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Would you buy an electric car?

Would you buy an electric car?

  • yes

    Votes: 25 48.1%

  • no

    Votes: 8 15.4%

  • depends

    Votes: 19 36.5%
  • Total voters
    52
roguenuke

roguenuke

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I just watched a show about electric cars and why they died.
"Who Killed the Electric Car"

It discussed all the possible reasons that the electric cars didn't last long. One of which said that people didn't want to buy them. Now if they were available at affordable prices, which is very possible, would you buy one? If not, why?
 
roguenuke said:
I just watched a show about electric cars and why they died.
"Who Killed the Electric Car"

It discussed all the possible reasons that the electric cars didn't last long. One of which said that people didn't want to buy them. Now if they were available at affordable prices, which is very possible, would you buy one? If not, why?
Click to expand...

There are several problems with that film. First, it isn't super recent, taken when the EV was out. Next, among the list of who might have killed the car, consumers are only one possible suspect. The culprit is the oil companies, who paid the car companies to not destroy their monopoly.
 
While not cheap, the Tesla has a decent range. Also, the Chevy Volt has a range of 40miles before the gas-powered engine kicks in to recharge that battery, and that is within the average range of daily commutes.
 
When the technology matures a bit, and reliability goes up, price comes down, I would like to buy one.
 
No, I hate the environment too much. Plus I love evil oil companies.
 
Alot of it would depend on other factors and not only the actual car. Some of the things I would want to know are:


What is the enery consumption of the car per mile? Meaning does an electric car actually save energy per mile or might it actually consume more resources only electricity instead of gasoline?

How is my local electricity produced? Much of our electricity in the US is produced by buring oil. So would living in a area with such electricity use less oil?

Energy consumption in the manufacturing of components. One thing thats often overlooked. Take a energy saver light bulb for example. While some may use 66% less electricity it costs twice as much in enery to manufacture so the total savings are not nearly as great as they may seem.
 
i answered NO.

i recently drove from NY all he way to California in my GASOLINE powered car. at one point i was in some kind of a desert in nevada or some rocky mountains or some such nonsense and it occured to me that there may not be any gas stations for a while.

so i peek at the instrument cluster and it says range 90 miles ( about 1/4 tank was left ). then i go to my GPS and it says the next gas station is in about 110 miles. i turn around and drive 20 miles back to the last gas station i passed. a full tank gives me 400 mile range and with this newfound confidence i drive across the desert.

now how you gonna do that in an electric car ? can you drive from one coast to the other in your Tesla ?

NO !
 
repeter said:
There are several problems with that film. First, it isn't super recent, taken when the EV was out. Next, among the list of who might have killed the car, consumers are only one possible suspect. The culprit is the oil companies, who paid the car companies to not destroy their monopoly.
Click to expand...

And you actually believe the oil companies "pay off".
If only that was provable.:spin:
I think this is just more BS to pollute our lives.
The electric powered car for our cities and California is a necessary thing.
But their cost of operation is, last I knew, higher. The numbers are against them.
 
NEUROSPORT said:
i answered NO.

i recently drove from NY all he way to California in my GASOLINE powered car. at one point i was in some kind of a desert in nevada or some rocky mountains or some such nonsense and it occured to me that there may not be any gas stations for a while.

so i peek at the instrument cluster and it says range 90 miles ( about 1/4 tank was left ). then i go to my GPS and it says the next gas station is in about 110 miles. i turn around and drive 20 miles back to the last gas station i passed. a full tank gives me 400 mile range and with this newfound confidence i drive across the desert.

now how you gonna do that in an electric car ? can you drive from one coast to the other in your Tesla ?

NO !
Click to expand...
400 miles is a poor range; my '85 VW Diesel had a 700 miles range. A range of 20 miles is sufficient for many people.
So one should not knock the short range of electric cars.
 
I say it depends. My worries are-

1.Price of the car verses a regular car.

2.The long run price of charging the car up verses the long run cost of filling a gas tank up. This would also include price increase possibility if everyone decided to use electric cars and if it would increase the possibility of rolling blackouts.

3.Potential vehicle repair cost of an electric verses and battery replacement verse the repair cost a gasoline car.

4. The length of one charge verses distance I am able to travel.
 
earthworm said:
400 miles is a poor range; my '85 VW Diesel had a 700 miles range. A range of 20 miles is sufficient for many people.
So one should not knock the short range of electric cars.
Click to expand...

ok but does your VW have 360 horsepower ?

:2wave:

for those people who only need 20 miles there is something know as A BUS.
 
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jamesrage said:
I say it depends. My worries are-

1.Price of the car verses a regular car.

2.The long run price of charging the car up verses the long run cost of filling a gas tank up. This would also include price increase possibility if everyone decided to use electric cars and if it would increase the possibility of rolling blackouts.

3.Potential vehicle repair cost of an electric verses and battery replacement verse the repair cost a gasoline car.

4. The length of one charge verses distance I am able to travel.
Click to expand...

you forgot getting $10,000 worth of new lithium batteries every 3 years as they die out.
 
i would buy a well executed hybrid.

there are already some good hybrid cars out:

Lexus LS 600 h, Lexus GS 450 h and the new BMW 7 Active Hybrid

the BMW goes 0-60 under 5 seconds i believe and this is an enormously large car mind you.

i would take a hybrid that goes 0-60 in 3 seconds and has a 1,000 mile range. they're coming ...
 
If they came down to an affordable price, were truly efficient in terms of energy usage, and had decent mileage before needing recharged, sure. At some point we're really going to need to cut down on ou oil consumption, and this seems like a pretty good way to do it.
 
I probably will since that would be the default in a few dozen years.
 
Let gasoline prices rise to $4.00 + per gallon again & I think you'll see interest surge again. I'd buy an electric car if price were low & reliability was good
For GM to think people are going to buy a $40,000.00 Chevy with new technology just shows you why GM is bankrupt!:lol:
 
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Devil505 said:
Let gasoline prices rise to $4.00 + per gallon again & I think you'll see interest surge again. I'd buy an electric car if price were low & reliability was good
For GM to think people are going to buy a $40,000.00 Chevy with new technology just shows you why GM is bankrupt!:lol:
Click to expand...
Why are waiting till gas if $4/gal? Why not now if you're real greenie? And if you're not a greenie why buy one?
 
American said:
Why are waiting till gas if $4/gal? Why not now if you're real greenie? And if you're not a greenie why buy one?
Click to expand...

I would think die hard greenies would just off themselves seeing how in their mind humans are the problem or at least sterilize themselves.
 
American said:
Why are waiting till gas if $4/gal? Why not now if you're real greenie? And if you're not a greenie why buy one?
Click to expand...

I'm not a greenie & the incentive for almost anyone to buy one is to save money & keep U.S. money away from our enemies in the ME.
(Is it not possible to avoid personal attacks in any thread??)
 
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Probably not. They tend to be expensive and their limited performance would be unlikely to suit my needs.

If I were sufficiently prosperous that owning an expensive "short-trip town-only car" in addition to a good truck or SUV for long trips and hauling things was not a financial strain, I might think about it. As is, no.
 
I can't see myself buying an electric car for quite a while. A 40 mile range does not meet my requirements and I would imagine the 40 mile range would be on a perfectly flat roads and and nice warm summer day? Where I live in the winter I'd say it would be lucky to have a 20 mile range.
 
jamesrage said:
I would think die hard greenies would just off themselves seeing how in their mind humans are the problem or at least sterilize themselves.
Click to expand...

Pure hyperbole. There's a million and one things we as people can do to minimise the damage being caused to the planet. Things as simply as buying energy efficient products ad watching our consumption of resources carefully. If you don't care about the world you're leaing behind for your decendents, okay, but don't malign those who'd actually like things to get better.
 
If I could fit all my children in it and it was affordable, I would look into it.
 
I would, if it operated equivalently to a gas-powered car. If I had to drive a tiny one-seat ugly thing that got 100 miles on a charge and had to be charged for 8 hours a night, then no, I wouldn't. If it got 400-500 miles on a charge, could be quickly recharged or have the battery swapped out and was just as large as any other modern car, plus didn't cost any more, I'd do it. Why not?
 
If I could get something that was affordable, reliable, with reasonable maintence costs and a range of say at least 100 miles, I could see picking one up as a second vehicle for our household and use it as a commuter/errand vehicle and reserve the conventional gasoline car for long trips and secondary use. To my knowledge, electric cars have not yet reached those standards, so for right now, no.
 
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