Why don't you own an electric car?

[Daox]

Quite true, I also didn't account for 70 or 80% DOD in my initial calculations either.

[gasstingy]

I checked "don't have the range I need," but I expect that to change soon. The combination of reasons I have are (1) range, I estimate a 100 mile advertised range would equal 40 miles in the winter on rolling terrain and (2) cost, I estimate that it would cost me close to $25,000 to build an EV to meet my criteria, excluding the donor.

Lucky for me, Myers Motors says they will be selling the two seat Duo soon. I KNOW they build electric vehicles that mere mortals can buy, because I took a tour of their factory in April 2007. The LA NmG just did not have the range I needed or air conditioner I wanted. The Duo will and does, my wife says I can buy one, and the last real hurdle is in the works. I have contacted the Alabama Department of Motor Vehicles and asked if I will be able to title such a vehicle here. If it passes that test, I plan to preorder a new MM Duo. :-)

[vinny1989]

Cant afford it. Student living = no spare money.

[almightybmw]

Winter tires, summer tires, battery heaters, trickle charger, plow-like bumper, 2+2 seats (not true backseat but will pull in a pinch), 10cu.ft cargo (can be the "backseat"), 4" of suspension travel (yes the roads are that bad and you can't avoid the bad), 50 mile range at worst, ie 4 people, 70mph on the highway, at -20*F.

That's about the minimum I'd support. I'm not being picky, these are the things I deal with on a weekly basis, and the needs to meet them. If I could have that for under $5000, it might be worth it. But $5000 takes a long time to repay in fuel savings, especially when I drive 500 miles a month, and it's $45/300 miles of city driving. I can't ditch my truck, for obvious reasons (heavy hauling and offroad expeditions), I can't ditch my car, on highways its ~$45/500 miles to drive. An EV will beat that, but not in the same timeframe.

At best, ignoring the times I go play in the snow and assume those 500 miles are all in the city/metro area, that's saving me $900 of in-town fuel costs a year. But I have to pay for electricity at home, and there is nowhere to plug in at school or at work in the summer months. So I can assume 80% of the charging costs go to me. After all surcharges and such it's about $0.15/KWh here.

I haven't really been paying attention to Wh usage with EV cars, so if someone has a rough idea of what a 50 mile range EV (worst case) and the time it would take to charge from "dead" to full, I'd appreciate it. I really don't know how much Ah's would be needed to meet that goal.

I'd love to have an EV, but my location just isn't that conducive to them. There is no highway I won't meet a commercial truck on that would "allow" me to drive 60mph. I would be a nuisance. Blame my state for having 65mph (commercial) truck limits and 75mph passenger limits.

Plus I'd have to trailer one out here from a larger metro area, as there are none near me. So add in 15mpg costs for me towing it with my truck for whatever distance.

Why don't I own an EV.....There is no love for them here.

[luvit]

Originally Posted by Ryland

I bought my Citi-car for $160...

that's so epic. i had a chance to buy one. it sat in the car lot for over a year. i already had a house project and my wife would never let me have a car project at the same time.. it sold this summer. i bet it was cheap.

[gone-ot]

...looks like the "major" obsticles are (a) range and (b) co$t.

...and, having to pony-up an "additional" $8K for 'additional' batteries is NOT cost-effective in my household!

[order99]

I'm too @#*&^%$@ poor. I went $22,000 in debt to achieve my A+/Network+ from New Horizons (who promptly forgot their end of the bargain to place me in a high-paying entry-level IT job and let me finish my MSCE and Cisco while working) was out of work for nearly a year (thanks to said certificates i'm considered OVERqualified for the jobs I used to easily get) and recently started a just-above-minimum-wage job at a call center. My '93 Festiva was purchased in 2001 and has never had a decent paint job.

I'm seriously considering selling my house, paying off my debt (and the Taxman) and building one out of the remainder and my own elbow grease. Anybody want to live in Kenly NC ?

Seriously.

Also, range as well. That lovely new job is an hour's drive from home, through 65 MPH+ traffic. I'm looking for longer but slower commutes to my location but no luck yet...

But...i'm STILL getting an EV.

I've got two bicycle frames (one from Goodwill [$5] and one from garbage pickup) a massively overbuilt radiator motor from a junked '85 Volvo ($10), 2 12V 12Ahr SLA batts from a scooter store ($40 thanks to a 'we just got LITHIUM!!' sale) and a 12-40V 30A motor controller off Ebay ($16 including S+H). Pity there's nowhere to fire up the stick welder-my workshop is a converted tobacco barn made of 65 year-old pine (AAAHHH!! SPARKS!!) so i'll wait until spring to set fire to myself and melt through the tubing, outdoors.

Unless...anybody here think that deep-fishmouthing the tubing for extra overlap, chem-weld on the inside, steel rivets outside and a final layer of fiberglass tape and epoxy would do the trick? I don't have oxy-acetylene for brazing, welding is supposed to chemically weaken chrome-moly (or so it's rumored) and I could pop-rivet and mix epoxy anywhere....

I'll be back-I need to think a bit.

[roflwaffle]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...looks like the "major" obsticles are (a) range and (b) co$t.

...and, having to pony-up an "additional" $8K for 'additional' batteries is NOT cost-effective in my household!

Neither is the "additional" $8+k for "additional" gasoline, but it's a lot easier to tolerate in small/periodic payments.

[Thymeclock]

I checked the "range" box, because there was no box for "other". IMHO, the whole poll is misleading, because we might have other reasons that go unrecognized.

A) I detest battery operated devices of any sort. Every time I go to use one the batteries either need recharging or replacement.

B) I pay the highest electric rates in the nation. Running on batteries (essentially powered from the electric grid) merely shifts the cost from the gas pump to the utility bill. If anything, that would be a disadvantage (not to mention eventually needing to replace the batteries, which are not cheap, either).

During the gas crisis of the Seventies I heard of a car that was run on chicken manure. I'd put more faith in that than in a car that runs on batteries.

[Ryland]

Originally Posted by luvit

that's so epic. i had a chance to buy one. it sat in the car lot for over a year. i already had a house project and my wife would never let me have a car project at the same time.. it sold this summer. i bet it was cheap.

That is maybe why I can afford to have two electric cars, I'm not married and I don't have any kids, but I also only work part time and half my income is taken up by being a home owner and having house projects to work on as well.

As for range the current range of the Myers Motors NMG is 70 miles on lithium, their Duo that comes out this summer is going to have a 100 mile pack as an option if I remember correctly, I've driven the NMG and would buy one.

The thing is is that there are electric cars out there, both home built and factory built, some that need work some are ready to drive and alot of them don't cost that much more then the other vehicles that are on the road it's just a matter of finding them and handing money to the person who currently owns them, finding them isn't even that hard, I got one of mine by talking to people that I knew and my other one by placing an ad on craigs list, the ad on craigs list resulted in me learning about 5 EV's within an hours drive of my house and I'm in Wisconsin, not exactly the mecca of electric vehicles, so when people say "gee I wish I could get a $160 EV like you did" I have to ask them... Have you looked?