My last car was an EV. I loved how it drove, I loved charging at home and never having to stop at the gas station, and I told everyone around me, “If you can afford it, you have an ethical obligation to buy a hybrid or an EV.” Since Trump 2.0 I’ve been concerned about some form of collapse that would make me flee my home - natural disaster, violent military occupation, etc. I started to wonder, “What’s stopping Elon from limiting access to all these superchargers?” Public chargers are much slower than gas, and they’re easily vandalized. The whole thing just seems like a liability at this point. At least in a Mad Max scenario I could barter for a can of guzzoline.
I hate that I’m even considering any of this.
In a mad Max scenario you have 6 weeks of fuel. Even if there’s still some left after that point, it’ll start to degrade. You might be able to keep a car running for up to a year if you managed to get hundreds of gallons of gas, and keep it stabilized.
Realistically speaking in a total societal collapse scenario, your best bet is staying close to people you know. If you’re thinking you could drive off in to the woods somewhere, A: you and everybody else, B: can you run off in to the woods right now? Today, drop everything and just go live off grid? If so, why haven’t you, and if not, what makes you think you’ll be able to because the power is out?
If you have to flee your home like that, odds are millions of others are doing the same and you’re not going to be able to find gas anyway.
I feel like having an EV and solar panels is about as prepared as you can get.
Just shoot someone and take their car running on gas, problem solved ez pz.
But seriously if you’re in a situation where our power grid has collapsed I don’t think the gas pumps are gonna work either. Besides you could still create a mobile charging solution using solar, I don’t think it’d be fast or anything but it might even be more viable than trying to get gasoline in a real shit hits the fan world.
Yeah, solar crates way more independence than combustion fuel. Definitely have to pay a price though, since the upfront cost on a sizeable solar array will set most people back a bit.
I can’t justify a new car because I barely drive mine, but I still need it for a few edge cases, but I hate it because I bought it new just before some big features like back-up cameras became popular, but selling it would be a fool’s move because it’s in great shape since I take such good care of it and never drive it but it’s so old they would only offer a pittance.
Eternally torn between selling everything and becoming a hermit who lives in the woods and ramping up my consumerist whore game to get the best new thing.
Can’t afford an EV. Can’t afford gas. Guess I don’t go into the office.
Well Nazi musk didn’t help.
People who did want electric didn’t want a Tesla.
And other options were less easy to find
But there are still good alternatives.
Like the Rivian
And the Olinia (still being developed in Mexico and inexpensive).
Probably others.
But Rivian seemed pretty popular
Anyone worried about the price of gas is not buying a $150,000 Rivian.
If you can charge at home, a used car with 50-100 miles of range is plenty. Much more affordable than buying new, too.
less easy to find
Me, looking at every Nissan dealership nationwide for the last 15 years: …
Nissan makes electric cars?
I didn’t know this. They sure don’t advertise it very well.
Wasn’t the Nissan Leaf the most popular EV pre-Tesla? Or am I just plain wrong…
They sold 650,000 of them.
It was reasonably priced and started with the 2011 model year (I had one!). The Roadster was the only Tesla available at that time, and the Model S was released for the 2012 model year, but the base model cost 2x+ the cost of the top-trim Leaf.
It was popular because it wasn’t trying to impress anyone, and had the price tag to back it up.
The first gen ones had a weak range and batteries failed because they lacked temperature control.
Gen 2+ are fine and really cheap used with 60,000 miles.
Ehh the range was fine, I had a pretty degraded battery (nearing the required threshold for battery replacement) and it still got 75-80 miles on a charge consistently, and 5+ miles per kilowatt. The battery chemistry got a refresh in… 2013? To help defend against this. I live in the place that was most impacted by this, actually. The battery really doesn’t appreciate being fast charged in 115F (air) temps.
Afaik gen 2 still lacked active cooling, unless they fixed that. I’d like to get another gen 1, do a battery swap and heat pump upgrade, and enjoy it. That car was fantastic, other than wishlist items like AWD and getting more power (gotta go fast), it was perfect.
I totally forgot about the leaf.
The Leaf was the first mass-produced affordable EV in the states
The Leaf was the first mass-produced affordable EV in the states
Well, technically the GM EV1 probably holds that title, but I agree with you in spirit.
Not mass produced, not available for most of the country, lease only and every car was crushed.
The EV1 was supposed to have demonstrated that EVs were not viable.
Not VIN 212, check out youtube channel, the Questionable Garage.
Ehh the EV1 wasn’t really mass-produced, it was also lease-only so GM could crush them for that sweet sweet oil bribe money.
Fuck you, GM.
I want an EV. I also unfortunately drive longer distances than most people on average and also let my car sit for days with no access to a charge. Some EV systems use 1-2% battery per day for BMS, conditioning and telemetry, and that would make it difficult to use an EV in my case and only charge to the 80% mark to ensure battery longevity.
Nobody really makes a car that can do that for an affordable price. Yeah, I guess I’m probably a special use case, but nonetheless the cost and range limitations are prohibitive.
gas is almost $4.00/gal here in Wisconsin, so… cool.
That’s because here in the Midwest we get a lot of our oil for gasoline from Canada. But demand is going to continue to spike and it will not stay that way.
2/3 of Americans still won’t buy an EV. They love overpaying for overpriced, oversized gas guzzlers. This has all happened before and will probably happen again. This is the country that elects people who want to tear down windmills and solar panels so they can “drill baby drill”.
