Fangirl, but yes 
I’ve had VWs since 2004, and I’ve loved them. They are just built well (I keep up on maintenance and haven’t had any major unexpected issues), I like the aesthetic they have, and they also integrate with Apple products really well.
It won’t pass as it is, but some version will pass.
I’m thinking it’s another 5-10 before electric cars are as cheap or cheaper, and there’s a decent used marketplace. We’re not there yet. That’s why we’re going gas this time, with the full expectation that by the time we’re in for our next car that going full electric will make sense. If we were city commuters doing a lot of travel, I think an EV might make sense today, but we’re not.
We also have the issue of a decent amount of long distance travel. I can’t haul a fully loaded pickup truck to cochrane into the bush for a week if it’s electric. I’d be stopping every 10 minutes to recharge, and I’d be screwed when I got there. That, plus hauling our fishing boat around, and/or ATV’s, and an EV means a change in our lifestyle that I’m not ready for yet.
By the time our current vehicles are done, I expect all that to change and we’ll be going EV.
Just had a sponsored ad for the Volvo xc40 pop up on my FB. 
At the risk of taking this happy thread completely off topic (there is an EV thread under the technology sub-forum), I am not sold on the idea.
First of all, ICE vehicles are only being phashed out starting with new vehicle sales starting in 2035 in 3 states (CA, NJ, MA). I might have 3 different cars between now and then. The capabilities of the current crop of EV’s is very underwhelming. It’s tiny vehicles only and most don’t have real world applications to driving longer than 3 hours in a row. There’s a lot of room for improvement on both fronts. Plus, if you live where it gets below freezing (I’m talking to YOU Texas) then a full charge only lasts 100 miles- now plug in for 8 hours.
Maybe gas will hit $10/gallon, but I don’t fear that as much as I fear being stranding with a dead battery in some godforsaken nowhere town like Ogallala Nebraska
1 Like
I “built” one so I think I’m in for it too…
The ID4 has a real world range of 250 miles and a 30 minute charge time to 80%. (And neither of those are best out there) Maybe in east bumfuck the infrastructure isn’t there to support it, but you can get from Michigan to DC or Boston or Florida without risk of being stranded.
This is not a knock against the VW id.4 per se, but against all the EVs available. No review that I have read for any of them have stated that they got what the manufacturer says they will get for miles per charge. Per Car and Driver review "The company claims the ID.4 will be able to drive up to 250 miles between charges " but C&D got 190 miles.
“Stranded” is somewhat a debatable term. I have read current reviews (pun intended) about EV road trips where drivers have found themselves in a bind, like:
Planning to overnite at a hotel with a charge facility only to find the charges occupied for the night by other EVs when they arrive
Having to drive 53 MPH across South Dakota to have any chance at making it to the next charger. That’s 22 MPH slower than truck traffic and 35 MPH slower than other vehicle traffic.
Problems with inoperable chargers.
Problems with charger/adapter for for your vehicle
Problems with the inoperability of the smart phone apps that are required to run the chargers.
Lack of chargers away from main interstates
All these things can and should be worked out, but until batteries can get me a reliable 400 miles per charge in cold weather, I won’t be an early adopter.
Hey now.
Fair enough. C&D did that in near-freezing temperatures (while they tested the Tesla at 75 degrees 
). They also don’t disclose if that testing was in the drive mode or the batter saver mode. More temperate tests have gotten closer to the 250 range, and I don’t care about South Dakota. I have 12 charging stations within 5 miles of my house, and there are convenient and abundant chargers along most of the highways in the area.
Dealer here has two “new” ID4 available at 7500 below MSRP. Must be dealer used. I almost went by last week to test drive, but got busy.
1 Like
I don’t know where in Michigan or where in Florida, but for the sake of argument let’s assume Detroit to Orlando. That’s around 1,165 miles. This is fairly similar to the distance from my house to my in-laws, which I’ve done several times in one day. But to make the math easier let’s just call it 1,150.
If you start fully charged then you can go 250 miles until you need a charge; 900 miles remaining. If it’s 30 minutes to get to 80% that means that each subsequent leg of the trip is only 200 miles. So you’ll also need to make stops with 700, 500, 300, and 100 miles to go. That’s five stops of 30 minutes, or 2.5 hours.
That’s a LOT even if you don’t get stranded AND happen to find charging stations at the precise intervals you need. If you have to stop early because you’ve only gone 160 miles but the next charging station is 80 miles further down the road, then you might even need to make 6 or more stops.
I am definitely not stopped anywhere close to 2.5 hours when I drive to my in-laws’ home. This would be a major inconvenience to me. And an expensive one as I basically can’t do the trip in one day any more so I’d have to take extra time off work, stay in a hotel, and make the drive over two days instead of one.
Now my mom and I did a meandering grand road trip a few years back where the trip was more about the journey than the destination. If there were charging stations at the touristy places we went then it wouldn’t have cramped our style too much.
But if you want to make time then EVs are currently radically inferior to ICEs. That might not be the case when I buy my next car, but for the one I bought last year it was.
To each her own. For me, the idea that I’m not contributing as much to the destruction most of the earth’s species habitat anymore and not having to pay for what is going to be an ever increasing cost of gasoline/oil FAR outweighs the inconvenience of being stopped, especially when the charging stations are often at places like malls or downtown parking garages so we can stop for food, or to use the bathrooms, or just go for a quick walk and stretch legs. I’m easily stopped for 2.5 hours on a 1100-1200 mile trip anyway.
Oregon has a proposal to ban the sale of diesel fuel by 2028, WA is likely to ban the sale of ICE cars by 2030, and CA and MA by 2035. Norway will be banning as early as 2025, and much of Europe follows in the 30s. Maybe you can get one more car life out of an ICE car at this point before gas becomes absurdly expensive and car makers just stop making them, but I don’t understand the incentive to do so. Getting an ICE car is far more financially risky than an EV if you hold onto cars for 10 years or so like I do. If you are leasing for 3 years or something, sure, ICE is fine for the next 3 years.
1 Like
Having an EV doesn’t imply you aren’t releasing carbon, you’ve just changed the place at which it’s being released. Theoretically your EV could be getting charged by coal fired power if you live in the right places.
I use MA’s Green Up program, so 100% of my energy is provided by wind and hydro power (which have their own issues, but not CO2)
1 Like
Well they’re going to need about a gazillion exceptions. Oregon has a ton of farmers and most farm equipment runs on diesel. What are long-haul truckers going to do?
Turbo diesel cars were touted as being a greener alternative to cars that run on regular unleaded gas because the Diesel engines are more efficient.
So it would be quite something if Oregon legislators decided to screw over farmers, truckers, and people who were trying to make an environmentally friendly choice. I’ll believe it when it actually passes.
Not all cars, just new cars, right?
It’s already passed, but it’s contingent on some other goals being met if I understand it correctly. I believe it was the bill that gave momentum to the Greater Idaho movement that has lead to a bunch of Western counties having referendums asking the state to allow them to move the counties to Idaho.
I think it’s by model year for now, but there is already some talk of blocking new registrations of old model years too, which means the resale value of ICE cars will go to 0 pretty quickly.
BTW, I’m not really a fan of most of these laws, but I’m trying to deal with what is likely to be the reality, not what I wish would happen.
What is your rationale for believing that this will happen?
Are lawmakers going to tax it to death? That would be an extraordinarily regressive tax since it will be poor people driving older cars while rich actuaries drive their late-model EVs and don’t pay the tax.
Gas tax has indeed gone up, but not to levels I’d call absurdly expensive. On an inflation-adjusted basis gas was at its all-time low price at some point during Trump’s administration. So if by “absurdly expensive” you mean back to $4 a gallon… sure. That will probably happen. If you mean $20 a gallon… nah. I doubt it.
At least not on an inflation-adjusted basis during the period that I plan on owning my current car. And it sounds like I keep cars longer than you do.