Electric Vehicles (EVs) are much safer (Point #3)

I'm going to base this on Tesla but I think most modern EVs have similar points because a large amount of battery weight is low and contributes to vehicle mass. The lack of a large engine up front in Teslas doesn't hurt either. Here's a photo of a multiple roll over wreck in a TM3:

The wreck maintained a safe space for the driver - Tesla glass fractured but didn't shower the driver and multiple airbags prevented injury.

Fire - A constant Boogieman of the petrodollar captains is fire. Oddly the same folks rarely point to gas fires which happen at a ratio 5 to 1. Here's a link :

Teslas are not more prone to fire than other cars 

More to follow.....                                                           

Climate change is real (Point #2)

Point number 2 from my What's so great about Electric Cars is:

Climate Change is real and electric cars help reduce the transport sectors contribution to greenhouse gases. 

If you watch climate deniers (CDs) they basically try to exhaust anyone trying to reduce their carbon footprint or publicly make a case for climate change. In a forum hundreds will pile on in a gang, many nasty name callers, some argument regurgitators from Fox or petrodollar sites, and a few believers.  So lets not tire myself writing endless rebuttals when a number of science based sites have it down pat.  First up consensus in science, from our science video log friend Joe:

 There is climate change consensus in science 

Busting Climate Change Myths - Answers with Joe

Every major CD argument is busted here

Skeptical Science dot com

If your petrodollar funded argument is already debunked on this site, I will simply point to it. Removing a great deal of wasted time. Which is one of goals of the advertising agency, the same one used for cigarette companies, hired by the oil and conservative lobbies. FUD is not going to be used to waste our time here.

So electric cars have their own carbon and climate change cost - therefore gas!

Even well to wheels examinations of electrics vs gas which include the climate costs of battery building and all other components, find electric cars in worst case coal generated electric areas to be more efficient. The study is quite conservative as well - not much examining just how often EV owners have solar roofs, keep EVs longer, or turn in batteries for recycle and alternative use.  Electrics win period.

ucsusa lifecycle ev emissions

Money. Money is everything. Screw grandkids etc. I live my limited lifetime only for Money. Therefore gas!

You still lose. Gas cars are still a little cheaper upfront. They are more costly overall due to the cost of gas plain and simple. They will soon be cheaper upfront as economy of scale hits. Even today though add in fuel and maintenance the Electric Vehicle (EV) is cheaper! For those with very tight budgets consider a used Chevy Volt. This car has 40 mile battery range supplemented by gas for long trips. It's battery has proven very long life with minimal degradation and the overall maintenance as a used car is very low. Finally used models can be found in the $10-15K range.

Ucsusa.org - cv report ev savings.pdf

Batteries are toxic! The Sky is falling! Therefore gas!

Batteries in the past maybe. Lead acid, Nickel Cadmium.  Even those recycle well.  Lithium is plentiful and can be mined low impact from salt flats. Recycling can happen in stages now - first being using whole exhausted car systems in home backup.  Then after an additional ten to twenty years doing that, we are next going down to full materials recycling. The most problematic trace element Cobalt is now down to less than 0.5 percent in a Tesla Model 3 battery sled. Here again Tesla has committed to full recycling of all the materials in their batteries.

That should block 99% of the Climate Skeptic Trolls. Anything new needed from comments I'll post below.

Tesla Sunset for the $7500 Electric Vehicle credit

Tesla has announced they will have sold 200,000 electric vehicles under the U.S. Federal EV tax rebate program.

This means you need to have title in hand with your Tesla by Dec 31st 2018 if you want to save $7500 the following year on your taxes.  It only works if you pay Federal tax of $7500 to receive the whole rebate - if your withholding covers you 7500 tax or more, it comes as a refund.

How was my predictive ability? On April 15th 2016 my prediction in this blog was Tesla would be here a quarter year earlier - that the phaseout would begin in Q2 2018. Check it here:

A plan for credits

Not bad for 26 months ago. I've been interested in a careful reading of the rules because it influences my Tesla buy too.  My March 2018 bought Tesla Model 3 gets a full $7500 but with my income level I'm probably closer to getting $7200.  Good enough for retiree work. A tax filer is eligible for one car buy a year and you have to keep your car one year. No quick resales etc.

My Leaf was at the beginning of the program and got the full rebate. The following year the Think EV also got the full rebate. When my TM3 rebate comes in it will be a total of about $22,000 in incentives to buy electric during this decade - not too bad considering I get to keep some of my tax money and help the environment.

What does this mean for you? If you are buying a Tesla in the US and pay enough taxes to cover:

Buying by Dec 31st 2018 means a $7,500 tax rebate in your pocket in 2019

Buying in 2019 by June 30th 2019 means a $3750 tax rebate in 2020.

Buying in 2019 after June 30th 2019 means a $1875 tax rebate in 2020.

Buying in 2020 means you have a shiny new Tesla - no rebate though.

While some lawmakers are trying to extend the program it would be surprising if the Republican congress did it - but still worth hoping for. It will be interesting to see how this affects sales. At least it gives Tesla 18 months to pump out as many incentive sales as possible.

My Cousin posing with the Tesla charger:

A Connecticut Yankee Weekend

I had the pleasure of putting another 850 miles on the car for a long Thursday - Sunday weekend.  My friends the Bellaflores invited me up to Connecticut which sounded great.  Indeed it was a great time.

With the Tesla Model 3 the trip from the bottom central area of PA to the top of CT cost me $6.11 in supercharging. Now even for supercharging that's wildly low. Last time I went to visit cousins in Boston I paid about $30 for supercharging in NY and MA.

I had been told - but didn't believe some CT superchargers are free for the Tesla Model 3. Normally we pay. Indeed this turned out to be true:

Darien, CT (NB) No Charge $0.00 <---This is on 95 near Stamford CT.  I was down to about 10 miles but was pleased to be able to make it to CT to charge. I also found that the Milford CT supercharger was Not free. Which BTW is fine - supercharging is still way cheaper than gas.

So my energy usage and price was:

Way up:

75 kwh (kilowatt hrs) Full home charge before coming up (My power is $0.13 per kwh (but was probably solar.) call it  - $9.75

42 kwh Darien, CT 7/5 Stop 1 (approx 35 mins)                                -  $0

(Caught in traffic jam going up on I95 so I decide to make a second stop for electrons to drive around Groton on...)

38 kwh (approx) Milford CT  7/5 Stop 2 (exactly 34 mins)                 -  $6.11

Way down:

65 kwh Darien, CT 7/8  (close to 1hr)                                                  - $0

70 kwh Home charging back to full @ 0.13 per kwh             about    - $9.10

Now I admit I'm estimating $18.85 in local power usage at wind rates when it was probably covered by my solar system. Still it's coming from somewhere such as my solar acquisition cost so let's use my wind rate. Add $6.11 in dollars and you have $25 in electron juice or 2.9 cents a mile.

The single stop down was covered time wise by a bathroom pitstop and a coffee break - again not inconvenient.

Gas Buddy Avg CT cost July = $3.03 x 30mph -> roughly 10 cents a mile or $85 for the trip gas.

With the $60 savings I took my friends to dinner for kindly having me up!

Happy 4th of July - Tesla - The MOST American car!

The most American car was in a 4th of July parade.

Don't take my word for it - check out Ben Sullin's Youtube analysis of Tesla being the most American car.  Happy Independence Day everyone.

Youtube - Tesla is The Most American Car Company