by Outcast_Searcher » Sat 05 Feb 2022, 13:55:22
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AdamB', '4')0!!!! WHAT!!! I didn't even realize crude was climbing back to where it should be for the health of the world (if not double again even) and the sheer magnitude of how much I've been spoiled by EVing everywhere for a year was a shock!
Okay fine, sure, I can afford to fill up the car/snowmobile a couple times a winter, but I DON'T LIKE IT. I'm thinking maybe studded snows on the Leaf next year.......
I sure won't be buying any more pure ICE's, even though I don't drive much (even when Covid goes to an endemic state). I think FINALLY, EV's are getting to the point that there will be a lot of them and lots of places to charge them. And with the Toyota HEV system, with the 150K mile / 10 year warranty on that, the small premium for an HEV will easily pay for itself in terms of gas savings. And if WTI averages over $100 a BBL over time, it will pay for itself several times in the 200,000ish miles or more a quality modern HEV should provide.
For a PHEV or BEV, it will depend on economics at the time. Hopefully batteries, like the Tesla LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate) chemistry, being safer, cheaper, and longer lasting, will make the economics compelling for BEV's, making them super common by the time I'd prefer another car as I age.
Hopefully by then, I can also (confidently and easily, re that being common) use it as a reliable power source for the house in a power outage (we just had an ugly ice storm, and it got to be a near thing re lots of people losing power -- I have a whole house generator, but if that doesn't start some time, that's ugly, so I'd like to have two backup systems). Given the cost of batteries like Tesla Power Walls, I'd rather have an inverter setup, keep the BEV charged at 80%+ when bad weather threatens, and save $20K or more on dedicated power backup batteries.
Given the track record of the perma-doomer blogs, I wouldn't bet a fast crash doomer's money on their predictions.