Can EV's be fun?

[freebeard]

With my first car, when I left town and got to the T-intersection with Smithfield Road if it was up to 55 all good. If it was only 50 I'd turn around and put more air in those 2nd hand bias-ply tires.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Almost forgot this:



At the Amity OR Pancake Breakfast in 2017. I should've got a rear view as well.

A solar assisted Fiero.

No grill? That's incredibly futuristic. One day in the future we will see vehicles like that.

Originally Posted by JSH

I don't have to mash the accelerator pedal to the floor to enjoy the instant torque from my EV. It is more about zipping out of a corner on a twisty road than straight line speed. (That straight line speed does come in handy when merging into traffic)

Sayz the motorcyclist.

[freebeard]

One day in the future, you say?

The Truth About Solar Powered Cars

At https://youtu.be/SgQ2T5g3Rn8?t=109 he shows William Cobb's 1955 model. I saw him demonstrate that model on our neighbor's living room floor in 1955! He had a flashlight and when he shone it on the cells the car would move as long as he tracked it.

It was fun just seeing it again.

[Isaac Zachary]

Future project cars according to Donut Media.
2 are EV's.
One is a Tesla.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMcxbXMX8jk

[freebeard]

It doesn't take a lot to have fun.

[Isaac Zachary]

Originally Posted by freebeard

It doesn't take a lot to have fun.

Exactly.

If it takes too much then it isn't really all that fun.

[Isaac Zachary]

I think the thing right now is price and existing performance vs options.

Let's say you have a budget. Maybe $40,000. In 2022, you can by a new EV that's pretty good for that amount. But you probably aren't going to go and rip the motor or battery out and try to modify them. At best you might change the wheels.

But take a new gasoline car that you could add a supercharger to, or headers, or a different muffler at least, or something along those lines.

Or we could go used. Getting an old used Leaf with a worn battery and putting in a much bigger battery would be cool in my opinion. But there aren't a lot of options still and they aren't cheap either, costing more than what the car is probably worth. Installing a 40kWh battery in an old Leaf would be some $10,000 USD. A 62kW battery would be $15,000. By the time you buy the old Leaf and installed the bigger battery, you probably might have just as well as bought a new Leaf.

Or you can get an older car, for a lot cheaper. My Prius was $500. I've tossed around the idea of installing a turbo in it, which has been done before, and I can garantee it won't cost near as much as an EV battery. Or a different muffler, which would be even cheaper. I've wondered if I could install an electric supercharger that uses the high voltage of the HV battery since installing a turbo in a Prius tends to keep the HV battery charged up. A bigger hybrid battery would cost in the couple thousand dollar range, not tens of thousands. There are also lots of suspention options for a Prius.

And even if I had a different car, let's say a Miata, I could also get a lot of options that are much cheaper than the few available for an EV.