Anybody else driving an electric car?

janfromflorida

janfromflorida

Member
Location
Forida
This isn't something I did on purpose; but I am glad it happened. After my husband died I couldn't afford the payments on our Outlander. So I went to Mitsubishi and came home with a leased MIEV. It scared me at first - how fare will it go - will it let me sit??? It did have a bad auxiliary battery, which let it die a couple of times. But, thankfully that was in my carport. Once they replaced that all is well. I still glance down at the dashboard every time I pass my old gas station and gasp at the prices. Then I have a great big laugh! I plug it in to the house current a couple of times a week over night. So are I haven't noticed any difference in my electric bill. What's not to like?
 

Now THIS is an electric car I would love to own -

tesla-roadster_15650.jpg

The Tesla Roadster

0-60 in under 4 seconds
Top speed - 125MPH
Goes 220 miles per charge
Gets an equivalent of 135MPG of gas
248 HP

The bad news? Base price is around $100,000.
 

I live on the edge of town, and an electric car would work fine for me, but I can't make payments on my income ( at least right now), so even if I saved gas, it wouldn't make the payment. I keep my driving to a minimum, and use about $20-30 a month in gas.
Way back on the 80s, VW had an electric van, and if I ever found one, and it was drivable, I would grab it in a heartbeat. I love VW minivans, and the little pop top camper that I used to have is probably my all time favorite vehicle. I can't even find the little electric van on the Internet, so they must not have made it very long. The one I saw for sale was used, so it was probably from the 70s sometime, maybe.
 
Happy, are you sure they had an electric van that long ago, or was it an individual conversion project? I know there were a few individuals that attempted to make an all-electric VW van, with varying degrees of success. Volkswagon had, to my knowledge, only just announced their future vision of the E-Co Motion van back in 2011 - not sure what the status of it is now.

volkswagen-van-electric-new.jpg
 
T21qp8XihbXXXXXXXX_!!660446366.jpg
 
adura-bus.jpg

Life imitates art, doesn't it? :D

This is a litium-battery-powered product of Adura, a Cally company that started in 2009 and which they plan to roll-out in China sometime in the near future.

Don't ask me "Why China?" - they must have been the high bidders. :rolleyes:
 
The little VW bus might have been something that someone converted, I never even thought of that possibility, Phil.
I was a traveling sales rep for Combined Insurance at the time, and when I stopped at a house to talk to the people abut their policy, they had the bus sitting out in the yard, and wanted something like $600 for it. I looked at it, and they explained that it had a battery that would go about 25 miles, and then had to plug in to charge up again.
Since they lived a good 10 miles from town, making the trip was iffy, and they decided to sell it. I was driving an average of 1,000 miles a week, so it was not something I could use, even though I really liked the idea, and the next time I was working in that area, they had sold it.
I searched online, and never could find even a reference to it, and now I can see that it was because it was not a regular VW, it was unique.
 
Traveling 1200 miles twice a year would not work for me ( until they invent an extension cord long enough ) but I am seeing more electric vehicles in Florida. The Smart car scares me, just thinking getting in an accident could be a fatal experience. Some places are now setting up charging stations at their business. Good move on their part.
 
Pappy said:
... The Smart car scares me, just thinking getting in an accident could be a fatal experience. ...
Click to expand...

One of our local pharmacies has a fleet of them for delivery. The first time I saw one zipping down the street I thought it was a pregnant mosquito.

The fully-electric Smart car is finally appearing, starting at $25,000 - still a bit steep, but I think as the technology matures and the charging infrastructure builds up the prices should start coming down.

Then the only worries we'll have is where our electricity is coming from - oil, coal, hydro, nuclear ... :rolleyes:
 
Yeah, those smart cars scare me. I actually was passed by one flying down the freeway. Deathwish 2000!

I, too, am concerned about the electricity source. Just plugging an electric car into the outlet at home sounds so easy and wonderful. But, where's it coming from??? I really get irritated when poor battery performance is used as an argument against the electric car. How about some concerted research on improving batteries? That goes for the similar argument against solar power. Research and development, baby! That big ol' nuclear reactor in the sky is the best source of energy we could want. Let's use it!
 
Of course, those of us that are often accused of wearing tin-foil hats would say that the government suppresses any advanced research into alternative fuels because of their being owned by Big Oil ...

Tin_foil_hat_2.jpg
 
Now where did I leave that tin foil hat....oh, yeah I put a flower on it and my friends think it is latest fashion! And yeah, we ALL know that is true about the government and big oil.
 
janfromflorida said:
This isn't something I did on purpose; but I am glad it happened. After my husband died I couldn't afford the payments on our Outlander. So I went to Mitsubishi and came home with a leased MIEV. It scared me at first - how fare will it go - will it let me sit??? It did have a bad auxiliary battery, which let it die a couple of times. But, thankfully that was in my carport. Once they replaced that all is well. I still glance down at the dashboard every time I pass my old gas station and gasp at the prices. Then I have a great big laugh! I plug it in to the house current a couple of times a week over night. So are I haven't noticed any difference in my electric bill. What's not to like?
Click to expand...

We are drooling over those little Smart cars. There are several within a few blocks of our home and they remind me of either rolling nail polish bottles or a St. Bernard's chew toy.

I would love having one, but afraid that SUV drivers would drive right over me, and they need to come down in price before I consider adding another car payment to the budget.

If we cannot buy a Smart car as our next vehicle, I would love having a used PT Cruiser in either black or a metallic blue. We could pick one up for about $5,000.00!
 
My son had told me a while back that he had bought a scooter to get around town. Without being given specifics, I thought he meant something like this:

Scooters.jpg

Turns out after talking this weekend and seeing a pic of it, he's actually got a two-seater, 250cc bike that goes 90MPH and looks like this:

scooter1.jpg

I'm impressed! He gets something like 75MPG and it has a ten-gallon tank, so for something like $35 they can cruise all month around town. Not a bad deal ...
 

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