Looks like at least another 5-10 years of improvements before I get in on it. The batteries are going to be a huge issue. Other than that, the needs are simple:
Minivan (or equivalent 7 seater)
400-500 mile range
24-36 hours of full operation between charges
Purchase price than 15k
EVs are great commuters. For a person like me it makes a lot of sense. I rarely travel. 99% of my driving is a 60 mile round trip to and from work. Occasionally I have to drive to Hattiesburg or Jackson, which about a 110 mile round trip to either city.
I was really hoping Ford would introduce an EV version of the Maverick. That would be the perfect vehicle for me. A small compact EV truck. As long as it can tow 2000 pounds (the weight of a single axle trailer and a lawnmower or ATV) and it had 250-300 miles of range unloaded (loaded range would probably be about 150, but I never tow that sort of distance) it would be literally the perfect vehicle for me. Maybe Toyota will bring out an EV Tacoma at some point. That would be even better.
But I won’t deny the reality. For a bunch of people, EVs don’t work right now. Maybe they have to travel extensively and long distance for business trips. Maybe they need to tow extremely heavy loads. Those are things EVs aren’t good at.
As a commuter vehicle, they are awesome at what they do.
Yes they are great commuter vehicles right now.
I go 140 miles round trip to work 2-3 days a week (other days I wfh).
I pay about $75 a month for the electricity I use. I’m never in danger of running out of range.
Yeah your needs are significantly greater than mine. An EV wouldn’t work for you at all.
I’ve always owned compact vehicles. Either little trucks like Nissan Frontiers or little Japanese cars like Celicas and Civics. Biggest car I’ve ever owned was a Lincoln Towncar. Loved that big aircraft carrier but I sold it because some random hood guy offered me two grand more than I had paid for it and had put into it at that point. So I let the Nimitz (my nickname for her) go. Once the market settles down I’m gonna get another one. They’re great cars.
Although with the way gas prices are… hell I’m probably gonna end up riding a Rebel 300 to work in the near future lol.
Can you get a ice minivan today with 400 miles of range at 15k?
My only issue with this thread was the illogic that followed after the truths that were spoken in it…that Stabenow was an idiot for saying what she said, and such attitudes are going to hurt Dems at the polls.
Those were true…,everything else afterwards was a rant.
Before the pandemic? You could get 3 to 5 year old Grand Caravans or Toyota Siennas for that price with low mileage.
Today? The used market is still out of control so it would be very difficult to find such a deal. But they may be out there. It’s a sellers market right now. Best time ever to sell a car. Bad time to buy a car.
It’s contentious because the Democratic Party seems to have a stated policy of mocking anybody who can’t afford an EV, while simultaneously enacting policies designed to spike the price of gas. It’s the textbook definition of virtue signaling that defines the progressive movement as a whole.
My 2018 Caravan GT is also Flex-Fuel capable. E-85 is $2.89 right now so I’m having an easier time than a lot of folks. Kind of annoying to spend 15 bucks on 11L of fuel (93 octane) for my paramotor though. That’s gonna add up fast this summer.
Statistically speaking, in 10 years I’ll be a grandpa, while raising my 13 year old son. I won’t need a van then, but I will need a truck to haul my other toys across the country. Once these turds are all out of the house, I’ll practically be needing heavy equipment.
Beautifully said
Definitely haha.
I’ve always wanted one of those old Vietnam era 3 tons the army used as artillery trucks. They’re multi fuel; runs on everything from pump gas to kerosene. They’ll tow a double wide house trailer without breaking a sweat. And they’ll damn near climb anything with their triple reduction gearing.
I know a guy who has one. There’s literally no job it can’t do. And it was built in 1965.
Oh and btw, Stabenow drives a Bolt EUV, not a Tesla.
I knew a guy that had one. Autozone used to let him take all the used oil he wanted from their waste bin since it saved them money on disposal. He would filter it, mix it with alcohol, and use it to run the truck. I would absolutely build a camper on one and take it into the places of this country where animals eat humans. Adventure awaits! lol
Lithium, cobalt and nickel—key minerals used to make the lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles come from the earth and have to be extracted and mined so I don’t know what the environmental advantage is over coal and oil, oh that’s right there isn’t any!!!
These minerals will mainly come from other countries where some, if not most, are USA adversaries…Biden’s “build back better” for our enemies…Russia, China, Iran & more.
It’s absolute insanity and that is what is the matter with CC/GW environmental-midgets. The United States nor the world can be powered by what they propose while they are also against nuclear power which is a viable clean alternative energy source.
Lol I guess this is an improvement over its Earth Day so I dumped the oil from my F-150 into a river to celebrate.
Someday we’ll all be driving cars that run on electricity…solar…wind…hydrogen…garbage…Star Trek like warp drives…
Someday.
That someday is not today. It won’t be tomorrow.
The world runs on fossil fuels. Someday will come when we are ready for it…in the meantime it’s pretty obvious the nut job kook fringe left thinks they can push us all toward living the way they think we should live by literally destroying the value of our money and our quality of life jacking up prices beyond what more and more of us can afford.
I can only see the policy decisions that are shoving prices higher and higher on fuel which is contributing to higher prices on everything else as intentional.
The people making those decisions are imho disgusting frauds who need to be eliminated from public office and political power.
Someday our country will be powered by fuel sources we haven’t even thought of yet. Until that someday comes we the people should not be treated as pawns in this misguided effort to force us to power our homes and transportation with energy sources we are nowhere close to being ready for as a nation.
Debbie Stabenow was not boasting but making a point. Though her comments could have been more eloquent. I dont see how she was mocking those of us who do not or cannot afford an EV. But I dont see the dems as a party mocking people for not owning EVs.
If you felt mocked thats more on you by allowing someone to have that power over you.
I would prefer my home ran off of a Small Modular Reactor than some BS gimmick like the current solar/wind tech.
Nuclear is the true path to clean energy.
Sure thing. Hop in sport, you’re going for a ride. 
I have to own an EV for the electric grid going down to be a problem for me?
