Featured Tesla loses the race for mainstream EVs to GM

Man! That would be awesome if I could do that!

At times I'm tempted to sell the Avalon since according to Kelly Blue Book I could get some $13,000 or so if I sold it privately. That's about what I got it for originally and I owe less than $3,000 on it still. So that would mean I could walk away with $10,000. But with car prices so high, I don't know what I would be able to get with that $10,000 that would make both financial and practical sense.

 

Yes, that is the sticking point of car ownership, especially in the current strange car market. You are likely not to find a car to replace that is at least as "affordable" as the car you currently own.

I just updated my TCO table using the current numbers on the two cars I own now. Other cars are already sold, so the number will never change. But for currently owned cars, the money spent on fuel, repair, maintenance, tax, fees, etc., the number of months driven, and current value changes. Two cars, 2021 PP and 2014 PathHy I currently own would cost me -$371/mo (note the negative number means it is a "gain" rather than "loss" in this case) and $383/mo respectively if I sold them at the value as of yesterday.

I was thinking of selling one of them to buy a new BEV, but that plan is now on hold for my Subaru Solterra order was canceled and my new reservation for Silverado EV will not become reality until late next year. I am debating if I should sell one of the cars now anyway to get the most out of the resale value of those cars or wait until I buy a replacement car. We can do OK with a single car for a while.

 

Prices you see today may change. Ford just raised the prices of its Mustang EV as much as $8400 for '23 models. So much for EV Tax credit on many models.

 

Bob Wilson

 

You might have gotten the wrong thread

 

You meant to post here, perhaps:

Tesla Self Driving Attack | PriusChat

 

That's an interesting assertion, but it's based on a false premise. The thinking in this post is that all cars need to be able to charge as fast as the speed of pumping gasoline into a car. That may be needed for cross country trips, but not daily life or for the household "second car". That's definitely not necessary for the average American car which travels less than 30 miles a day.

Here's how it works for me:
I charge my car daily, and it takes a maximum of 2 hours to charge. If I run an errand, I might plug into a public charger at the grocery store. In that case, a 30 minute shopping trip matches the time it takes to charge the few kWh needed to complete the few mile long trip home. Once I get home, I plug the car in and it's fully recharged again in 15 minutes to 2 hours. Then it's ready for another 25 miles or so of driving.

It's unfortunate that the government subsides are set up to reward huge batteries, and that the online blogs harp on range instead of efficiency.

 

Opps!

Bob Wilson

 

16kWh isn't a huge battery, and the new incentives don't appear to have any capacity or range requirements. If made in North America with mostly NA parts, a Prius Prime would get $7500 under it.

Range is important now because the public charging infrastructure is still young. It is also needed to overcome range anxiety and misinformation. Those issues will lessen with time.

 

I agree. However, in general the car buying public isn't rational about what they "need" vs "want" in a car.
People buy big SUVs then drive them with one person most of the time. They need "big" for that once or twice a year trip they make, for example.

The new bill allows for PHEV with a small battery to get just as much a rebate as a big battery EV

Mike

 

Yay! That's progress.