Questions About EVs? I Have Answers.

I've had my Subaru Trailseeker for a few weeks now and haven't installed a level 2 yet. Level 1 works just fine for daily commuting and I'm able to top it off overnight if I haven't driven a ton the day before.

I wonder if Saudi Arabia is deliberately keeping oil prices high, and this is essentially the only reason electric vehicles make sense

My rural place of work has free battery electric car charging. Most of the people I work with cannot afford an electric car.

Some (Ford) used EV’s are really, um affordable. Because the batteries are shot and a battery costs more than a used Prius.

My 2015 Nissan LEAF has 11/12 battery health bars remaining (roughly 85% state-of-health). The LEAF is special in the fact that the first and second generation models have basically zero thermal management for the battery except for a small heater that turns on at temperatures below -17º C, and even that is only in model years 2013 and later. There is no way for the car to cool the battery down when it gets too hot. The battery is just a big metal box, and when the battery gets too hot, the cells start to cook themselves and range is permanently lost. If my 2015 LEAF has retained 85% of its battery health over 11 years of charging with a very lackluster thermal management, it stands to no reason that newer EVs with active thermal management and liquid-cooling will last at least twice as long. I got a steal of a deal for that LEAF. The dealer told me lots of people came in, have a look at it, and say its really nice, but as soon as they tell the customer that it only goes 77 miles, they are no longer interested. I was, though. I only drive 20-30 miles a day. Even in winter, the...frankly, anemic range still covers my daily commute and I can recharge it overnight on a LEVEL 1 charger. I have spent $0 on charging infrastructure. The charger came with the car.

I can think of one situation where having only an EV could be a problem.

We've had an EV and a gas-powered car since 2011. This was more of an issue with the earlier EVs since they had much shorter ranges than today's models, but if your EV isn't fully charged and you suddenly have an emergency that requires driving farther than its remaining range, you could be in a difficult spot.

We actually experienced this ourselves. Our youngest son was hit by a car and had to be airlifted to a trauma center quite a distance from our home. We'd been using our EV throughout the day, and it didn't have enough charge left to get us there. Thankfully, we also had a gas-powered car, so we were able to leave immediately. If we'd only owned the EV, we would have had to wait for it to charge or find another way to get there—something you definitely don't want to deal with during an emergency.

Wish you’d talked a little more about public transit for apartments. Requirement parking for apartments is already a huge waste of space for dense areas and having reliable public transit would be much better than requiring chargers to be built.

Technology connections mentioned!

hank can u explain why we cant have solar panel cars yet?

I hope I’m not the only one that freaked out when you added Wings to Chemical, Blues, and Blood 😂

An electric scooter even more an electric bike is more efficient or even more so just a bicycle, you pedal. Keep you fit too. Third world is turning to this fast as to Solar panels, see Pakistan.

Us nerds are so cute. We’ll argue about ghosts in the data and forget that data oughtta apply to lifestyle not the other way around

I live in an apartment (very small building, only 4 tenants) we have street parking. Would getting a hybrid be worth it? since I wouldnt have charging ports at home but there is a gas station near me with some but Idk how expensive it would be to have to always go to the gas station to charge 😅

While it's unlikely that the battery craps out, it's still scary to know that your car could get bricked and there is no safety net available. I think the main problem isn't even the battery life or reliability, it's the exorbitant cost of replacement and the fact that replacement batteries carry a much shorter warranty. Tesla charges like $15k to replace a battery, which is usually greater than the worth of the car by the time that becomes a concern. Even a full engine replacement in an ICE car is much cheaper than that. And battery degradation is a real worry. 20 years is great, but that's not long enough to compete on the longevity front with gas cars. my car is 20 years old and will go at least another 20 just fine. I truly believe those early 2000's Toyotas can live forever.

If you’ve ever driven a manual transmission car, same concept as “one pedal driving”

My mom's 2016 Tesla Model X is suffering from "battery issues". I ran some tests and found that it simply burns power 33% faster than when it was new. Yes that sucks, but it is not unusable. So when it says she has 100 miles of range, it is really 75 miles. Again, sucks, but it's not 0 miles of range and it's not 25 miles. It is not that dramatic of an issue. My mom also regularly drives an average of 150-200 miles per day so this is the main reason it stresses her out. But technically she would be fine to start the day topped off at 80% and do everything she needs to and still make it home, granted maybe with 10% or so remaining.

I moved from Silicon Valley CA to Austin TX last year in my Tesla Model Y and it cost me $85 in charging to drive the 24 hour road trip. I have IBS so it meant I needed to frequently stop for the restroom which was just a million opportunities to charge. Ridiculously cheap, I basically feel like driving costs $0 in fuel.

1:50 I need more collabs between these 2.

Please do a video about Aptera.

I put in two level 2 chargers but I've got them sharing a 50amp breaker to save money and both cars can get about 30 miles per hour while charging and that's still significantly more than we need

Bought a used Model 3 and my family said it was a bad idea.

3 years later their gas cars have broken down and I'm still riding😂

1-2 year old EVs are a great deal.

“EV only makes sense if you can charge at home” 1) not if your home electric rate is well over 50c/kwh 2) if your car is often parked somewhere with free/cheap charging you don’t need home charging (work charging, 3rd space charging can work)

Bro just said battery life is not an issue with buying an ev.😂😂😂😂

People and regenerative breaking piss me off. They stop so much earlier than the stop light

As a plumber, I don't think ev is doable. I know a flooring guy that loves them, but he's usually at the same job all day, while I go to at least 3

Watching these videos, I’m always stunned at how almost every question and answer is asked by and directed at urban people.

Why are all electric cars in eu so expensive and big. I want something like a kei car mystic mini pop bee camper and is imposible to buy or import. Why am I forced to have something bigger than I dont need. I want small I want cute and moveing somthing smaller should cause the enviorment less? So why illegal kei cars?!?

Just want to say ecogeek and companies like it may have created a market to pressure Tide to become more sustainable. Fully dissolvable packets (not plastic) and cardboard boxes. Almost had me convinced with their ad

EV would not work for us, but we love our hybrid, which still gets 45mpg.

8:57 we need it!

I've heard the car batteries don't need to be charged off at 80% but is ok to do the whole 100% and not worry about any battery deficiencies down the line. Or was i misinformed?

There's also some very interesting up and coming technologies on the Battery Recycling space - check out American Battery Technology out of Reno

Hank, I use a detergent that sells some of their products in aluminum tins. Has this option been explored by EcoGeek?

Although you are entirely correct about all of this, what never fails to bother me a bit in these discussions is that EVs tend to be hailed as the be all end all solution to the emissions that ICE vehicles produce. But we know that's not the case, we know that city design is also hugely influential in reducing emissions from transportation generally. Obviously your videos are not intended to echo or amplify this sentiment but I would really love to hear your thoughts generally on this point

I commute 60 miles a day. L1 is totally fine for ~10 hours a night because I can make up for it on the weekends when I don't commute.

Only EV I’ll own is the one that can drive me without my input. You get a personal driver and an EV at the same time.

Hank one thing to note for 15:30 is that you DO lose range in a gas car. Well maintained gas cars will lose like 5-10% of their MPG by 100,000 miles due to wear on various components, its just that it's hidden and they're so quick to fill that we don't typically think about it whereas EVs can actually quantify that loss

Hey hank, I watched this when it first came out but didn't buy a car yet. Yesterday we bought an ioniq 5 so now I'm rewatching this. Thanks for that! Unfortunately my brother will be using it as his commuter car with over 40 miles one way, so looks like we may need to get that level 2 charger

The one huge thing which is very important but wasn't mentioned regarding the durability of EV batteries compared to smartphones is that the vast majority of car drivers quickly cycle through 100% of their phone battery, but won't typically go through 100% of their car battery on the vast majority of days. More like roughly 10% of it a day. So, thanks to them being large in capacity for road trips, they are cycling an order of magnitude slower compared to smartphones. And thanks to this, they can be used in a healthier range for the battery without sacrificing their range because only a fraction of it is needed between charges. And that's even before taking into consideration tweaks to their chemistry to make them more durable.

It's no surprise that if they are used very little on most days, they are going to last a very long time.

I was really close to buying an ioniq5, but this whole iccu issue is scary

It’s odd because hybrid vehicles have existed for a long time now and I’ve never heard of them having their batteries replaced

17:52
Yes I actually did pause the video. You didn't see Sesame Street right away?

Nearly 50% for 2 years as a really good deal. Will you change the battery pack when it expires or will you just sell it and go to something else?

Have you considered installing a dedicated solar charging station for your car?

Now I’m having serious fomo. I was looking at a Ionq but was just a little worried about the price and some other things. I ended up going with an older hybrid Ford C-Max energi with one owner and low miles. I love it actually but it’s just a plug in hybrid (I get like 12-20 miles of full battery) and I wish I would have went with a more full on EV. I do drive a shit ton for work but I think I could have made it work. There’s always next time.

It’s insane how long I’ve gone without changing my brakes. This is my first car with regenerative braking and it blows my mind. I do all my own maintenance when possible, so it’s weird to me lol. But I’ll take the savings for sure!

I love your content, but as an electrician if you use the standard 120 V plugs in your garage to charge your vehicle it does put quite a bit of strain on that circuit. Eventually becoming harmful if it is a 15 amp circuit. Sometimes the outlets on 15 A circuits use the quick connect style connection. There is a small piece of spring steel that is maintaining the electrical connection. If you are pulling 12 A for long periods of time on a regular basis these connections can go bad causing arcing and heat buildup. It may be fine for a little while, but eventually like anything, mechanical it will fail. In my experience, this kind of load causes things to fail relatively quickly. Just something to be aware of. 👍