Electric Cars update

We love our Tesla S. We have driven to San Diego and back twice now. The car is so quiet and smooth, it is like taking a trip in a music room.The car can be setup to charge late at night when electric rates are lowest. We find we do not charge the car but a few times a week if that.

After getting the Tesla, we hardly ever drove our Subaru, which was our workhorse. We decided to replace the WRX with another electric car, clearly not a 2nd Tesla (waaaay to expensive), but rather considered a Fiat 600e. They are a cute small car for zipping around town, or so I thought. The test drive was a big disappointment. Coming from solidly built moderately fast cars, the 600e felt like a tin can with a undersided motor attached. It did nothing particularly well. Acceleration, handling, braking were all fair. There happened to be a Nissan dealer just down the street from the Fiat dealer and we test drove a Leaf. What a difference. The leaf is a real car, acceleration and braking are good (though the car’s torque steer on hard acceleration was a surprise), handling is better than average. After crunching the numbers, we found the leaf is actually affordable.

Perhaps many people do not know about the incentives available for electric car purchases. Until California discontinues the program, the state will mail a check for $2,500.00 to anyone who purchases an electric vehicle. The federal government provides a $7,500.00 tax credit for the purchase of an electric car. Being a tax credit favors those who owe over $7,500 in taxes, not the best plan to further electric car adoption nor is it equitable. Still that is $10,000.00 back from the government against the purcahse price of the car. Then the manufacturer provided a $2,500.00 rebate AND the dealer whacked another $4,000.00 off the price of the car. Sooooo, a $34,000.00 new automobile’s price came down to $17,500.00. The 2002 Subaru sold for $7,500.00, which results in a net cost of $10,000.00 for a brand new car. To top it off, the dealerl provided financing at ZERO PERCENT! No cost to borrow the money. And the kicker?? It’s an electric car that can use the HOV lanes in California. There’s nothing quite like zipping past traffic in the HOV lane. As more people car pool and more EVs come on the road, the HOV lane will eventually be just like any other lane, but that’s a good thing for progress/the environment.

The leaf is not a Tesla. It has an 80mi range, which can be extended by driving slowly. It works well for short trips and with the availability of fast chargers, the car can be recharged in less than an hour when necessary. There have been a few instances where the car could not make it home without a charge. Finding chargers in the greater bay area is no problem, though it does require planning ahead to be sure you can actually get to the charger.

I’ve recently put roof racks on the Leaf to carry kayaks for touring local waterways. We’ll see how having limited range and added wind resistance works with kayak trips.

 

Ron

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *