New Poll: Americans Shun Electrics

Umm...doesn't making gas out of coal still make it coal or gas? :mod:

 

ok, thought this thread was a joke...guess not. was USA Today bought out by Fox News?

 

They go to Idaho (don't ask me how I know that).

I really don't get people with an aversion to burying Uranium. I mean it was down there before we dug it up in the first place, whats wrong with putting it back when we're done?

 

I think most Americans drive by their pocketbooks. As long as they can pay the piper they do. When costs get "too" high they will drift to hybrids and EVs if they can find and afford them. At current prices and availability the EVs are not an option for most of us and trading at big financial losses is not practical for our pocketbooks.

Neither Sonata hybrids nor "Leaves" have appeared in my community.

Atomic power plants have always been a great option to oil BUT do not bury those rods in my backyard or near a fault within 100 hundred miles of me

I hope more can be done with our US plentiful natural gas until better options exist.

Until then "love a Prius" :cheer2:

 

credit card debt has been reduced over the past few years (first time in credit card era) which makes me think that at least 43% of Americans are getting smarter

 

...or they don't have jobs

 

I agree and we even use it up so its better for you.

But by that same token there is no such thing as an oil spill, you are just uncovering the oil spill because its already spilled under the earth.

 

In this case makes sense if the electricity is cheap, but you still have the cost of the car which is 10000$ more than a regular Prius, and you need to drive 150000 Miles to get even with the Prius,( use my GAS Calculator to compare 2 cars - below link ) and still cannot go far with this car.
After the plug-in Prius comes out next year no electric car will make sense, unless you can go 400 miles on a charge.

 

Not really true either. With a 100mi range Leaf I could drive to and from work for 4 days without charging (though I probably would charge near "half a tank") so I would go the entire week without using a drop of gasoline.

In a plug in Prius I can go to work but not back without gas so throughout the week I would charge every night + use a half a gallon of gas.

Oh and I do want to add that I am not a believer in this "break even" theory on cars. If you need a car you need a car and you will have a car regardless. If this was not true than the Yugo would be the top seller since 1985.

 

say what??

i have to say you ummm...need another calculator. i also contend that my Leaf was the same as getting any other $24,000 (oooh wait, lets make it $25,000) car.

i got mine for $34,5 something. take off the $7500 fed rebate, now it $27K. remove WA State sales tax (waived for EVs) which is essentially another $3,000 so there u have it...$25,000!! (i got a discount which i think you will find VERY difficult to get now)

now, we can examine estimated maintenance costs for a regular car verses the Leaf, but that would be a bit unfair. so lets talk gas!!

against my Prius (which most people do not have) the savings is currently better than 5 cents per mile and that does not account for the fact that the Prius's short MPG killing trips have been reduced by over 90% so i am equating that to about $700 a year in savings and that is a low ball figure (i pay 10.2 cents per KWH)

**edit** PLUS!!...i am charging at 120 volts only until i move in a few weeks. will be using 240 when that happens

significance? 120 volt charging is only 75% efficient because of overhead for cooling system. 240 Volt charging is ~85% efficient. that will add another $70 (to the already low ball figure) to annual savings from gas

 

I always understood that the FED does not give you back $7000, you only do no pay taxes on $7000, which is few hundreds. So you can say that you paid $30000 at the end of the year. Let me know if my calculations are right.

 

it is a fed tax credit not a deduction from your taxable liability.

i leased my Leaf. the $7500 was applied as part of my downpayment.

when we talk about affordability we cannot underestimate the cost of burning gas from foreign oil...but that is besides the point.

i put down $10,000 in cash on top of the fed crdt so on paperwork its listed as a $17,500 downpayment. my payments are $162.02 a month for 3 years with a residual of like $14,700 or so.

i would like anyone here who has recently leased or purchased a new car to post their figures here so we can compare.

anyone?

 

I leased a Fiesta in March. I don't have the paperwork in front of me for residual but I put $700 down and pay $210 a month on a $16.6k car.

 

You're right of course. We really should wait until every last oil well's production has peaked, and THEN start to worry about running the economy. Great plan. After all . . . look how well it worked for THIS civilization:



Good luck with that.


.

 

ya, i presented the thought of getting a used car back when my SO's car failed and that was nixed immediately. they i offered to get her a Fiesta as well (used but had less than 10,000 miles on it) which i could have scored a good deal from my sister on. that idea was also nixed.

 

I hate to sound like a Prius FUDer from 5 years ago, but you are ignoring possible battery costs down the road. Second, while true that the car "cost" ~ 25k to its owners, another $10k was paid by other taxpayers.

 

so we are now dissing EVs because Uncle Sam is providing incentives to purchase them?

if we start talking entitlements, this thread will not resemble any subjective sane discussion on anything

 

Speculating about the cost of battery during the life cycle of the Prius keeps coming up again and again. Let's say John Doe's Prius hit 150,000 miles and needs a new battery, but Joe Blo who bought a gasoline car(non-hybrid) needs a new transmission in his Mustang at 125,000 miles. My point is the battery is probably the most reliable component of the vehicle and it is unrealistic for John Doe to expect his battery to last indefinitely, if he decides to keep his Prius for 200,000 or 300,000 miles.

I would not worry about battery replacement down the road when other components such as transmissions, even engines in any vehicle may also need replacement. There are other little repairs in any vehicle that can easily cost a couple of thousand Dollars. Even compact vehicles these days like Hyundai have 6 speed Auto transmission and they are not cheap to repair or replace.

 

The longer your battery lives the cheaper the battery will be when needing replacement as well.

 

I for one welcome our alien... I mean, I for one am not yet ready to pay $20,000 for a car and another $20,000 for its batteries.

Oh look, here's GM expanding its SUV and large truck production in Arlington TX.