I am not, by nature, an early adopter but I married one and that has led me outside my comfort zone more than once over the last 25 (or so) years...most recently with the purchase of a plug-in electric vehicle.
Don’t get me wrong, I firmly believe the future is both fewer automobiles (I am a bicycle commuter nearly every day) and no automobiles that run on fossil fuels. But for me that future was, well, in the future. For my wife, that future was more like now.
We did our research, we looked at the subsidies, we considered the weather here in the Bold North and it was the weather that worried us the most. It was hard to find data on how the cold would affect battery range — and even harder to find range data that addressed questions like, “What happens to range if I want to run the heat?” I pointed out, on more than one occasion, that these are the sort of questions only early adopters have to wrestle with. My wife was unamused.
We ended up purchasing a Hyundai Kona EV. My wife did not like the look of the Leaf. She really liked the Tesla but the most affordable model is rear wheel drive which is not a great fit for Minnesota winters. (Fun fact: You can easily get the Tesla with front and rear wheel drive — Electric motors are so simple all they do is put in a second motor (which costs about $10,000)). Plus the Hyundai had a better federal rebate and a 10 year warranty (vs 8 for the other vehicles we were serious about).
So here is some data based on our actual experience
In the summer and fall (temperatures 50 F and warmer) the Kona has a range that tops out at 305 miles. You’ll lose one or two miles of range if you plug in a cell phone to charge. The AC is a battery hog — dropping your range by 40-50 miles. The radio seems to be “free.”
Once the temperature falls below freezing the range the battery provides drops to about 253 miles. And two days ago, when the temperature was -20F the range fell to about 251. Turn on the heat and it is 181. Turn on the fan to the second notch (so the heater is actually useful) and run the front windshield defroster and the range is 165 miles. Oddly, turning on the seat warmers (which are really nice) does not affect the range. I do not understand why and the science teacher in me really resents that.
Leave your Hyundai unplugged in a parking lot all day when it is -20F and the range when you exit your place of employment to drive home will be exactly what it was when powered the car down on arriving in the morning. Same if you leave the car unplugged for a couple of days.
So, what does it all mean? Here are my thoughts.
- If your commute is 60 miles or less (one way), an EV is a perfectly reasonable choice right now. You will be able to drive to and fro with a solid margin for the unexpected.
- If your commute is 120 miles or less and you can plug in at work an EV is a perfectly reasonable choice right now. You will be able to drive to and fro with a solid margin for the unexpected.
- If your commute is longer than those scenarios, you have my sympathy. But you also have my advice to wait. Wait for the technology to improve. Wait for chargers to be more available. Wait...no matter how much your early adopting wife tells you not to. (In fairness to my wife, she was also an early adopter of me and that’s worked out pretty well).
- Keep an eye on federal subsidies. Your tax dollars will pay us perhaps as much as $7500 in the form of a tax credit for 2021 for the purchase of our EV — Thanks! When the Build Back Better bill seemed to have a chance at passing it would have been $12,500. That’s a big enough difference to matter.
- The current cost of an EV is high. The break-even point is long. I think we can look forward to costs falling...but the subsidies will eventually go away. The intersection of maximum subsidy and minimum cost is the sweet spot. I don’t know when that will be.
- It costs us about $1.20 to charge the battery. Well, actually it usually costs about a third of that because my wife’s round trip commute is about 45 miles.
- We did have a smart & fast charger installed which uses off-peak electricity to charge the battery. That was about $1000 until the electrician discovered our electrical box was maxed out. It was about another $1000 expand our home circuit box. Maybe add that to the list of things to be checked on when you are considering buying a house (or an EV).
- Maintenance is hilarious. When the car told us it was time to be serviced, we made an appointment with the dealership where they...rotated the tires. (Cost = $0). When I bought the car the finance guy gave me a certificate for lifetime free oil changes. Then everyone in the room laughed.
- We pay our electric utility a few dollars every month for “green” electricity — which around here mostly means windmills. That doesn’t mean the electrons being pumped into the car’s battery are necessarily from a windmill but it does mean our utility guarantees the capacity. (Plus electrons aren’t being pumped anywhere — we use alternating current!).
- Eventually you won’t be able to trade in your gasoline powered vehicle because there won’t be a market for it. That won’t happen next year...but it is going to happen.
And now you know what I know.
Happy Sunday.