EVs Are Great Around Town, But.......

[redpoint5]

Yes, that's what I've been saying. People using range as an excuse not to get an EV have a simple solution called borrowing a vehicle. Most households have multiple vehicles anyhow.

I probably know 20 people that would trade me their gasser for my hypothetical EV for a week.

Hoping this year is my year for buying a used EV. Possibly even new if I can get $10k in tax rebates. I'd probably go for the cheapest EV offering, which I think at the moment is the Gen II Leaf.

[roosterk0031]

Looking just yesterday Spark EV's are way cheaper than I thought, found a 2015 42k for under $9,000 327 ft lbs of torque sound more fun than a Leaf.

2016 16,000 miles for $11000. In 2015 they changed the battery and reduced the torque to the 327. 2014 and older 402 I think.

[oil pan 4]

Range and cost was my excuse.
Then when the 2011 leafs lost up to 85% of their MSRP in 7 years cost wasn't a factor. All I had to do was over come range and that was a technical problem. Which I largely fixed by installing 240v charging and getting a 16 amp 240v evse and building my own charging stations. Then I further fixed it by buying a used 20 amp constant current, 10kw max portable chademo.

[redpoint5]

The Spark is overvalued still, and the price hasn't moved in like a year. This is absurd considering the longer range vehicles coming out. Then there's the problem that a replacement battery retails for something crazy like $20k, because they don't make them anymore.

I'd buy one at maybe $6k. Heck, I just bought a 2014 C-Max for $7k for a friend, and it has every bell and whistle.

[oil pan 4]

That's one reason I got the leaf.
You can get a battery for it.
I didn't want to early adopt it and be left hung out to dry.
I did not expect nissan to make their bigger kwh second gen leaf battery to be exactly the same as the first gen leaf battery.
Nissan is becoming the GM of electric vehicles where stuff is backwards compatible for many years.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by RedDevil

So why not hire that for road trips and buy a low range EV for your commutes?

Money? Not to mention that (in the US at least) it's pretty much impossible to rent a car that I'd want to drive :-(

[redpoint5]

James- You might try hanging around more positive people and see if some of that can rub off on you. The world is difficult, but it's less so with properly cultivated social circles.

[Angel And The Wolf]

Here's some ideas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHzecJGf48I&t=21s

And, this one could sit on your bumper hitch when needed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQBJu-kTu0E

[RedDevil]

All I say is buy a car that is adequate for your commute, as opposed to something that can do long road trips and costs twice as much. The savings would allow you to hire a car for the road trip, if your likes for hire cars aren't too extreme and if the hire companies have no special reason to single you out.

[redpoint5]

I've always like the idea of a hitch mounted genset over a trailer. Seems like a reasonable expectation to find an efficient diesel genset that could output something like 12 kW. It wouldn't quite keep up with demand, but if you start with a full battery and supplement with a genset, you'd only slowly lose battery capacity, and would gain it back whenever stopping for a break. The idea would be to size the genset so that it gets you a full day of travel while utilizing most of the capacity of the battery. You'd size it for worst case scenario on a cold winter day, so that in summer months the genset would actually keep up with demand. Perhaps a 15kW genset would be more appropriate.