Drove A Tesla Today

[fob63]

if you think grids are under strain now go ahead and shut down coal plants and see what happens..,

I think I said phased out not shutdown.

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[AzScorpion]

Everyone talking about power plants and the need for energy. Arkansas Nuclear One Lake Dardanelle. Been in service since 1974. I believe in strict regulations for Nukes and need to be implemented. Living next to a live nuclear bomb isn't always comforting. The Chinese government can do what they want and if they wipe out 100k of population, so what.

I think solar still has its advantages in certain regions of the U.S. Wind related energy more restrictive. Geo-themo hasn't been utilized enough. Coal plants need to phase out.

Electrical grids are in a strain in a lot of areas. With electrical grids nationally regulated, except Texas (another story). Then they can and will deploy supplying the areas in need and your area may then become an area where it has peak demands. The utility companies have for decades put profit above growth.
Texas does the speculator type of energy cost. Just like oil you buy into going rates. Natural gas is a good part of their power plant generation.

This is another thing that's in the back of my mind. For now it's relatively inexpensive to charge your EV but what happens in a couple years when another administration comes in and starts phasing out what they don't like? Then start building more "green" ways to produce energy and the price skyrockets. Because we all know who's going to be paying for all this new green energy.

I'm still weighing both options between a EV and a Hybrid Camry. I've always said a Hybrid is the best of both worlds and Toyota has pretty much perfected the Hybrid over the last 20+ years. The one I rented for a month last summer was really nice! I think we might go back up and take a look at both of them again later this week.

I just wanted to share my views on the EV and how nice it was and that you can't believe everything you read online. There's pros & cons to both and I think either would fit my driving lifestyle now. It's just which one is the most practical and which one makes the most financial sense in the long run.

 

[fob63]

I believe hybrids are the "now" steppingstone for vehicle transportation. In a decade NO. Still a need for electrical power grid generation though.

 

[Fordup]

This is another thing that's in the back of my mind. For now it's relatively inexpensive to charge your EV but what happens in a couple years when another administration comes in and starts phasing out what they don't like? Then start building more "green" ways to produce energy and the price skyrockets. Because we all know who's going to be paying for all this new green energy.

I'm still weighing both options between a EV and a Hybrid Camry. I've always said a Hybrid is the best of both worlds and Toyota has pretty much perfected the Hybrid over the last 20+ years. The one I rented for a month last summer was really nice! I think we might go back up and take a look at both of them again later this week.

I just wanted to share my views on the EV and how nice it was and that you can't believe everything you read online. There's pros & cons to both and I think either would fit my driving lifestyle now. It's just which one is the most practical and which one makes the most financial sense in the long run.

The actual cost of our electricity delivered has gone from 14 cents a KWH to 37 cents a KWH the last bill in a little over 2 years. NY started the green crap and shut down fossil fuel plants requiring huge costs for energy delivery from wherever they can now find it and keeps approving increases. An EV definitely isn't worth it without solar around here because at the rate it's going could be a dollar a KWH delivered in a couple years.

 

[AzScorpion]

The actual cost of our electricity delivered has gone from 14 cents a KWH to 37 cents a KWH the last bill in a little over 2 years. NY started the green crap and shut down fossil fuel plants requiring huge costs for energy delivery from wherever they can now find it and keeps approving increases. An EV definitely isn't worth it without solar around here because at the rate it's going could be a dollar a KWH delivered in a couple years.

Wow that's expensive up there! Our electricity here is still relatively inexpensive because of the nuclear plant. We have several different plans to chose from but I use the basic plan so there's no on peak/off peak to worry about. I'm not going to be a slave to what hours I can run my AC colder or do laundry. My last months bill was only $186.12 which is more than reasonable for having the AC set to where we're comfortable.

Most manufacturers either scrapped or scaled way back on their EVs over the last couple years. I'm sure this will change again in the future. IMHO I don't see ICE or Hybrids are going anywhere in the next 10-20 years because the infrastructure has a long way to go. If EVs were going to take off they would've when there were large subsidies and they didn't. It was only a small percent who jumped onboard and I feel it's going to take several decades to get many more onboard. They have come a long way but still have a ways to go. Once the Chinese EVs are allowed to be sold here in the US then I think you'll see prices come down and more people getting into them.

Here's our basic rate plan.

 

[OCL]

I don't want to get political here. However, we can just look to the EU and how they went all in with phasing out NPP and Coal to replace with Renewables. Their energy costs are the highest. Then they bought their Natural Gas from Russia for cheap. Let Russia deal with the environment right? Not in my backyard but let me take advantage of someone else's backyard. Now the Europeans are paying dearly for these shortsighted decisions in Energy.

Anyway, I agree with a lot that's been said here. But what we can learn from Europe's debacle is to work with something we know. What we know is there is no current source of energy that matches the capabilities of Coal Power except NPP. NPP takes away the disadvantages of mining and burning Coal. This is why Europe went all in with NPP decades ago, only to shut them down without a viable replacement. The US is decades away from phasing out Coal with NPP. Unless someone else comes up with something better, solar, wind, and hydro isn't going to be enough. Not even close. As a civilization, we are supposed to more than double our energy needs and those 3 renewables just won't cut it. Which is a nice segue into electric vehicle propulsion. The reason why electric vehicles are not fully mainstreamed yet is because battery technology is still not on par with the cost and capabilities of fossil fuels. There's alternatives to the Lithium-Ion batteries but they're not there yet. It won't be a breakthrough. It will happen in phases, just like Coal with NPP.

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