My husband has one...a Nissan Leaf. I have driven it once, just to see what it is like. Not only is it quiet, but there is no lag between hitting the accelerator (well, it's not a gas pedal) and moving. One has to be careful with that.

My brother and his wife both drive electric cars. Hers, a Leaf, has a shorter range and causes nothing but grief IMO....she's late because she has to charge, or can't find someplace to charge, or is renting a car (somewhat regularly) because she has a meeting at a distance where she can't manage a round trip without charging. Take a passenger or use heat and windshield wipers, exceed the speed limit and its even worse. Brother has driven a Tesla for the last years. not sure how many. He leases them, changes models every three years. He loves it. I'm indifferent and wouldn't want it. They had the wiring added to their garage so that can do the quick charges at home at night.

Where we live (out on the coast in the middle of no where), I want something with a full fuel tank that will take me to Seattle or Portland and home again without worrying its going to stop. I have that. I drive an SUV and have space for guests, Costco shopping. DH keeps it full for me at all times and all I have to do is get in and start it, worry about nothing until parking again in the garage.

Maybe there will be a day when electric is the norm, charging stations convenient and plentiful. That will come more slowly to rural areas. We do have a Tesla charging site here in town. There are three Teslas locally that I know of. At the very most, I have seen one car there using it just a handful of times. Again - Life moves at a slower pace here ;0)

I've been a passenger in two Teslas. One belonged to my employer, who leased it for a few years and now drives something else. While he didn't have any problem finding places to charge it (he lives in LA), ultimately he didn't like the enormous screen, which he felt was a distraction, and the general 'feel' of the car. The other is the smallest model, which belongs to a friend of mine, who loves it. I found the ride quite stiff, and prefer something cushier.

Yes. My niece and nephew own 3 Teslas. They get decent mileage per charge......about 350 miles or as much as my old SUV does on a full tank.

I live in a particularly environmentally concerned location and electric cars seem to outnumber the fossil fuel powered ones. Many places have charging stations. And there are likely more Teslas here per capita than most anywhere else I've been. I swear I see at least one every time I leave the house!

I've just read that 6% of Americans drive electric cars today, but that all the automakers are planning to discontinue gasoline fueled autos as fast as they can. Tesla has the most experience with electic cars and has developed the best lightweight batteries; other makers are playing catch-up. Electric vehicles are a boon for Planet Earch.

Our DIL's sister and family drove roundtrip SLC to Chicago this summer in a Tesla SUV. No problem charging; you just have to plan for it. I'd welcome one in the event our 2005 Jaguar X-Type finally dies. (We've put 43K miles on it).

Here's a thought I've had, you're in the middle of nowhere and you run out of gas, you can walk to a station and get a can of gas of have one brought to you. What do you do on an electric only car - no such thing as a can of electricity. Don't think I'd every want one.

There are Tesla Supercharging stations from border to border, coast to coast, along all the interstate highways. And regular charging stations all over the place, small towns, truck and rest stops along highways, etc. There are maps and internet sites/services that provide that information, and I believe Tesla's driver info system (as part of the GPS and central command system) has such current info available.

Just like planning the gas in your tank, planning stopping to eat, planning a room for the night, you plan where you charge when on a long drive or when driving into the boondocks. I've known several people who have driven their Tesla's across the country and back (pre-covid) and they all said it wasn't a problem.

I've never run out of gas, I've never even had a close call. Not even when I was a foolish, happy go lucky teen driving all over the place. It's not that hard to plan for what you need.

Electric cars are the future, and are even mandated in California for a date about 15 years out. Like so many other things, I expect to see that rule adopted elsewhere in the coming years.

Even for the cars with the smallest ranges, a full charge provides multiples days of driving for most people. Like most new things, too many people are inclined to say why something they know little to nothing about wouldn't be suitable for their needs. Those who are a little more open-minded and adaptable seem to be buying them and, judging from people I know with Teslas and other brands, find them to be very useful and cool to drive. A friend of mine scared the xxxxxx out of me with the acceleration from a dead stop of his Two Motor Tesla 3.

Most people charge at home, at work, or at regular stops they make in their normal lives. The ability to charge at home makes an electric car even easier to keep "full" than a gas one, because a home charging system is open 24x7 right where you park your car.

Very happy to hear this.....My DH makes car batteries at his plant, here in Holland Michigan. LG Chem. Amazing process and plant.

We have a Tesla S, I only drive it occasionly, I prefer higher cars (my Audi Q7), but my DH loves it, we do have a charger in our garage and rarely go to the Tesla charging stations. I look at them as I do electric bikes, make sure you have a big enough battery or it won't be a nice drive, some of the ecars out there are good for a short sprint to a nearby store.

What does a charging station charge?

^^^ I am tempted to say "the battery". ^^^ I know, snarky humor. Sorry.

I have never seen a place of business ask for money for a charge. Of, course you would have to install the proper charging station at home. The 0 to 60 thing is a rush...pushed back in the seat like a jet taking off. Kind of fun.

Lots of storage with a trunk and a frunk. More leg room than you would imagine. Comfortable seats.

There is more road noise than you would expect.

Traveling in rural areas can be challenging with a lack of charging stations but that seems to be improving.

Oh and don't let small children know that the big central touch screen has a doodle pad option....Oy.

No thank you. I don't want to plan trips around charging a car or finding a charging station.

I think they're nice but we would never be able to recharge one at home. For fast, over night charging we would need a 240 volt circuit. We are currently maxed out on circuits in our 30 year old home and would have to have a new line brought in from the electric company.

My daughter has a Tesla Model S with the "performance" package. It has "ludicrous+" mode, which is truly ludicrous. 0-60 in like 2.5 seconds. It feels like your face is melting off when you "launch" in ludicrous+ mode. It's a fun thing to do, but other than that, it really has no soul or "feel" and is, at the end of the day, just a car.

annztoo, you may need a higher amperage panel or a secondary panel and perhaps some new wiring in the structure to supply the charging station but likely not a new "line" feed from your utility.

In the US, feeds to structures are 120 volts and most houses have two. 240 volt circuits are very common and are produced by simply putting together the two 120 volt lines. If you have central air conditioning, an electric water heater, an electric dryer or an electric oven, these are always 240 and so that's already been done in your house in that way.

We were seriously considering the Jaguar iPace but ultimately decided, though fine for around town, it would be less than ideal for road trips. In addition, there isn't an available bicycle rack that will hold two bikes. It's fun to drive!

Doesn't CA already have issues with rolling blackouts? How will sufficient electricity be generated under the mandate? Perhaps the powers-that-be are counting on a continued exodus yielding a lower population and less energy demands.

Elmer.....unfortunately it won't work in our case. We found this out while planning to upgrade an old barn by running a line to it from our existing panel. Power company came out and they found we're occasionally pulling more than we're allotted and that we'd have to have a new line pulled from the main road if we added anything else.

Since then we've had an electrician come in, put in a new panel and rewire parts of the house. At least our electric bill decreased!

We do have a large house, and a secondary living area downstairs.....so usage adds up.

I had thought about a hybrid or electric this last time, two years ago, but ruled out most of the electrics because in my comfortable price range the ones available either had some type of "you can charge by using the brake" which I did not understand or their range was around 100-120 miles. My favorite asian grocery store is on the other side of the city and is a round trip of 80 miles. The idea of making a reservation to stay overnight while the car charged to go half way around the city did make me laugh. If there is a next one I will probably not be going to that store.

I think the garage is already wired for 240 because it has those older round plugins. Of course for whatever strange reason that plug is about ten feet from the floor.

" pulling more than we're allotted"

Interesting, that's something I've never heard of. While my investor-owned utility is required to participate in all the public benefit and conservation programs our state PUC requires, as well they should, within the confines of that, large users are good customers they appreciate, not problems.

Are you in some sort of cooperative or rural service area?

I find the screen on the dashboard astonishingly distracting as well. Teslas are still the "in" cars where I live. I don't care for them.

Coincidentally, one of the presidential candidates (guess!) mentioned in the debate tonight that he would like to see to it that another 50,000 charging stations were added across the country. Don't recall if he mentioned a time frame.

The Electrical Workers Union has buildings in my neighborhood. They have hundreds of solar panels on the buildings. They have a large bank of auto chargers in their parking lot and I think there are yet more solar panels on the hard canopy over the charging stations.

Wish I could show you the beautiful way the Union has lit up their biggest building. It's an old midcentury modern four story, and is really tastefully lit in purple and blue at night.

Maifleur - that may be a washer or dryer plug in your garage.

Here's some food for thought. It would be interesting to see who is benefiting for all these charging stations, another case of follow the money trail.

I drive a 1997 Silverado pick up. It is still in good shape. As it needs repairs, tires, whatever, I have it taken care of. I keep the maintenance up. I have no plans to get rid of it.

When it takes only 5 minutes to fully charge an electric car as it takes to fully fill a tank of gas without going out of your way and get the same kind of mileage between fill ups, then people might think about getting an electric car.

Here's another thought - how much can an electric vehicle tow? Can it carry a half ton load of gravel? Can it carry twenty sheets of ply?

Apparently not yet, but soon: https://www.trailerlife.com/towing/tow-vehicles/will-your-next-tow-vehicle-be-electric/

Raye probably not a washer or dryer because those are original in the older part of the house. The reason I think it is 240 is that the original stove was from the 1960s and also had the round type of plugin. But thanks for the suggestion.

I do have an actual question for those who have installed the electrical outlet in your house. Not on it now but the diagrams urging people to take advantage of a special Leaf pricing showed the charging outlet at the entrance to the garage and not in the back. Is that the placement of yours?

The last time I went to fill the truck and gas cans the pump I chose was slow, really slow. Like 30 seconds per gallon. I was getting 35 gallons, so I was there about 20 minutes altogether. I didn't want to switch to another pump because I had used the discount card and was getting 80 cents off per gallon, for up to 35 gallons.

I was going crazy waiting and waiting. To face twice that time every time I would need to "refuel" an electric vehicle would be unendurable.

Disposal of batteries is a problem than can be addressed by mankind. Damage to the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels can only be slowed, not fixed. That's why electric cars are important to everyone.

When I get into my car and drive down streets, more than 80% of the vehicles I see are not suitable for hauling gravel. That means few people see that to be a requirement of what they drive.

Raye, towing capacity was another reason we elected not to pursue an electric vehicle. We wouldn't have been able to attach a hitch to the iPace and though we have an SUV that has a hitch for boat and trailer, DH wanted the new vehicle to have at least some towing capacity. Don't know about other electric cars though and what they are or aren't capable of in that regard.

Have anyone check out the prices to replace the electric car batteries. The Chevy Bolt battery cost $16,000 to replace. Let alone batteries lose on average 40% of their energy in cold weather. Then with the loss of battery plus hauling heavy objects up the hills around here, the dang thing would be charging more than rolling.

Price of the batteries ;0) I was wondering when someone was going to mention the price of the cars. The electric car my brother drives is more than $100,000. I could buy two brand new of what I'm happily driving now and donate the car in my garage for $100,000.

"Have anyone check out the prices to replace the electric car batteries. The Chevy Bolt battery cost $16,000 to replace"

Have you checked out how much it would cost to put a new gas engine in the car you currently drive? People do continue to drive their cars when the factory warranties lapse.

If you're worried about it, lease one for 3 years. Lease rates are cheap now with low interest rates.

Electric cars have a long long way to go to meet up to the performance of a gas car. My son's in laws have a hybrid. It's still a clown car, but I can see the hybrid having more promise than an all electric car in the future.

I have never know anyone to replace a cars engine, unless it was a vintage car for show. The average engines life is 150,000 to 200,000 miles. By that time you are due for a new car. It's rare to replace engines, it's usually other components that go bad first.

I was wondering when someone was going to mention the price of the cars.

Not all electric cars are Teslas. Hyundai and Chevy both make models for around $35K, and as with all newer technologies, prices are certain to come down in the coming years.

"My son's in laws have a hybrid. It's still a clown car,"

You seem to have several biases, no need to try to compete with them

For many of the past 10 years, the Toyota Prius was the #1 selling car in California. You see them everywhere. My wife drove one for 6+years, replaced it when something else attracted her attention. With 90K miles on it, we sold it for more than half of what we paid for it new. It gave reliable service and great mileage with no problems the entire time. The same drive technology is available in many different Toyota models, including the Lexus SUV that several people I know own and love.

I have a friend with a plug-in Prius. He finds that the charge, from a normal 110v connection, is suitable for most of his daily driving. He's said he doesn't buy gas even once a month and only then when he has an out of town trip to make.

There ought to be more clown cars like Toyota hybrids available to buy.

Clown cars are ok for a second car around town, or for 2 people who don't travel. Growing up we had 2 VW bugs, but we also had a family station wagon.
Our SUV is always filled when we travel. I couldn't imagine a family with kids trying to travel on vacation in a clown car.

Remember in a Tesla there is a trunk and the additional storage space in the front where an engine might have gone. The front trunk=Frunk. Lots of room for luggage.

I think our Tesla has a range of 250 miles but I'm not sure, I rarely drive it. we charge it at night when the rate is the lowest. We have solar, so our total electric bill is low, but for us it is still better to charge at night with the lowest rate. The Tesla supercharger stations are free for the life of our car, they may charge new buyers in the future, who knows. They are placed by shopping centers and restaurants for convenience. I haven't been to one in a long time. MY DH does brag to me about how much money he saves on gas and service, but I laugh since he paid so much for the car.

Elmer,

The issues of battery disposal and the toxins related to that and fossil fuel emmissions can both be adressed by mankind if we are willing to make the sacrifices necessary. I don't think one has an advantage over the other.

functionthenlook, when you say "clown car" do you mean very small car? I honestly don't know what you mean. I'm not familiar with electric cars either, so I cannot guess what you mean other than very small.

matthias_lang Yes, small cars = clown cars

Well, that sounds kind of insulting.

What is insulting. Clowns are fun.