bidens incredible transition to electric cars

^^^^^
Pretty balanced presentation. One bone I'll pick is he said that it was the automakers who came up with the "zero emission vehicle" propaganda. I think the lefty politicians were at least as, if not more responsible for this nifty sounding propaganda phrase. Pretty much from day one I've thought it simple common sense that plug-in hybrids were the obvious common sense choice. Of all the automakers, it looks like only Toyota had as much common sense, and the others are losing their butts for throwing money down the EV toilet. (I am not against EVs. What I'm against is the stupidity over mandating a wholesale move to them exclusively. Another case of dumb democrat politicians creating a big new problem.
 
I don't know, If I was to transition to EV from my 2015 gas powered rav4, it would be a new plug-in hybrid I suppose.

When buying New, the key to value/savings is how long you keep the vehicle. Many, many people loose the value buying new then selling it within a few years, trading it in is even worse. The drive-off the lot cost (Dealer Profit) is the start of that loss then add the trade-in loss (Again Dealer Profit).
Since you have a 2015 tells me you are one of the smart ones who keeps their vehicle long term and actually does not loose money in selling it too early.

Best rule to follow, buy a used vehicle about 2 years old, let the previous owner take the loss on the drive-off, in many cases the vehicle will be valued around half the cost of a New one. Except for trucks here in the South :)

We have a Highlander that we bought used (2 years old), during the Plandemic, it was priced way high like many during that time but only had 13k mileage, what helped us is we had two trade-in vehicles that were priced high too :), I actually made a $5,000 profit on one from the price I paid a year before, crazy huh, so it actually even things out. Normally I would sell to an individual but this was way more convenient at the time.
 
^^^^
Above is from many, many people I know in the Industry for about 4 decades, one is a family member 40 years in, and before EVs. I don't know much about EVs, nor how to factor their values. To show my ignorance, I bought a New 2025 RAM 1500 this year, yes I will own it 20 years from now, if no one puts it out of commission, anyway, it has a Stop/Start battery, 48volt I was told. Does this make it a Hybrid as the above video guy at TED conference suggested? I think of Hybrid as a vehicle with a battery that operates (moves) the vehicle at slow speeds, so has an electric motor and an engine, which mine does not.
Maybe I misunderstood the guy on the Stop/Start part.
 
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^^^^^
Pretty balanced presentation. One bone I'll pick is he said that it was the automakers who came up with the "zero emission vehicle" propaganda. I think the lefty politicians were at least as, if not more responsible for this nifty sounding propaganda phrase. Pretty much from day one I've thought it simple common sense that plug-in hybrids were the obvious common sense choice. Of all the automakers, it looks like only Toyota had as much common sense, and the others are losing their butts for throwing money down the EV toilet. (I am not against EVs. What I'm against is the stupidity over mandating a wholesale move to them exclusively. Another case of dumb democrat politicians creating a big new problem.
and......

Ford scraps all-electric SUV plan, saying drivers want hybrids

 
EV are inevitable, the current drawbacks are range drop in cold areas, slow charging and not enough chargers during the holiday rush.

While new chargers are always being added the other drawbacks are going to be solved pretty fast. We already have cars in China since 2023 that can put 350 miles of range in 10 minutes. Every EV battery maker in china is building a Solid state battery and some of them will be second generation versions. You cannot buy a car with such a battery today but you can starting in 2027.
Solid state batteries have two advantages, its immune to freezing conditions and you can fit a battery with nearly double the capacity. So you will be able to get cars with 600+ miles of range and charging times will drop to about 8 minutes in 2028 and will continue to drop. In the R&D lab they already have batteries since 2023 that can charge in just 6 minutes.

Anyone born post covid will likely won't even buy a car in the future with self driving tech matured by 2036.
 
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Anyone born post covid will likely won't even buy a car in the future with self driving tech matured by 2036.

Can you clarify this?
Not doubting or disagreeing, but with the "....will likely won't even..." it's just not clear to me what you're saying. :idk:
 
Can you clarify this?
Not doubting or disagreeing, but with the "....will likely won't even..." it's just not clear to me what you're saying. :idk:
Our son-in-law told us he thinks our 8 year old grandson might not even have a driver's license or learn how to drive. Maybe not his generation but the next gen. may not need one if they don't plan to drive. Autonomous vehicles...which will be EVs. Kinda hard to vision...
 
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Our son-in-law told us he thinks our 8 year old grandson might not even have a driver's license or learn how to drive. Maybe not his generation but the next gen. may not need one if they don't plan to drive. Autonomous vehicles...which will be EVs. Kinda hard to vision...
Yep.
Step-niece is now 20 and has no intention of driving....and they live in rural MS!
Step-grandson in rural AL is 18 and has never expressed a desire. I think he has a gaming PC implant. :confused:

In 1957 when I was 8 my mom would scoot over to the driver's side door and I'd have the wheel, gas and brake on our '50 Cadillac, would drive down our paved 1/8th mile street and bring it into the cement driveway, never hitting the cinder block wall on the left . And this was at night so no one would see me (she said). It wasn't rural, it was in East Point, GA a 37K population suburb of SW Atlanta.

Growing up I could hardly wait to drive, got my learner's permit the day I turned 15 but when I turned 16 on a Saturday I had to wait until Monday to go get my REAL driver's license...that was the longest weekend of my life (or so I thought at the time). :winktongue:
 
Yep.
Step-niece is now 20 and has no intention of driving....and they live in rural MS!
Step-grandson in rural AL is 18 and has never expressed a desire. I think he has a gaming PC implant. :confused:

In 1957 when I was 8 my mom would scoot over to the driver's side door and I'd have the wheel, gas and brake on our '50 Cadillac, would drive down our paved 1/8th mile street and bring it into the cement driveway, never hitting the cinder block wall on the left . And this was at night so no one would see me (she said). It wasn't rural, it was in East Point, GA a 37K population suburb of SW Atlanta.

Growing up I could hardly wait to drive, got my learner's permit the day I turned 15 but when I turned 16 on a Saturday I had to wait until Monday to go get my REAL driver's license...that was the longest weekend of my life (or so I thought at the time). :winktongue:
I taught my son to drive in our neighborhood, he was 3, haha, he sat on my lap. He loved it until he ran into a curve :), we were only doing 5 miles an hour...
My whole youth, all I thought about is what my first car would be. I worked at 14 washing dishes at a Chinese restaurant, mowed lawns, did odd jobs to save for my first car. I saved $800, only made $33 a week after school washing dishes :)

Our grandson asked his Mom when he can drive, she said when you can reach the pedals...
 
Can you clarify this?
Not doubting or disagreeing, but with the "....will likely won't even..." it's just not clear to me what you're saying. :idk:
GenZ generation and the generation after that prefers to sit in rear seat and Elon Cybertcab makes it clear which direction the world is going.
ER7zKWCU0AEL_PW
 
GenZ generation and the generation after that prefers to sit in rear seat and Elon Cybertcab makes it clear which direction the world is going.
ER7zKWCU0AEL_PW
Sadly I am the fourth ape, I told our kids that when they receive a text from me I am usually sending while on the throne, hahahaha
 
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Choices will be there but gas powered vehicles will become a niche low volume high priced segment. Else where in the world EV will be the only choice thanks to carbon credit.
OK. I'll throw out my opinion.
I think a lot of people will be unwilling to go over a mountain pass in the winter with an EV. All it takes is a common road blockage from gridlock, disabled vehicle, or accident, and you can be stuck in below freezing weather without a heater after the battery runs out. Then assuming you survive and the road opens up, you need to be towed.
 
OK. I'll throw out my opinion.
I think a lot of people will be unwilling to go over a mountain pass in the winter with an EV. All it takes is a common road blockage from gridlock, disabled vehicle, or accident, and you can be stuck in below freezing weather without a heater after the battery runs out. Then assuming you survive and the road opens up, you need to be towed.

This is clearly a concern in a gas car too, though
 
This is clearly a concern in a gas car too, though
Yes, but you can idle for more than a day and it would still have plenty of gas.

OK. I'll throw out my opinion.
I think a lot of people will be unwilling to go over a mountain pass in the winter with an EV. All it takes is a common road blockage from gridlock, disabled vehicle, or accident, and you can be stuck in below freezing weather without a heater after the battery runs out. Then assuming you survive and the road opens up, you need to be towed.
Fair point, they say a Tesla sold from 2021 which gets a heat pump uses 1% of battery for every hour of heating the cabin and if it's just a single person in the car they use the seat heater to reduce the power consumption even further. So it shouldn't be that big of a concern. If you are driving downhill the regen charges the battery, towing the EV also charges the battery, at a similar speed as a supercharger.
 
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they say a Tesla sold from 2021 which gets a heat pump uses 1% of battery for every hour of heating the cabin
Without specifying the outside temp this has to be a meaningless statement. If it's below zero I'd expect the heat pump to be useless, even if the battery still has some juice in it.

I couldn't find any real specs, but for the opposing view I found this on X:
"The heat pump system actually has the ability to work really well, even in temps colder than -30C, because there are two loops that use compression and expansion of the refrigerant (going from liquid to gas to liquid) and those loops can produce heat, even in the extreme cold."

I don't believe it. If it were to be true, every heat pump in cold climates is now horribly obsolete. Mine isn't very new any more. It becomes useless in the mid-20s, and we sometimes see -20. (All my temps are in degrees F). -30C is very close to -20F.

For real info: The trip I make over the pass is about 200 miles. Without any big slowdowns I can do the round trip and have 3/8 of a tank left, so there's a lot of gas available to idle for hours and hours and still complete the trip one way. With a 200 to 300 mile range EV I'd be darned nervous about getting stuck for even an hour.

That article linked in the prior post makes the Tesla sound really good. It's another one I don't believe, but if true, changing all heat pumps to this technology might solve the a lot of the energy generation and distribution problems. Heck I could maybe heat the house with PV solar and quit buying 1,000 gallons of propane every year.