u/Huge_Ad_2133

I wanted to share my results. I bought an 2023 Tesla Model 3 RWD with 7800 miles at the beginning of March. And In the last 6 months, I have been doing extensive data logging of every drive I have ever taken.

The main thing I noticed is that I have driven just over 10,000 miles. 7,000 miles was normal daily driving, and the remaining 3,000 was a big road trip. In 6 months, I have spent $226 to go 7,000 miles, and $290 on my 3000 mile road trip. (Average was $.43 per kWh. at the public chargers)

That means the cost per mile is a little over 5.16 cents a mile overall. And if I just count the local driving, it is down to 3.2 cents per mile. The road trip was a bit more at about 10.3 cents a mile.

I have also been tracking gas prices month to month. My old gas car got 26MPG. And I would have spent about $1420 to go that same 10,000 miles. That is about 87.5 cents per mile.

In short, I see people asking if an EV is worth it. And I say if you need a car, then yes it is worth it, and no ICE car anywhere would even come close.

My old gas car: 14.2 cents / mile. (Edited for my bad math)

My new car: 5.15 cents / mile.

Main thing I learned: Keep your tires inflated. And I mean really. just 5% under inflation drops efficiency by 15-20%

In the end, I bought a Tesla because I was worried about range, and public charging. Turns out that none of those concerns were really important. For my next EV when that time comes, I will prioritize efficiency, platform and NACS.

For now, My car is a perfectly good place to be for the next 6 years.

So the storms the other day broke a tree off att he trunk. It didn't uproot, the trunk literally snapped so that the tree is laying across 2 driving lanes across from Estabrook Rec. And what has our city done about it over the last 2 and 1/2 days?

Remove the tree? nope.

At least get the tree out of the driving lanes? also nope.

Put up signs and redirect traffic? no and no.

What they did do is place a cop in front of the tree with his lights on, while oncoming traffic from the other direction just sort of figures out that southbound traffic will come left of center.

Seriously. I cannot tell what our tax dollars are used for at all. And I cannot see how any incumbent around here is reelected to anything.

I made an earlier thread asking for guidance about what actual concerns I should look for in my next ev.

And what I got was a lot of thoughtful and useful things to think about.

granted a lot of concerns are a bit overblown. but on the whole useful.

But then I got some people who questioned the entire economics of EV ownership. Which is something I extensively modeled and thought about before I pulled the trigger.

So at risk of sounding like Technology connections, let me lay out the economic case in case you are wondering. A lot of people know this already, and they may have made the same points.

1. I drive 1,500 miles a month every month, and have for the last 30 years.

2. If I drove my old gas car, I would use about 60 gallons of regular gas a month.

3. That 60 gallons of gas has enough energy that if I was able to convert all of it to motive power to drive down the road, I would get more than 8,800 miles on 60 gallons.

4. Instead of this, my old car used that 60 gallons to go just 1500 miles.

5. where did all the extra energy go? wasted in heat!!!! That's right. Over 80% of what you buy in a gallon of gas you are just setting it on fire and accomplishing absolutely nothing. Is your hard work and money worth so little that you can take break a $5 dollar bill and simply burn four of the $1 bills in the furnace?

130 years of internal combustion development and the best we can do is waste 80% of every gallon of gas. That more than anything is why the ICE days are numbered.

6. A lot was said about "oh the power plants burn natural gas and the like. but guess what, they are far more efficient than a gasoline engine at doing it. to the point that the cost to my house of all the electricity my EV uses in a month is about $35. That is last mile costs.

I cannot buy 60 gallons of any kind of fuel anywhere, and in any form that will deliver 1500 miles for $35 other than electricity.

7. Even if I could not charge at home, and had to do 100% public charging, I am still saving 25% of gas when gas is at $4, because my car simply consumes 1/5 the energy of a gas car to do the same thing.

the internal combustion engine is a wonder of the industrial age. But it is loud, noisy, and not very efficient, and gets us involved in wars that we simply cannot end or even avoid. I do like to go and look at classic cars and such. But I have no desire to live with one when there is work to be done.

So I could go on a long rant about the stupidity of our choices and situation. But if you are thinking about an EV, the first, most basic and most important thing you can do is count the real costs, not just for an EV, but for what you have always done as well. Only then can you make an informed choice.

So 4 1/2 months into my EV journey after about 15 years of being interested in the tech, but not having answers to what I thought are concerns. I thought range, battery degradation and lack of charging options were going to be major concerns. But it turns out that they were not.

So if those concerns are not actual issues, what is an actual concern.

The main one I can think of is the basic wh/mile issue of how efficiently the car turns kwh into miles driven.

Recently, I had 3 experiences which really made me think about my EV in a way I didn't realize.

The first was after 3 months of owning and driving an EV, I had to get in my aunt's car and back it out of my driveway and then back it in. She drives a 2024 Elantra. But holy smokes the muscle memory of how I drive my EV messed with me. From constantly fiddling with the windshield wiper stalk to try to get it in gear, to the lack of regen driving, it was different enough to be annoying.

Not terrible, and I could adjust, but man I would not have called how much the EV just fits into my method of operating.

The second, was sitting in traffic next to this dude in a 2000's era convertible BMW. this guy was driving with the top down, but his car sounded like it had the automotive version of COPD. The loudness, the popping and backfiring, the weird shifts in acceleration from shifting, all for a car that he thought was cool, but really was kind of sad.

The third was I went for a ride in my Buddies new Challenger Hellcat at a drag strip. Nice car, but man was it loud. It seemed to me that the primary purpose of the GAS was making noise. Because for all that horsepower he had, my bog standard, non premium, 2023 grocery getter beat him off the line by quite a lot, but also was quieter and more refined in just about every way.

My conclusion is that my EV is changing my brain chemistry such that I want my car to be quiet and get on with it and that I just don't need the noise and bother of an internal combustion engine in my life.

It is just a more peaceful, enjoyable life of quiet competence. I would not have expected that just 3 months ago.

I just want to say best wishes for Jeremy's health. Heart issues are no joke. So please all of us, just listen to Lisa.

So had my 2023 Tesla M3 RWD for 3 months now. Just got finished with a 3000 road trip, which included 2 1250 drives over 2 days each and about 10 days of 500 miles.

My car as a 260 mile range. The trip out took 6 charging stops because I wanted to arrive at a 50% SOC. the trip home took 5 stops because I didn't care about the SOC when I got home.

Between bathroom stops, meals and driving, the actual total travel time was exactly the same between my EV and a gas car on the same trip. At no point did I find myself sitting, waiting for a charge instead of driving.

The big difference is on the trip out, we stayed at a hotel with free charging for guests. So I got a free charge from 11% to 100% overnight which was nice.

Driving around on my vacation in Florida, I was amazed that I had all kinds of charging stations everywhere. A quick 10 minutes here and there gave me all the juice I needed.

My whole experience of owning an EV is that all of the issues and concerns I have had before getting one turned out to be no big deal at all. My other car is a 2022 Kia Forte GT-Line. and we calculated that it would have cost me about $120 extra to take it, and I would not have saved any time.

The last two things I learned: 1: a lot of destination charging stations, people just don't take care of things. tons of cables just strewn about. 1 place I went too, had the cables essentially braided with two or three other chargers. Good manners would say leave a place nicer than you found it. and 2, these newer charging stations with cooled cables are really heavy. Especially at the Walmart station I tried.