Thinking about a new electric vehicle?

If Musk refuses to release information about environmental impacts, it’s probably because they are dirty.

One thing to keep in mind with plug-in hybrids is they aren’t especially “green”. They sort-of save a few bucks but overall they are a massive compromise that gets you worse performance in either mode. They do solve the charging and range issues but don’t save much on carbon emissions especially if charged from the motor or if utility power is heavy on fossil fuels.

It sort of depends on why you want a plug-in hybrid. If it’s carbon emissions, you may need to look close at the details. Unfortunately no recce‘s on plug-in hybrids, though.

@TheyShouldHaveVaxxed Arrrrghh nooooooo. 😥😂 I think most of our electricity here is hydro. One of the places that has a plug-in station has solar panels so I'm not sure if any of the electricity in the charging stations is from solar or not. The one I actually plan on getting is supposedly the "greenest" car https://greenercars.org/2022-toyota-prius-prime-49921 but I have no idea how accurate this is. That didn't really impact my decision. Not all dealerships around here sell electric cars and can't do maintenance on them but Toyota can. I already drive a Corolla so there's also the comfort of driving Toyotas. I'd really just like to live in a place with a good public transit system but that's hard to come by.

@vaxordemonsnax the Prius Prime would likely be a good one. I can’t really say how green it would be but it’s going to be hugely better than a whole lot of other cars. Toyota is late to the EV party but they’ve been really good with hybrids.

Hey 41years, I don’t really know which will be good and which bad but I bet it’s not unlike their other cars.

Here’s some good resources, though…

insideevs.com

All of the pricing, specs, range and performance figures on today's plug-in electric cars sold in the U.S. can be found here in easy-to-read table form.

https://topelectricsuv.com <-not sure why not expanding but lots of EV news

About feeling guilty, the Polestar company put out a report showing the carbon contribution of their Polestar 2 compared to a gas-powered Volvo XC40. The thing is EVs have a lot of carbon involved in manufacture and then, depending on the mix of energy used to charge it can get worse from there. Best is wind, solar, or hydro but if coal, oil, or gas is involved in charging it can really cut into the green benefits of EVs.

VW is building their EVs with renewable energy to offset their carbon contribution but not all manufacturers do that.

EVs still end up being a net benefit but if you don’t feed them carbon-free electricity you can really undermine the value. Best is home charging from excess solar production but it all helps. Maybe not as much as people think, though. Public charging on coal/oil/gas utilities isn’t near so good.

To some extent, if you already have a good gas-powered car that gets good mileage, you can do better by the environment by continuing to drive it until you actually do need a new car. Then get the EV. Or, if you have a good fuel-efficient vehicle, what’s the value of freeing that up for someone else who might replace a gas guzzler?

The big take home I get from this graph from Polestar is the best way to help fight climate change is to use an EV charged from clean energy sources. That energy mix can be a significant source of carbon.

For anyone reading considering solar to feed an EV, look for systems that provide backup power when the sun is out even when the grid is down. Enphase has those now and they are new. You get low cost solar but also it wakes up during the day and still generates power even if the grid is down. It’s like also getting an emergency generator. Until this new kind of system, when the grid goes down, solar won’t generate electricity unless it’s in a battery backup system. Regular basic solar shuts down when the grid goes down. (I have no ties and get nothing from them for mentioning this.)

@TheyShouldHaveVaxxed Thank you, TheyShouldHave. Good stuff that you've posted. Maybe I'll sit tight. My. 2012 runs fine and gets decent mileage. And, frankly,I hardly ever go anywhere. Lots to think about.