I think the main question that people have to answer about their vehicles is whether they are going to get one vehicle that meets all their needs, or different vehicles for different purposes. If you only want to own/maintain one vehicle, you end up with a "Swiss Army knife" of vehicles that does everything, but may not be the best tool for many jobs.
This is what leads to people commuting, alone, to work with an empty Extended Cab F350 dually pickup. They might need the pickup to haul the 5th wheel trailer a few times a year, and they might need seating for 5 to take the family on trips, but most of the time it isn't doing anything more than taking one person to work. The other extreme is specialty vehicles. One car to commute to work, one car for day trips, a large vehicle for pulling trailers. However, if you are a married couple and both need a car to get places, you already have a start to this type of specialization. Only one car needs to have the range for traveling across country. The other car can stay in the city. If you already have a gas car, I would state it more like: Get your second vehicle as an EV to take advantage of all the trips that don't need all the capabilities of the ICE. You will quickly realize that is most of the driving on a daily basis. I have 3 cars: 2 Seater convertible EV (Honda del Sol) for commuting to work and taking 1 person to lunch. Volvo V70 XC AWD for local driving more than 60 miles in one day, or taking up to 5 people. Also has moderate cargo capacity. Also taken when roads are really snowy. Suburban 3/4 ton for pulling trailers, lots of cargo, or up to 8 people. Also 4WD for snowy conditions. Driven as little as possible since it only gets 10-12 mpg. The EV gets driven 4-5 round trips per week at least (50 miles per day). The Volvo gets driven 1-2 round trips per week. The Suburban gets driven 1-2 trips per month, but on those trips, it is the only vehicle that will get the job done. By the way, purchase price of all these vehicles (all used) was, in total, less than the price of a Nissan Leaf. Maintenance, is another story. Especially for the Suburban. That is a very expensive vehicle to maintain. But, again, you can't pull a 3-horse trailer with much less. Mike > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of Rick Beebe > Sent: Saturday, July 20, 2013 10:04 PM > To: Electric Vehicle Discussion List > Subject: Re: [EVDL] "And now for something completely different" ... > > On 7/20/2013 1:28 PM, John O'COnnor wrote: > > This brings back the semantics issue of calling the Volt an EV. "The > > People" will never figure out what an EV is unless the industry and > > media stop calling the Volt and other hybrid drive and hybrid > > (onboard) fuel systems vehicles EVs! > > Does it matter? Regular hybrids, I agree with you. Really they're just gas cars > that get very good mileage. But if I can plug it into the wall and drive > reasonably significant distances on electricity then why sweat that it's not a > pure EV to the people? > > I own a Ford C-Max Energi (plug-in hybrid). I can go about 25 miles on a > charge before it reverts to being a standard hybrid. It will stay in EV mode up > to 85 mph. I've driven it 3200 miles and all but 380 were in EV mode. Perhaps > 50 of that 380 were because 25 miles wasn't enough range for the day's > driving. The rest were long trips that would have been beyond the range of > any EV for sale today except maybe a Tesla model S. > I say if I can unplug my car in the morning, drive to work, do my errands, and > drive home without using any gas...then I'm driving an EV. > > The car was sort of an epiphany for me. The standard answer we give > everyone when asked about range anxiety is "well you have your second gas > car for long trips." Or worse "rent a car for long trips." But I think cars like the > Energi and Volt offer an even better answer for many people because they > don't HAVE to pay for and maintain a second car. > They may get more people interested in trying the EV world because it solves > the range anxiety problem. I know from experience that MANY people when > given the "second car" answer will simply choose not to buy an EV. > > But back to the question you were responding to, I think that people buying > Volts and Energis are indicative of an interest in EVs and also of upcoming use > of EV infrastructure so it is correct to count them in EV sales figures (of > course pulled out into a plug-in category). > > BTW, my second car is a Ford Ranger EV conversion. > > --Rick > _______________________________________________ > UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub > http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org > For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA > (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
