Drew Dowdell

I'm old enough to remember when there were Xes on the eyes of cartoon characters, that meant they were dead.

That brings up another good point. This may seem obvious, but the calculus for an EV works better the worse the mileage of the equivalent gas vehicle is. I remember a while ago people trying to compare the Hummer EVs to a Corolla and saying it didn't make financial sense for the Hummer. But the real comparison is probably something more like an Escalade. A Hummer EV may not be a great savings compared to a Corolla, but it blows away an Escalade.

To many variables to be able to make a blanket statement. Are you in a cheap gas state or a cheap electricity state? Are you in a state that has big differences in car insurance? Are you going to charge at home on Level 2 or are you using Superchargers mostly? You'll save money on oil changes by driving the Tesla, but you'll pay more in tires every 5(?) years simply because the Model 3 has bigger, more expensive tires. Are you buying a RWD Model 3 or an AWD Model 3? Are you buying the standard Corolla or the hybrid? My bet is that if you're in a situation that makes an EV make more sense (cheap electricity to charge at home) and you drive a lot of miles, the savings on gas wipes out the difference in insurance pretty quickly It's a full pros-cons spreadsheet. I asked Claude to calculate it for us. So it looks like as long as the difference in insurance is less than $900 a year, the Model 3 wins. Personally, even though I loath Tesla, I would probably pick the Model-3 over the Corolla for my use-case scenario just to have the self-driving feature. Having a less exhausting journey for myself is helpful being a consultant. That wouldn't necessarily be something I can quantify in a spreadsheet. My travels, currently, are also through mountainous areas that kill fuel economy in my gassers but could be advantageous for an EV for regen. It's a weird "uphill both ways" scenario that I could use to my charging advantage if I was careful. (I'm tempted to rent a Tesla just to try it now)

Eh, I think the Tesla would still end up being cheaper, but pretty much any other EV would be cheaper still due to the Tesla insurance issue. I think comparing an Ioniq 6 to a nicely equipped Sonata 2.5T is a closer match and likely similar insurance rates. the BMW i4 v BMW 440i is one where the performance gets pretty close and the price difference is a rounding error. In the end the i4 will be cheaper because of fuel economy and not needing premium gas. Ionic 9 v. Tahoe is another as long as you're not trying to tow 9,000 lbs and it is just doing family hauler duty, the pricing between the two models is very close.

Yeah, that wasn’t a very good comparison and it wasn’t fair to either the Tesla or the Corolla, just in different ways. A Corolla really isn’t a market equivalent to a model 3. A more fair comparison would be something like a Cadillac CT4 or a Buick Regal if it was still made.

I'll look into it, but no issues that I've heard. The only thing I've heard is common with most direct injection engines and that is carbon build up. The GM 2.7T like to get beat on. Don't baby it. Blow that carbon out of there.

First Gen Volt is abandonware, yes. Your situation actually sounds ideal for a short-term commuter scooter, mostly because Volts can be had so cheap. On a long commute like that, you'd be into the gas sometimes and into the regen part of the way on the trip and still getting 45 mpg when on gas. If you can charge at both ends, even better. The way you commute you really could take acquisition costs in mind because whatever you get is going to have to be considered disposable. What makes it key though is cost. You can get a 2016+ Volt with 60k miles for like $12,900. You'd end up with a $300/m or lower payment and that like 2.5 Navigator fill-ups. https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/vehicle/783656429?makeCode=CHEV&marketExtension=include&mileage=70000&modelCode=VOLT&numRecords=25&sortBy=relevance&zip=15201

I would tell you to stay away from both the E Golf and Focus E. They're basically abandonware by their manufacturers. You'd have to go into it with the attitude that any powertrain failure could total it. The Volt 2016+ could be an interesting option as a commuter because they're dirt cheap

Yep. And I think they got the energy density a little higher than Tesla's. Not a huge jump, but enough to matter and bring the vehicles over the 300 mile range mark will still keeping battery size in check.

The concern is also largely going to disappear in the emerging generation of batteries. LFP chemistry (available in some Teslas and supposed to be coming in Hyundai/Kia/Genesis soon) have degredation curves that far exceed a vehicle lifetime. We're talking over a million miles before the batteries reach 80% of design capacity. The downside of LFP is they don't have the energy density that standard EV batteries (NMC) have, meaning you either have to be comfortable with less range or an even bigger battery pack. GM has LMR batteries on the way also. These are a medium point between standard EV batteries an LFP. They have 30% plus more energy density than LFPs. There hasn't been extensive degredation testing of this chemistry yet, but it is expected to be well above NMC and closer to LFP. Even if its 500k miles plus instead of 1 millon, it is functionally the same as LFP since so few cars reach that mileage anyway. What's interesting is that LMR and LFP could make the pursuit of super-capacitors obsolete. The only advantage super capacitors would have is rapid charging and possibly weight, but at the speeds we have today with EV charging, it might not be worth the cost for a technology that multiple automakers are struggling to bring to market.

Yeah, it was in the news a lot in the past year because a certain segment was saying it was proof that EVs weren't the way forward. GM spent a billion or so rebuilding that plant.

They rebuilt the towanda plant almost from the ground up for these engines. I’ll reserve judgement for now.

What are you talking about? They’re new. Just because they use the same displacement as an engine from 1996 or the 1960s doesn’t make them old

You’re now only putting in 50kw (plus or minus some from charging losses)