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Old 03-13-2023, 06:48 PM   #32 (permalink)
Isaac Zachary
High Altitude Hybrid
 
Join Date: Dec 2020
Location: Gunnison, CO
Posts: 1,998

Avalon - '13 Toyota Avalon HV
90 day: 40.45 mpg (US)

Prius - '06 Toyota Prius
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As someone who bought and drove a 24kWh Nissan Leaf and had a "church lady" copy me and bought one herself, I would not recommend one of those to anyone except the toughest ecomodders, although 4 miles a week might be the ticket for someone who wants a cheap car that needs no oil changes, etc.

As someone who has owned two Toyota hybrids, I don't think battery technology is always that bad. I don't think expecting at least 10 years out of a battery is unreasonable (assuming it degrades to 70% in that time). And depending on how far the car needs to be driven, an EV battery may last double or triple that. One car I really am interested in (just for the battery, I hate most everything else about the car) is the newer standard range Tesla Model 3. These come with LiFePO4 batteries that supposedly have even greater longevity than standard lithium ion batteries. And they also are non-flammable and charge more quickly than standard L-ion's.

But going back to the ICE, I've seen lots of people that don't have much of a clue of how a car works that have destroyed many engines. They never change the oil, never notice they had a coolant leak, never notice the dash lights and gauges, and they idle the heck out of the engine a lot of times in gear. A lot of these "church ladies" and such will go through cars every few years just because they have no idea of how to take care of one. At least an EV is a bit more idiot-proof as there is much less maintenance needed, except things that are more obvious like bad winshield wipers and tires.

In fact today I was outside and a young neighbor lady came up to me and my wife with some car questions about her new-to-her car. I checked her tires, two were over 50psi, and it was low on coolant. She had no clue about how to check the oil or tire pressure or things like that. I didn't check the oil because the engine was running, so let's hope that's ok. I did show her how to do all of that herself and even gave her a tire pressure gauge. She did ask what to put in the windshield wash fluid reservoir, so I tried to tell her without sounding like a smart aleck.
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