3 ms·

My car is already very quiet, and I have never in around 20 years of driving put the accelerator anywhere near the floor anyway. I guess it’s “nice” to have bet

My car is already very quiet, and I have never in around 20 years of driving put the accelerator anywhere near the floor anyway. I guess it’s “nice” to have better acceleration and I appreciate people drive differently than I do, but doesn’t accelerating hard waste charge in an electric car too? I visit a gas station about once a week for maybe five minutes, that’s another “I guess that would be nice”, but it doesn’t bother me and I would probably visit the convenience store part anyway, so it’s not worth any kind of electric car premium and I’m not sure about the downsides - what if I forget to charge at home overnight, getting a charger at home, what do I do when there’s a hurricane and no power for weeks, etc. Also, this is not limited to electric cars, but I have one car with a bunch of controls moved to the touchscreen and I’m never doing it again.

mcbits 5y ago
> what do I do when there’s a hurricane and no power for weeks If I ever (can afford to) buy an electric car, this is actually the strongest selling point for me. It's enough of a reservoir to keep my most important electronics powered up for weeks.
- Amezarak 5y ago
  My 'most important electronics' might be different than yours, they're my AC, well pump, and refrigerators/freezers. :) But yes, you can still run them for a while...as long as you're willing to make the tradeoff that you can't leave the house without losing power, and using the car as your home energy supply means trading transportation charge for power. That makes me uneasy. And of course, where I might be able to get in the car or my old beater truck, drive 50 miles, and come back with 50 gallons of gas, generator running for my family all the while, I guess recharging the battery would be...a much more troublesome venture. If gas stations have trouble with capacity during those times, then the length of the charging time is going to have a massive disparate impact on the lines on charging stations. It's going to be nightmarish. And I also have to think about husbanding my car charge so there's enough to leave and get recharged... I think the "car as backup generator" is a fantastic idea for those unpredictable short blackouts that happen once in a blue moon, just not for hurricanes. I probably would buy an electric car before I bought an automatic whole-home generator.
colinmhayes 5y ago
The acceleration isn't about pedal to the metal, it's about the delay between pushing the gas and the car beginning to accelerate. Obviously none of these things are must haves, but imo and in the opinion of almost everyone I've asked, electric cars are more enjoyable to drive than ICE ones.
- Amezarak 5y ago
  I think most people are pretty content to drive cars that are not "enjoyable" to drive. There are a lot of ICE cars out there much more fun to drive than the average commuter car. I don't think people other than car and maybe tech enthusiasts rate this factor very highly - which goes back to what I'm saying, I don't think the major car manufacturers are really losing out because they don't have a popular EV out right now. Even when I do hear about Teslas (I do not see very many here), people seem much more excited about the "it drives itself!" (invariably all have been majorly oversold on the capabilites of autopilot) and almost never mention the EV part. I do think automatic cruise control and lanekeeping are nice features particularly on very long drives, but those two in particular are widely available now.
  - colinmhayes 5y ago
    I'm not trying to say an EV will change anyone's life. It's just a little bit better than an ICE car in every way except road trips.

mcbits 5y ago

> what do I do when there’s a hurricane and no power for weeks If I ever (can afford to) buy an electric car, this is actually the strongest selling point for me. It's enough of a reservoir to keep my most important electronics powered up for weeks.

Amezarak 5y ago
My 'most important electronics' might be different than yours, they're my AC, well pump, and refrigerators/freezers. :) But yes, you can still run them for a while...as long as you're willing to make the tradeoff that you can't leave the house without losing power, and using the car as your home energy supply means trading transportation charge for power. That makes me uneasy. And of course, where I might be able to get in the car or my old beater truck, drive 50 miles, and come back with 50 gallons of gas, generator running for my family all the while, I guess recharging the battery would be...a much more troublesome venture. If gas stations have trouble with capacity during those times, then the length of the charging time is going to have a massive disparate impact on the lines on charging stations. It's going to be nightmarish. And I also have to think about husbanding my car charge so there's enough to leave and get recharged... I think the "car as backup generator" is a fantastic idea for those unpredictable short blackouts that happen once in a blue moon, just not for hurricanes. I probably would buy an electric car before I bought an automatic whole-home generator.

colinmhayes 5y ago

The acceleration isn't about pedal to the metal, it's about the delay between pushing the gas and the car beginning to accelerate. Obviously none of these things are must haves, but imo and in the opinion of almost everyone I've asked, electric cars are more enjoyable to drive than ICE ones.

Amezarak 5y ago
I think most people are pretty content to drive cars that are not "enjoyable" to drive. There are a lot of ICE cars out there much more fun to drive than the average commuter car. I don't think people other than car and maybe tech enthusiasts rate this factor very highly - which goes back to what I'm saying, I don't think the major car manufacturers are really losing out because they don't have a popular EV out right now. Even when I do hear about Teslas (I do not see very many here), people seem much more excited about the "it drives itself!" (invariably all have been majorly oversold on the capabilites of autopilot) and almost never mention the EV part. I do think automatic cruise control and lanekeeping are nice features particularly on very long drives, but those two in particular are widely available now.
- colinmhayes 5y ago
  I'm not trying to say an EV will change anyone's life. It's just a little bit better than an ICE car in every way except road trips.