7 ms·

I’ve thought my next vehicle would be an EV since 1998. But next time for sure.

dhosek 5y ago
With our last purchase, we went half-way and got the plug-in hybrid Chrysler Pacifica minivan (which replaced a Prius which replaced a Mazda 6 so it's been a continuous evolution). It's likely that the next car will be a full-on EV. Assuming you have an acceptable parking/charging solution available, a plug-in hybrid is a good option. The Chrysler uses gas more often in the winter to run the heater but even before the pandemic, we'd go a year on five tanks of gasoline (four of which were in the winter months).
- fuzzer37 5y ago
  I'm curious if you've run into any issues (Or worried about) cycling gas that long. I know that gas can "go bad" over the span of 6 months - 1 year. Do you ever intentionally run the gas, just so you can burn some and put new in?
  - kingofboom 5y ago
    After a certain amount of time (and/or some other conditions) the Pacifica hybrid will go into "fuel and oil refresh mode" while you are driving and start using the fuel to run the engine.
  - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
    In a modern sealed automotive fuel tank gas isn't going bad in 6mo. Most fuel injected cars will run on years old gas well enough. Your lawn equipment with its poorly sealed fuel tank and carburetor is a different story.
  - gwbas1c 5y ago
    It has a pressurized gas tank. The way I found out about the Pacifica plug-in was when I rented a conventional one, and noticed that it also has a pressurized gas tank. I usually do a 180 mile round trip once a month in mine, so I don't need to worry about bad gas.
  - AngryData 5y ago
    Gas doesn't go bad as fast as people pretend. Yes it has lost a bit of octane rating sitting around, but unless you are driving a 30+ year old performance engine with high compression your car isn't going to notice the loss of a few octane points. Anything within the last 15 years measures and adjusts for fuel octane rating automatically and won't care, and anything non-performance that is older was designed expecting fuel octane to be lower than what it is sold as. Also these days most places add 10% ethanol to all pump gas which has a higher octane than gasoline and is replacing some of the old high-octane components of fuel that evaporated and caused gas to go bad sooner.
  - dhosek 5y ago
    As someone else noted, it will occasionally go into fuel and oil refresh mode and run the engine if it doesn't happen naturally.
- gwbas1c 5y ago
  Do you have problems charging on a 30 amp charger? Mine will randomly stop charging when it's a 30-amp charger. (But it charges fine at 15 amps.)
  - jgwil2 5y ago
    Is your 30 amp wire at home? Do you have a 30 amp circuit breaker as well? An electrician told me that if there is a mismatch between the current and the circuit breaker amperage it can cause the software to think that something is wrong (not sure how the car's software would infer anything about the breaker but so I was told).
  - dhosek 5y ago
    I honestly have no idea. We use the stock 120V charger at home and occasionally will charge at a public charging station if it's available. I couldn't tell you word one about amps.
rootusrootus 5y ago
Once you switch, it's hard to imagine ever going back. No more gas stations, dramatic drop in fuel cost, always ready to go fully charged each morning. I'm addicted.
- dylan604 5y ago
  Do you live in a house with your own dedicated charger? How does this apply to someone living in an apartment or other similar situation to not having dedicated chargers?
  - rootusrootus 5y ago
    Sure, there will always be some folks that cannot, for whatever cause, enjoy overnight charging where they park. For those folks, it is essentially a lateral move. They can enjoy the performance benefits, of course, but their running costs and convenience probably won't be any better with an EV. Who knows, though, maybe one-plug-per-spot will become enough of a selling point that apartment owners will start to deploy the infrastructure. I don't think it will affect EV adoption one way or the other, however, at least not for a number of years. Apartment dwellers are just a fraction of car owners.
  - xeromal 5y ago
    I live in an apartment in SoCal and have an EV. I just charge on the weekend and haven't had much issues, but yeah, it can be an inconvenience. My "full tank" is only 7$ though so I can't complain. lol
    - dylan604 5y ago
      Not being an EV owner or someone seriously considering getting one enough to research the cost of a "full tank". Does that full tank charge (in $$ not volts) come out to the same if it's a super/hyper charger vs charging at home? I'd assume using it would be more expensive at a public charger since it is a business providing a service so markups on electricity would be expected. Just hadn't thought of it in those terms before.

With our last purchase, we went half-way and got the plug-in hybrid Chrysler Pacifica minivan (which replaced a Prius which replaced a Mazda 6 so it's been a continuous evolution). It's likely that the next car will be a full-on EV. Assuming you have an acceptable parking/charging solution available, a plug-in hybrid is a good option. The Chrysler uses gas more often in the winter to run the heater but even before the pandemic, we'd go a year on five tanks of gasoline (four of which were in the winter months).

fuzzer37 5y ago
I'm curious if you've run into any issues (Or worried about) cycling gas that long. I know that gas can "go bad" over the span of 6 months - 1 year. Do you ever intentionally run the gas, just so you can burn some and put new in?
- kingofboom 5y ago
  After a certain amount of time (and/or some other conditions) the Pacifica hybrid will go into "fuel and oil refresh mode" while you are driving and start using the fuel to run the engine.
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  In a modern sealed automotive fuel tank gas isn't going bad in 6mo. Most fuel injected cars will run on years old gas well enough. Your lawn equipment with its poorly sealed fuel tank and carburetor is a different story.
- gwbas1c 5y ago
  It has a pressurized gas tank. The way I found out about the Pacifica plug-in was when I rented a conventional one, and noticed that it also has a pressurized gas tank. I usually do a 180 mile round trip once a month in mine, so I don't need to worry about bad gas.
- AngryData 5y ago
  Gas doesn't go bad as fast as people pretend. Yes it has lost a bit of octane rating sitting around, but unless you are driving a 30+ year old performance engine with high compression your car isn't going to notice the loss of a few octane points. Anything within the last 15 years measures and adjusts for fuel octane rating automatically and won't care, and anything non-performance that is older was designed expecting fuel octane to be lower than what it is sold as. Also these days most places add 10% ethanol to all pump gas which has a higher octane than gasoline and is replacing some of the old high-octane components of fuel that evaporated and caused gas to go bad sooner.
- dhosek 5y ago
  As someone else noted, it will occasionally go into fuel and oil refresh mode and run the engine if it doesn't happen naturally.
gwbas1c 5y ago
Do you have problems charging on a 30 amp charger? Mine will randomly stop charging when it's a 30-amp charger. (But it charges fine at 15 amps.)
- jgwil2 5y ago
  Is your 30 amp wire at home? Do you have a 30 amp circuit breaker as well? An electrician told me that if there is a mismatch between the current and the circuit breaker amperage it can cause the software to think that something is wrong (not sure how the car's software would infer anything about the breaker but so I was told).
- dhosek 5y ago
  I honestly have no idea. We use the stock 120V charger at home and occasionally will charge at a public charging station if it's available. I couldn't tell you word one about amps.

rootusrootus 5y ago

Once you switch, it's hard to imagine ever going back. No more gas stations, dramatic drop in fuel cost, always ready to go fully charged each morning. I'm addicted.

dylan604 5y ago
Do you live in a house with your own dedicated charger? How does this apply to someone living in an apartment or other similar situation to not having dedicated chargers?
- rootusrootus 5y ago
  Sure, there will always be some folks that cannot, for whatever cause, enjoy overnight charging where they park. For those folks, it is essentially a lateral move. They can enjoy the performance benefits, of course, but their running costs and convenience probably won't be any better with an EV. Who knows, though, maybe one-plug-per-spot will become enough of a selling point that apartment owners will start to deploy the infrastructure. I don't think it will affect EV adoption one way or the other, however, at least not for a number of years. Apartment dwellers are just a fraction of car owners.
- xeromal 5y ago
  I live in an apartment in SoCal and have an EV. I just charge on the weekend and haven't had much issues, but yeah, it can be an inconvenience. My "full tank" is only 7$ though so I can't complain. lol
  - dylan604 5y ago
    Not being an EV owner or someone seriously considering getting one enough to research the cost of a "full tank". Does that full tank charge (in $$ not volts) come out to the same if it's a super/hyper charger vs charging at home? I'd assume using it would be more expensive at a public charger since it is a business providing a service so markups on electricity would be expected. Just hadn't thought of it in those terms before.