February 11:Still want that EV?

Want to save a bundle and no longer have to stand by your car pumping gas into it on a brutally cold winter's day? You know the answer, don't you? Of course, the answer is to get an electric vehicle, an EV. Like cannabis, the so-called miracle smoke, electric cars are being touted as the answer to everything involving transportation.

When someone says electric vehicle, what comes to mind? The majority of us would say Tesla, since they had the very first fully electric car. Well, didn't they? Not exactly, as EVs were among the first cars way, way back when.......

And if you know your car history, you'll know that nothing much happened with Baker or any other EV manufacturer from those many years ago. But EVs were always on the radar of those with better imagination than yours truly. For many years, my only experience with an EV was with those strange little one or two person city cars seen throughout Europe........

Practical for one person, as long as that person wasn't carrying a briefcase and their lunch. One or the other, you chose. But Tesla changed all that. Now every company lusts after your EV buying dollars and you better have plenty of them.

The issue..........

The problem? Unless you plug your EV into a supercharger every night, you stand the very real chance of not having enough capacity to get you home at the end of the day. And unless you have a supercharger, you'll need more than just overnight to fully charge up your eerily quiet new ride.

Brass monkey weather? Then throw your range calculations out the window, as the AAA recently found that cold weather, say around -5 Celcius, lowered your range by 41%. Get that, FORTY ONE percent! Now that's an eye opener, folks.

And what if you live in an apartment building? Think they'll install a supercharger just for you? Not likely.

Still considering an EV? Want to save the planet, etc? Not as easy as you might think, since at this point the tsunami of EVs is still a couple of years away. And governments are becoming less likely to pay you to take one off of Tesla's or anyone else's hands.

I've nothing against EV's, but they aren't for me. I've driven a Tesla and was impressed with the head snapping acceleration of this super quiet EV. But I love the sound of a fully engaged gas fueled power plant. That appeals to me, not some insanely quick, but library quiet Tesla or its like.

Heart still set on your quiet driving, no gas bills future? Then bring lots of cash. Even the bargain basement Kia Soul is around $42k Cdn, while the next least costly, the VW E-Golf is about $1500 more. Next up the ladder, the Nissan Leaf is closer to $45k CDN, with the equipment someone spending that kind of coin wants on their EV. The prices of a Chevy Bolt or Hyundai Kona stretch over $50,000.

In my book, any of these EVs require real money to put one in your name. You'll want to make your purchase out of principle, since the purchase price of any EV currently on the market negates any savings at the pump, unless you drive coast to coast every couple of weeks, but then that brings up another set of problems.

My head isn't in the sand. I know that our EV future will be quite different than what it is today. Still at this time EVs are not an easy purchase, so it will be awhile until we see this scene everyday........

What's a ship doing in this car blog? This week my wife and I will leave for three weeks, going to Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines (lots of unique car pictures). Two weeks of our trip will be on this beauty......

So a holiday for all of us. Me from writing, you from reading.

Until next time, Tuesday, March 12th........