Question of the Month: Will the next car you purchase be an EV or a Hybrid Electric Vehicle?

e14 Question of the Month

Fast chargers and improvements in battery technology are alleviating some of the concerns that people have with EVs; however, hybrids and ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles can still be great cars. Take the poll and let us know what kind of car you would buy, and please tell us why in the Comments section below!

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baldengineer over 2 years ago in reply to Andrew J +5

I haven't done the math. I'm just going on the assumption that since my car sits in the garage for up to 7 days not doing anything that there will be enough energy collected to drive it the couple of miles…
robogary over 2 years ago +5

I historically keep a car for about an average 20 years, 150k-200k miles. I do the mundane maintenance. Since my latest purchase is only 5 years old, it will be another 15 years until I'm ready to see…
Andrew J over 2 years ago in reply to beacon_dave +4

They'd have to have a lot of heavy duty lifting trucks for when the vehicles flew off round the corner!!

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0 baldengineer over 2 years ago

Even in a heavy year, I barely drive 5,000 miles.

My goal is an EV charged by solar (while in my garage.) Not because of anything related to environmental impact or "saving money (the biggest lie anyone tells themself when buying a car)," but because I think it would be so cool to drive a car around that is recharged mostly by sunlight. I think it is possible with how little I use mine.

However, none of the current EVs are appealing to me. Especially the one I used to be interested in.
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0 Andrew J over 2 years ago in reply to baldengineer

I think it is possible if you have the roof space at home but I suppose the question is where to best use the electricity it generates - in the house, or in the car. Perhaps you can afford a great number of panels :) There was a Hyundai which came with a solar panel as a roof but it only generated a piddling amount of electricity to recharge the battery.

What are you particularly looking for in an EV and which one were you interested in?
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0 baldengineer over 2 years ago in reply to Andrew J

To be clear, I meant panels at home on the garage's roof to re-charge the car when not in use.

(Not panels ON the car, which is what it sounded like I initially wrote. I doubt that's viable anytime soon.)
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0 Andrew J over 2 years ago in reply to baldengineer

I assumed that was the case. At the moment, it would require a lot of power generated by solar panels to recharge a car (e.g. for mine, it would take around 24KW to recharge from 50% to 80%) but frequent but low amounts of charge might work. Hopefully battery technology and PV technology will improve and become cheaper to become viable because I agree: it would be really cool to recharge purely on sunlight.
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0 baldengineer over 2 years ago in reply to Andrew J

I haven't done the math. I'm just going on the assumption that since my car sits in the garage for up to 7 days not doing anything that there will be enough energy collected to drive it the couple of miles when I do need it.

Maybe for now, I'll just settle for a system that recharges the batteries of my yard tools.
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0 Andrew J over 2 years ago in reply to baldengineer

I bet you that would (technically) work if your mileage is so low and infrequent. It seems to be the in-thing to move to a large solar panel array with batteries but it's pricey!! I'd like to do that but I can't see us being in our current house long enough to get payback, which is a shame.
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0 Andrew J over 2 years ago in reply to baldengineer

I bet you that would (technically) work if your mileage is so low and infrequent. It seems to be the in-thing to move to a large solar panel array with batteries but it's pricey!! I'd like to do that but I can't see us being in our current house long enough to get payback, which is a shame.
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