EV Trip Report

Dick Steinkamp

Dick Steinkamp

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The huge Portland Auto Swap Meet returned last week after a 2 year absence due to Covid. I have attended this 3 day event for 30 years and was starting to get the shakes when it had to be cancelled twice. :(

We bought an EV last fall to replace my wife's ageing Jetta diesel wagon. The 560 mile round trip to Portland in the EV was the longest trip so far and was a good test of my "range anxiety".

The upside is a much lower cost/mile for "fuel". The downside is more time at "filling stations".

I had to fuel once in Olympia on the way down. I topped off when in Portland in case I did any running around. I topped off just before I left for home and again on the way home just south of Seattle. 120 KWH at an average of 31.6 cents per KWH were used. $37.93 total. 560 miles total. 6.8 cents/mile. In an ICE at 25 MPG and $5/gallon that would have been $112 in fuel or 20 cents per mile.

Both enroute stops were for bio breaks/lunch so they would have occurred in either an EV or an ICE for me. Charging stops averaged 20 minutes. At my stop in Olympia, the Supercharger was adding over 800 MPH to the battery initially!

I fuel for 10 cents per KWH at home which is 98% of my driving (I rarely travel more than 250 miles in a day which is approximately my battery's range). At 10 cents per KWH, those 560 miles (120 KWH) would have cost me $12 or 2 cents/mile (actually less since I get better "mileage" at less than highway speeds).

Great results. Easy. Quick. Gets rid of some of my range anxiety. :)

You can't justify an EV on fuel savings, but if you are in the market for a new vehicle anyway (like I was), that combined with no maintenance, over the air fixes and updates, no pollution, and a painless buying experience help to offset the fact that most EVs won't go 400 miles between "fill ups" like an ICE can. The shorter range also becomes less of a factor when you factor in your typical vehicle use (15,000 miles/year is 40 miles a day).

I'm a convert (at least for my daily driver ;))

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My wife’s daily is a Tesla Model S. We have used it to travel from the Philly suburbs to Richmond VA where our daughter lives. We need to top up the charge along the way, but a 20-30 minute stop is called for anyway to stretch our legs and give the pup a drink of water.

I too have found the supercharges to be very effective and have yet to have to wait for a spot to charge. The rest of our charging is at home and that is very convenient .

I also have full self driving in the Tesla, but rarely use it because…well…I like to actually drive.
 
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Mike Goble said:
That is one fast battery!
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The Tesla superchargers continue to get faster. That one in Olympia was a newish one. I'm amazed at the pace of progress in EV technology.

I see EVs now the same as when computers and cell phones were fairly new. They will only get better. It's just a matter of deciding when it makes sense to get one.
 
Boonies said:
The rest of our charging is at home and that is very convenien.

I also have full self driving in the Tesla, but rarely use it because…well…I like to actually drive.
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It's like having a gas station in the garage. You leave home with a full tank every morning. :)

I don't have FSD, but it comes standard with AutoPilot which is sort of FSD for the freeway. I don't like it. I think I may be a control freak. The Enhanced Cruise Control is enough for me.
 
Dick Steinkamp said:
no pollution
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Despite being a big advocate of EV’s, they are not net zero emissions if your source of electricity is anything like what we have in MA. But, in your favor is that big power plants are more far efficient than an ICE, so even when you factor in electrical transmission losses etc, your net energy efficiency is often 20% or more better than an ICE. If your local electrical power comes from a fairly greenish mix as ours does here in MA then you get a bonus.
 
I drove an EV to work everyday for 3 years. We had solar panels on our roof so our charging really was as green as could be.

I absolutely loved that car. For a daily driver, especially if you have solar or wind, to me it is a perfect solution. Then you can use your coupe on the weekend for fun driving.
 
My wife bought a Tesla Model S 60 in June 2013, and we still have it. About a year ago it became my DD, and I love it. I just passed 126k miles.

She bought a new model Y, which has better seats, but the S drives much better IMO. The Y is also not very pretty and eats expensive 20 inch tires. But she loves her Y. My sister just got a a Mach E, which is better looking and has better interior materials.
 
JFENG said:
Despite being a big advocate of EV’s, they are not net zero emissions if your source of electricity is anything like what we have in MA. But, in your favor is that big power plants are more far efficient than an ICE, so even when you factor in electrical transmission losses etc, your net energy efficiency is often 20% or more better than an ICE. If your local electrical power comes from a fairly greenish mix as ours does here in MA then you get a bonus.
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Good point.

Here in Washington our energy is 75% green...thanks mainly to Bonneville Power. Wind and solar are being added fairly quickly. We sell quite a bit of power to California and other states and probably could be 100% green if we didn't. We have a goal to be off of coal by 2025 and totally green by 2045

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JFENG said:
Despite being a big advocate of EV’s, they are not net zero emissions if your source of electricity is anything like what we have in MA. But, in your favor is that big power plants are more far efficient than an ICE, so even when you factor in electrical transmission losses etc, your net energy efficiency is often 20% or more better than an ICE. If your local electrical power comes from a fairly greenish mix as ours does here in MA then you get a bonus.
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While we don't own an EV, I am a fan of them. I expect we'll get one next time we replace a vehicle. That said, I do find EVs with "Zero Emissions" stickers on them to be particularly galling. Especially when I'm commuting or running errands on my bike (dial up the self-righteousness to 11). Is it that hard to have a sticker that says "Zero Tailpipe Emissions?"

To be fair, there's no way I could honestly put a "Zero Tailpipe Emissions" sticker on my bike or my person. So the EVs have me on that one.
 
Bmachine said:
solar panels
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Every form of storable, transportable energy has a non-zero emissions footprint. The full cycle includes raw materials, mfg, deployment, end of life processing. The average “sound bite voter” doesn’t think of this at all.

It’s either EV’s are dirty because electricity comes from coal, or wind is zero emissions (ignoring the fossil fuel burning backup electrical generation and petroleum burned in the msg and running of generators).

I’m only aware of a few credible studies that take in the whole picture, and they all conclude that EV’s are the current greenest automotive choice.

 
I was in a car with some clients yesterday for a long drive. We passed a large wind farm in east central Wisconsin. She explained that the large wind generators are huge bird killers, and during migration periods there are hundreds of dead birds that litter the ground underneath the towers. I don't know the exact numbers or details, but if there is any accuracy to this, there are other impacts beyond emissions.

The same is true of glazed buildings. Bird strikes are quite common and unfortunate. There are methods to reduce or eliminate the bird strikes on the glass.
 
autokunst said:
I was in a car with some clients yesterday for a long drive. We passed a large wind farm in east central Wisconsin. She explained that the large wind generators are huge bird killers, and during migration periods there are hundreds of dead birds that litter the ground underneath the towers. I don't know the exact numbers or details, but if there is any accuracy to this, there are other impacts beyond emissions.

.
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Sad but true. I live in an isolated town and I am part of a committee that is investigating creating a microgrid to supply backup power. One of the options we are looking at is vertical wind turbines. These can be made with a screen around them to avoid birds hitting the traditional blades. But, that, of course, only works for smaller installations
 
coupedegrace said:
I've been curious about this car. I'd love to hear further opinions on the Mach E should you have an opportunity to form them.
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My sister is in Cali, so I won't see her and get to drive the car until August, but I am very curious.

My main beef with the Model Y is that the steering is overboosted, too quick, and the wheel is too small. The Model S is better in this regard. And we got less than 10k miles on the Model Y rear tires, despite a treadwear rating of 500. That's not very "green" in my book. My 1 series M does much better than that. MY wife liked the look of the 20 inch wheels, but next time I would choose the 19s, so at least the tires would be cheaper. My Model S has much better tire wear.

EVs are not a panacea for global warming, but the Model S is a cool driving experience IMO, and the bottomless reserve of torque is awesome.
 
Anybody have any thoughts about the Lucid Air? Would you buy the first car from a new auto manufacturer?o_O
 
BP1 said:
Anybody have any thoughts about the Lucid Air? Would you buy the first car from a new auto manufacturer?o_O
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Personally, I would not. Tesla used a Lotus chassis for their first production model. That allowed them to learn from a tried and true base. Then when they had to get a factory to build their own cars, they bought an old Toyota/GM plant. Again, they didnt have to “reinvent the wheel”. Even though they were a brand new manufacturer, and even though they had to modify both the lotus and then the plant extensively, these facts bought them years of knowledge and experience right off the bat.
 
I'm pretty sure Lucid would treat you VERY well. I would think their cars would be gone over with a fine toothed comb before delivery to help insure there are NO customer complaints on these first cars. If a customer has a problem, I'll bet Lucid will jump on it with both feet and fix not only the problem but also any upstream issue that caused it. They CAN'T have any bad press at this point. It would kill them.

The Air may be a bargain relative to the market right now. Tesla is able to raise prices to at least match their increase in costs and inflation since they have a 6 month to a year backlog of orders depending on the model. Lucid is still considering increases even though they must be including several thousand dollar bills with each car they sell now. They saw what increasing prices did to Rivian last month.

OTOH, I'd pick the Tesla Model S over the Air (and not just because I'm a Tesla fanboy ;)). The S is well sorted, it has 10 years of improvements and updates, the service network is well established, the best charging network, IMHO it is a more attractive looking car than the Air. Lastly, it looks like Tesla is going to be around for a LONG time. The jury is still out on Lucid...and for that matter, many of the legacy auto makers.
 
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