driving. Starting with our all-new, all-electric SUV the ID.4 - available today. #Voltswagen #ID4 pic.twitter.com/pKQKlZDCQ7

— Voltswagen (@VW) March 30, 2021

lot of americans taking the opportunity to get priggish about VW's history while the most prominent car company in the US *right now* is run by a space fascist eugenicist.

would definitely drive an EV voltswagen microbus while wearing my patagonia baggies, grateful dead shirt, and merrell hydro mocs, for peak west coast awfulness, but it will cost around my annual salary so unfortunately it will only be a terrible dream

well apparently it *was* an april fools joke but now everyone is talking about their involvement with the National Socialist German Workers' Party so good job i guess?

Is buying a new electric car every few years better for the environment than maintaining an old car? I may have a bias as my car was built in 1973.

making an EV is marginally worse for the environment than making a regular car and much worse than making no car.

https://tnmt.com/infographics/carbon-emissions-by-transport-type/

making and then driving an EV is probably better than a clunker after a few years, but it's going to depend on how much you drive, etc.

I’m not buying a non peer reviewed study with that disclaimer attached.

Try this one that uses the Argonne GREET lifecycle emissions model.

https://cgscholar.com/bookstore/works/the-climate-change-mitigation-potential-of-electric-vehicles-as-a-function-of-renewable-energy

No car is definitely better but if you have to use a car it’s considerable better to use an EV

the disclaimer is pretty clear that it's back of the envelope, and nothing more than back of the envelope can be said in response to a vague question about whether to replace an existing ICE car.

but fwiw the abstract of that paper says:

"The lifecycle EV carbon emissions for a vehicle powered by the 2016 US grid is 30.82 metric tons... An average internal combustion engine vehicle (25.4 miles per gallon) is responsible for 68.38 metric tons of carbon dioxide over its lifetime"

which is almost exactly consistent with the back of the envelope calculation which says an ICE car produces about twice as much CO2 as an EV if you amortize manufacturing costs. and it's a whizzy infographic that doesn't cost $5 too.

Is buying a new electric car every few years better for the environment than maintaining an old car? I may have a bias as my car was built in 1973.

― Peter Greenaway's Fleetwood Mac (S-), Tuesday, March 30, 2021 8:44 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

old cars - basically anything pre-90s iirc - are significantly worse for the environment in terms of emissions than regular ICE cars

No doubt. I barely ever drive anyway so I guess it's a moot point.

Actually I'm not even sure why I felt the need to reply to this thread, but hey, ILX right?

otm

I think self-driving cars have the potential to make roads safer, but this halfway point of assistive technologies, and (increasingly) roads that mix self-driving cars and human drivers with completely different styles, is pretty dangerous.

assistive tech in particular, because it easy for humans to loss focus and/or get confused about their role

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-024-02024-1

"we found that, on average among recent experiments, human–AI systems did not exhibit synergy: the human–AI groups performed worse than either the human alone or the AI alone."

i’m in china again and hearing that the hot new ev company is definitely xiaomi

but even more hotter than evs are… robots

not trying to be a prude but i dont think ppl should be trying to have sex with either

swap da battery bb https://insideevs.com/news/754041/catl-nio-chocolate-battery-firefly/

seems like a good system for making cars with smaller batteries more workable

It’s not though, small batteries are already workable for most people most of the time.

The concept here is you can save time on a long trip or maybe swap a small battery for a larger one when you go out of town.

I’ve been in a NIO and the battery swap stuff really compromises the space in the cabin. It pushes everything and everyone up towards the roof.

Plus you have a load more weight because the battery can’t be structural and has to be in its own structure.

This is just a way of making cars bigger and stupider which has been the mission of the auto industry since forever.

It’s not though, small batteries are already workable for most people most of the time.

The concept here is you can save time on a long trip or maybe swap a small battery for a larger one when you go out of town.

I’ve been in a NIO and the battery swap stuff really compromises the space in the cabin. It pushes everything and everyone up towards the roof.

Plus you have a load more weight because the battery can’t be structural and has to be in its own structure.

This is just a way of making cars bigger and stupider which has been the mission of the auto industry since forever.

NIO’s also come with an emotive smiley faced AI assistant in the middle of the dashboard to distract you from not driving into the back of truck in front.

It’s not though, small batteries are already workable for most people most of the time.

The concept here is you can save time on a long trip or maybe swap a small battery for a larger one when you go out of town.

― Ed, Wednesday, March 19, 2025 3:45 PM (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

...

Obv Bezos can go fuck himself, but the Slate truck (basically an EV version of a 90s Ford Ranger) looks really nice and is basically all I want in an EV truck
https://www.motortrend.com/news/2027-slate-truck-electric-first-look-review

cool idea def, i do think it should come with a sound system tho

Looks like you can spec your own sound system.

saw a lucid the other day, didnt look like too much tbh, but i did see it

pretty blah design but easy to spot based on the light strip on the front

Xpeng P7 looks super cool
https://electrek.co/2025/05/15/xpeng-teased-next-generation-p7-sedan-video/

I’m being paid incredibly small amounts of money to write about EVs

https://thedriven.io/author/ed-lynch-bell/

Ed this is great! I love how brisk and opinionated (and informed by data) these are

someone made the compact ev pickup but it costs $40k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYe-QNRkdz8

doug keeps calling affordable, at this price point etc which i mean that would make sense

I finally saw one of those Volkswagen ID.Buzz vans in the flesh. It's surprisingly striking and beautiful, I like it in photos but I don't think they do it justice.

Of course, its price point combined with its specs probably make it a pretty niche vehicle - hardly the people's wagon of old. I guess the target would be affluent liberal families with at least 2 kids and maybe a dog and a penchant for road trips/the outdoors?

I saw one of those in the wild for the first time a couple of weeks ago, too, and it is striking, but as I understand, not a particularly good car. You know what I saw last week in the Boston area? A Vietnamese brand EV! What's up with that?

In the uk. Seeing a lot of BYDs. They look like Teslas.

Getting a new one this weekend. Either the Volvo EX30 or the Chevy Equinox. Sad to see our Bolt go :(

The awd version of the Equinox is supposed to be surprisingly good. It'll have more carrying space than the EX30

Yeah but the Equinox has a bigger butt and we only have street parking in our neighborhood

Yeah, the EX30 is going to be superior w.r.t.

A quirk of the EX30 is that despite being based on Android Automotive it doesn’t support Android Auto

presuming it would work if connected via cable+bluetooth tho?

Nope. CarPlay is supported for iPhones but not Android Auto. Supposedly they were going to add support at some point but as far as I know it hasn't happened.

the terminology is confusing... "Android Automotive" is the built-in operating system, and in Volvo's case it's also called "Google Built In" because it has Play, Assistant, Maps etc.

by contrast "Android Auto" is the Android phone mirroring feature which puts compatible apps from your phone onto the car's display when you connect via cable or Bluetooth. it's the Android equivalent of CarPlay. It's been standard on most new cars for years and weirdly the EX30 doesn't support it

We got the EX30. The Equinox was way too big in basically every dimension.

TKTK as we spend a little more time with it and the interface but the interior mood lighting stuff is kinda funny

The google maps implementation on the Volvo and polestar android automotive system is hands down the best EV navigation system I’ve tried. It is rock solid when it comes to predicting your SoC at stops or destination.

SoC in this context stands for?

I'm guessing State Of Charge

yes

I'm very keen to own an EX30 one day, particularly if I move somewhere my home's electrical system can handle installing a charger, but that's probably not soon. Keep us updated on how it's doing for you, trm

18 months in with the PHEV and the battery range has increased, which is nice

Tesla had its seventh straight monthly decline in European sales in July, dropping 40% to 8,837.

Chinese rival BYD surged past Tesla with 225% sales increase, to 13,503.

My mum test drove a BYD last week and really wanted to buy one. She's gone for a cheaper alternative though.

the Dolphin is pretty cheap! £24k brand new, £18k with a few miles on it

I thought I'd asked on this thread but must've been another - basically she had a Renault Zoe for years but was leasing the battery (which I don't think is a thing any more, but was probably cheaper upfront because of this). No-one seemed to have heard of this practise at the time on here! Also it was one of the lesser-used charger types (sorry I don't know the lingo). Anyway hopefully that'll be the back of that.

My car is over 50 years old.

Other car is almost 30 years old, and a station wagon.

Inspired to look at new wagons thanks to this thread.

This looks okay?

https://zecar.com/reviews/deekr-drops-sharp-7-gt-wagon-under-44000

Wow that does look pretty good!

I thought tha was going to be about Sharp’s new EV that Foxconn are building.

In any case - This is the EV everyone should want.

https://thedriven.io/2025/10/30/byd-unveils-tiny-sea-otter-ev-as-it-tries-to-crack-key-global-market/

And hey, whilst we’re at - want to read about how infuriating Toyota’s digital experience is

https://thedriven.io/2025/10/27/the-ev-that-feels-like-wearing-a-marlboro-branded-nicotine-patch-with-a-lousy-digital-experience/

This looks okay?

https://zecar.com/reviews/deekr-drops-sharp-7-gt-wagon-under-44000

― Bellend Sebastian (S-), Thursday, October 30, 2025 1:46 AM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

interesting design thing with evs is because theres not a huge engine in front you can expand the habitable area which is nice its like getting a bigger car without needing a bigger car, feel like the possibilities for this havent been maxed out lot of evs are just normal car shaped with a big frunk up there, flip side is the car gets taller because theres a big battery underneath, cars were getting taller anyway tho

people like tall cars now bc the primary buyers of new cars now are old people who have bad hips and knees and it's easier to get in and out of a tall car

yeah people like getting a better view for driving too, and with cars getting bigger it can feel unsafe driving a lil dinky car around, its really not that much safer but it does feel that way, big cars are decisively more dangerous for ones fellow humans tho

its bad for safety because when youre in a tall car you need to go faster to feel the same sense of speed as in a small car and people like to feel like theyre going fast, which is one of the main reasons people like cars (they feel fast compared to a bicycle or walking)

it is much faster than walking i can confirm