What are the Pros and Cons of owning an Electricity-powered car?

[leecljohn]

Originally Posted by heleu

In the lower mainland, Electric cars make financial sense if you meet ALL of the following conditions:
- long commute
- charging station at work AND home
- HOV lanes

Otherwise, it's pretty easy to make the argument for any gasoline equivalent. Even against a Tesla!

e.g. My friend works in Burnaby, lives in Maple Ridge. He puts on 35K/year mileage. With rebates, his Leaf cost him about $25K. His $/km is the lowest of any car he's driven because there are charging stations at his work. The car is also so mechanically simple there's very little to upkeep besides tires. And he saves time daily because he can drive HOV anytime.

Hi, Thanks for the comment.

Since i'm not back in Vancouver until early next year I would have no way to know if there are charging station at work....and home, will be living in an apartment, which is kinda old, so i don't believe they will put in a charge station.

I want to see if we can look into more about the maintenance issue. How often do E-cars need to go back to the dealership for "routine checkup"?? and what's the cost for these "check ups"? is it really as people say??

Thanks in advance.

[Noran]

Originally Posted by leecljohn

Thanks for the pro's and con's!! it really helps me to put things in perspective.

Since I have zero experience driving a hybrid, i was wondering if it switches between electric and gasoline automatically? or do you Manually switch mode?

Also, I guess some of the pro's and con's seems to be model specific...(such as sucky brakes and steering, etc) or is it the same for all e-cars??

It automatically switches over. If you want to save battery for a later time (Ex. driving in the city/slower roads) you can manually switch over to gas power and it will hold your range wherever you'd like it to.

Driving dynamics would alter between models. From what I know, brake feel is dodgy for all electric models.

I would much rather have the brake pedal only control the brake calipers and have a separate paddle on the back of the steering wheel to control regen-braking.

[Hehe]

Anyone can comment on Tesla Model X? Specifically a P90D as a family vehicle.

A friend of friend is relocating back to China for a job opportunity and is unloading his with only 16k on the ODO at a good price comparing to the P100D. I test-drove it and felt pretty good other than the road noise.

It would be mainly a DD for wife and occasionally family vehicle, with the second car being 2seater fun car.