04/11/2023
5-month EV review
Well we are coming up on five month driving and owning my first electric vehicle, and so I thought I would share my experience in five separate subjects:
1. Value
2 tech
3 drivability
4. Adapting to EV
5.Would ibuyit again
1. Value: A year ago I had zero interest in buying an EV.Ithought they were too expensive, too small, couldn’t charge them, and they were slow..Boy was I wrong.
After discovering my EV Guru,Kyle Conner on “ Out of Spec Motoring” I quickly learned that EV ownership was not only something Icould afford, but it was also something that I could fit in and charge for free for three years . Oh and fun too
The vehicle I bought was the 2022 VW ID4 was originally $48000 but they came with a $7500 federal tax rebate and $5000 in local rebate which brought the price down to about $35500 plus taxes etc. In addition I received three years of free public charging which means for the next three years i can make a cross country trip for free. On EVs all you pay for is tires and windshield wiper fluid. You may go the entire life of the vehicle and never pay for brakes, and there are no oil changes etc. After the three years of free charging is over, you can charge at home for about 5cents per kilowatt hour and the ID4 holds 77kilowatt hours so math says that 77 times 5 cents is about $3.85 per”tank” your electricity may vary. At high rate mine is 11 cents at peak which is about $7.77for a fill up which get about 250 miles, so in my opinion I love never going to a gas station again or paying for car service. So value is a check.
2. Tech. Compared to my 2015Ram pickup the tech on this thing is amazing. I love what it can do. It drives itself, but I supervise closely.
Compared to Teslasand Cadillac my tech is about a 6 out of ten but I’m ok with it. If you are a tech fanatic you may look elsewhere.ask me and I Can point you in the right direction. The tech would not prevent me from buying this car again.
3. Drivability. This car is so comfortable, quiet and smooth. I love noth8ng more than to start seat massage, turn on some music and open the panoramic roof and take a nice smooth, quiet ride. For the price this car is surprisingly comfortable. Avery smooth ride.
4. Adaptability. This car was built by VW to be a great way to get people used to driving an EV who have never driven one before. You can set it on comfort setting In“D” and barely tell you’re in an EV or you can put it in “B” and basically drive with one foot which I love. I love getting on the freeway and putting it in auto and let the car do the driving with my supervision of course. You will adapt to this new and improved way of driving within just a few minutes, and likely never want to go back.
5.Would I buy it again? Oh yeah.I must say that short of my Harley I haven’t owned a vehicle that I look over my shoulder on my way into the house. I LOVE THIS CAR! I will never go back to paying for gas.I am so glad I went EV and would buy this again in a heartbeat but I also would like to buy the new Ford F150 Lightning all electric pickup truck. You can run your house for a week on this giant rolling battery if you need to.
Summary. Beginning in 2030 it will be illegal to sell new gasoline vehicles in the state of California so the writing is on the wall. I love the idea of being able to put up some solar cells and in the worst case scenario be able to charge my car for free and not have to rely on a country that wants to kill us or oil companies that want to rip us off. If I could fit on an electric mortorcycle I would own that too.
If you have any questions feel free to ask, but if you want to learn where I learned about electric vehicles, go into you tube and look up “out of spec motoring. They also have several other out of spec channels like out of spec reviews, podcast etc. the owner of the channel set an EV record for the electric gumball rally from Brooklyn NY to Santa Monica CA in an electric Porsche Taycon in about 48 hours charging at stations along the freeways. He did it to demonstrate that it’s now time that people can drive cross country in an EV without worry.
Hope this inspires someone to at least look into this subject. Let me know if you have any questions.let me know your EV story and how you like it.
