Why Do I Drive EV (Electric Vehicles)?

I started driving electric cars in 2015. The first car was e-Golf SEL, top of the line, it had Navigation because it didn’t have CarPlay at that time. I was driving an A8L to work and it costs $300-$400 a month for gas. I went to a dealer and got a lease for this car with $2500 down and $257/mo for 3 years. At this point I didn’t know much about $7500 federal, if I’d bought it outright it would be less but that’s fine because I got back $2500 from CA and $500 from PGE so it’s like $0 down.

2015 e-Golf was good for 2.5 years, didn’t cost a dime to drive, only electricity.

2018 bought a new 2017 e-Golf because it’s $8500 discount, SE (base) model has CarPlay so it doesn’t need Navigation like SEL, has full important options, heated Windshield, mirrors, seats. I’d bought it for our daughter when she got her license. The 2017 has range of 150 miles. Changing the car in 2015 did not have to pay extra although we used more than specified mileage lease. This time we got $7500 + $2500 + $500 and 0% interest. Running for nearly 2 years 17k miles, didn’t spend a dime, in 2019, the salesman called for a cheaper price than the previous period and had more Adaptive Cruise Control, front and rear detection, spot monitoring, $11k less.

2019 sold the 2017 car for $ 14,500 even though it was dented, scratched, white doesn’t seem good for us, bought gray. $33400 – $11000 – $7500 – $800, this time CA does not give $2500 because less than 2 years, only one rebate every 2 years.

The car has been running for 27k miles now, and has not spent a dime on maintenance, because it has nothing to change and maintain, the brake fluid is still there. Just charge and go.

2018 electric cars were so greate, mother-in-law complained that the 2005 Honda Accord that she bought only had 50k miles on it, but it wasn’t reliable, power door locks broke, CEL happened all the time, battery, fuel consumption, a month to pick up her grandchildren to go to/from school which cost $400. To make her life easy, bought a beautiful red MBZ 250e, really new, only 18k miles, $18k. She drives so happily, when she takes kids home, she plugs it in herself, and the next day it will be full of electricity, it’s quiet, beautiful, and doesn’t cost money, running until now has not done anything, hasn’t spent a dime.

Now let’s talk about cars with many miles or fewer miles. Car 2015 has run 110 miles, I go to work 24 miles one way, a total of 50 miles, charge once every two days. Car 2017, 2019 can run 150 miles or better, charge once every 3 days, but the department gives free charge, so when they are free, I can always charge it at the office. The government gave Solar rebate money, I installed one, and got $7000 rebate money.

Now talking about rebates, when I filed my tax return for the year I bought the car, I paid a lot of federal tax, more than $7500, so when I entered the year, the car, the vin#, it knew immediately and refunded $7500 immediately on the refund. at the beginning, cash when it deposited into the bank yourself. The CA rebate needed more work, has to scan the long sale contract, wait for the registration to come back, sign the paper for it to see the tax return, send it all over the internet, a few weeks later it sends the check back. Until 2019 PG&E gave me $800 check because I have an electric car, since 2020, this no longer offered.

Now talking about electric charging at home, each car gives me a level 1 electric charge cord, ie 3kWh, so it takes a long time to charge but just plugs into any 120V electrical outlet in the garage. I went to buy a level 2 7.2kWh electric charge ($250), it only took 1-2 hours to fill the battery because the battery only had 40kWh but I never charged it when it ran out. Charging after 11PM is only $.20/kWh.

Now talking about electricity and gas consumption, both of my cars are good, running at 5 miles/kWh ie 6kWh runs 30 miles and costs $ 1.2. No car in my house can run more than 30mpg. Now suppose I have a car with 30mpg, then 1 gallon of gas = 6 kWh = $1.2 for electricity. A gallon of gas is now $5. So why do I keep saying that I have to see how many miles/kWh the electric car I want to buy can run, the freeway e-Tron can only run 2miles/kWh ie 15kWh for 30 miles = $3.75 for electricity, but ID4 gets 3.7miles/kWh . In fact, even the mother-in-law’s Honda Accord 4 engine can’t run 30mpg because no one ever runs freeway, if you really calculate it, every week when filling up the gas tank, reset tripodometer to 0, then when filling up with gas Go back and look at the total number of miles, divide this number by the exact number of gallons of new fuel.

Now let’s talk about batteries that lose capacity over time. I run 2019 e-Golf for more than 2 years, the battery still gives me 160 miles in the summer and 140 miles in the winter. The MBZ car of the mother-in-law in 2015, when bought 81 miles, now after 3 years it is still 81 miles in winter or summer because MBZ as well as Audi only charge up to 80% of the battery, so it does not decrease over time. . Tesla charges 100% of the battery, so it advertises to run many miles, people who know how to use only charge 80-90%, its range will decrease, this is self-use LOL.

What I and my mother-in-law see when driving an electric car instead of gas car is that many mornings it’s cold, the car starts, sometimes it doesn’t crank because the battery is weak, every time I drive away, I have to press the gas hard for it to run, the car doesn’t leak oil on the floor when it’s old, never had CEL light on, three years didn’t know what the dealer was, didn’t have to check the oil because the car burned oil, it was cold, there was no transmission hiccup or because the oil couldn’t get up in time, didn’t change the oil, didn’t change the air filter, the gas filter billions silly thing. The mother-in-law agreed that I had retired from the car business for her, so that her mind could be happy to take care of her children and grandchildren.

Everything I write here is my own experience, as I said in previous articles about money, the great feelings when you have no debt that many debtors have never enjoyed, as well as the lightness of mind. Because of the convenience of electric cars that many people have not enjoyed, it is impossible for us to live in this US without an electric vehicle to run. Whoever plays golf knows how to run an electric golf cart, same as my electric car, like riding a bicycle, don’t warm up the engine, just get in the car and go.