Make Owning EVs Great (Again?) - Stick it to Putin by Decreasing Demand for Oil, Part 3 of 3
Nearly all of the incentives we need - for consumers, businesses, and governments - are already available in most places. Let's make it happen, people.
If you haven’t read Part 1 and Part 2 yet, please start there!
As Before, First Things First
As I mentioned in Parts 1 and 2, we have a dependency on oil that’s like being in a long-term relationship you know is bad for you but you just can’t kick. You’re just so invested in this relationship that making a change now means admitting to yourself that maybe you’ve been choosing poorly. In other words, you’ve bought into the Sunk Cost Fallacy:
The Sunk Cost Fallacy describes our tendency to follow through on an endeavor if we have already invested time, effort, or money into it, whether or not the current costs outweigh the benefits.
In other words, “I’m so invested in this relationship that I can’t imagine not continuing to invest even though it hurts. If I stop, what will people think of the choices I’ve made?”
Congratulations, you’re in a toxic relationship. Ain’t that right, Britney?
We Don’t Need to Drive Using Gasoline for Much Longer
No, really. We don’t. Why? We have all the tools we need to build out EV charging networks and replace our gas-powered cars.
Here’s what I mean:
There are already lots of incentives to install charging stations at businesses, government agencies, and even residences. These are available through state & local governments, as well as through power companies. A good list is available here from Clipper Creek (an EV-station vendor). So, we can build out EV charging networks rather easily via this avenue.
To give you an idea, I got an estimate to install a pair of EV chargers at our house, in the garage. It’d involve purchasing two 50-amp, Level 2 chargers; running the 220V line; and installing the chargers. The cost, before incentives, is quoted at $1,800. This would improve our charging speed. The 110V factory cord that came with the car still works. It’s just slower.
Finding a station is easy using multiple sources. Both ChargeHub and PlugShare are available on the Web and (at least iOS) mobile app. The US Dept of Energy has a site, too. I have PlugShare on my iPhone (though I just downloaded ChargeHub). This allows you to know where you’re gonna plug in along your trip.
No, don’t junk a perfectly-good, gas-powered car unless you want to. But…when it’s time to replace it - or you need another one - get one that, at least part of the time, drives on electrons. It’s not that pricey now and good chance it might even be cheaper than more-gas-thirsty alternatives. There are lots of electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles (PHEVs) available for purchase now.
Nearly every PHEV and EV in the links above qualifies for tax credits and rebates, making them either competitive with or cheaper than conventional hybrid or gas-powered vehicles.
The cost of charging your car will be between 10-50% of gassing it up, depending on where you charge it. If you charge it at home, it’ll be the cheapest. If you charge it commercially (via Blink, ChargePoint, etc.), it’ll be toward the higher end. The higher the gas price, the bigger the savings in either case.
There are plenty of tools out there to cut any anxiety you have about an electricity-only vehicle way down - this stuff is well thought-out. EV early adopters are geeks 😂
However, if not having that gas tank gives you hives, get a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) instead. Your gas mileage will improve. A lot. And everything above that applies to EVs - where the charging stations are, charging options, etc., applies to PHEVs.
Our PHEV Shows You the Way
PHEVs aren’t pure EVs. They have batteries that allow for you at act like you have an EV for 20-30 miles, depending on the model. But the car uses EV infrastructure at home and while out & about, so I can tell you about our experiences and why you might as well look at getting a PHEV or - even better - an EV.
How We Use Our PHEV
Our PHEV is a 2020 Toyota Prius Prime. We call it “Optimus” (get it - Optimus Prime…). It’s my wife’s commuter car. Her commute is about 7 miles one way but along some roads that aren’t optimized for gas mileage - high-ish speeds but lots of stoplights, so lots of acceleration (i.e.: about as bad as it gets). When it’s used for not-commuting, we mostly use it for local grocery shopping, shuttling kids to sports, going out to eat, etc. Standard suburban BS. Most of that can be done on battery power.
It has a ~10 gallon gas tank that we fill up about once per quarter. Our car’s gas mileage has been oscillating around 175 mpg for the last year or so.
The Charger at Our Destination Last Weekend Was Great
We took this vehicle to a winery about 30 miles south of our house. There’s a Blink charger near the winery, at the local police department. In the 1:32 we were there (1:37P to 3:09P), we got ~5.4 kW of charge, which brought us from 0% to 88% charge - good for about 22-23 miles. It cost us $2.11, which is about $1 per 10 miles. It’s roughly equivalent to getting 45 miles to a current gallon of gas ($4.50-ish), which probably beats the hell out of your 15-25 mpg SUV.
Mind you, this was charged on a for-profit EV network, so I’m paying for convenience and use of their infrastructure. My home price w/Portland General Electric (PGE) (we’re on their Basic Plan) would have been ~1/6 the cost:
(6.33 cents/kWh) x 5.408 kWh = $0.342
…or equivalent to 277 miles to a current gallon of gas. In short, using electrons right now is one hell of a great way to power a car.
“But, What About Roadtrips, Jeff?”
I mean, yeah, you have to plan to refuel your vehicle, but you do that for your gas-powered car today. This isn’t so different.
So, if I want to travel from Portland to Seattle, here are my options, according to ChargeHub:
Basically, there are few, if any Level 1 (slow) chargers available commercially. Level 2 (blue - sorta fast) is much more common, and Level 3 (fast) is getting quite common, too, especially on the Tesla network.
“OK, but Oregon & Washington are hippie, crunchy states that love the climate and all that.” Yeah, but not east of the Cascades (basically where the tan starts above)…and even though these areas are quite sparsely populated, there are still a decent number of options for you. I mean, here’s southern Idaho and extreme eastern Oregon:
Seattle-to-Portland it is not, but you have options, especially if your car has longer range (250-400 miles). Just plan accordingly. Oh, and this will only get better over time.
You can do this. You will - for 98% of your uses - be perfectly fine driving an EV, and you’ll probably enjoy it, too. They have pop. And there are charging stations. If you need to drive cross-country…either plan accordingly or rent a different car.
And, as mentioned before, if driving an EV and running out of battery - due to malfunction (not different from a breakdown in your gas-powered car) or your poor planning (again, like running out of gas) - gives you hives, get a PHEV. You’d still need to plan (they don’t run forever), of course, but you get a lot of the incentives of an EV, and you also cut your gas usage by probably 80-85%. You still get all that sweet, sweet EV goodness at your destination but can burn some dead dinosaurs Prius-style (conventional hybrid) on the highway to sooth your mind. In other words, you can mostly stick it to Vlad.
Make it happen, people…
