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Ram 1500 BEV

cochise111

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I needed a 3rd row, so I traded in my '19 for a Kia Sorento PHEV late last year. Besides some bugaboos in terms of Kia's implementation of the PHEV powertrain (ie, the electric motor is underpowered, Kia didn't use an electric heat pump, and the programming sets the ICE engine to kick in under anything remotely close to non-leisurely driving), I thoroughly enjoy it.

It stickers with 32 miles of electric range and off the top of my head I've hit 29 a few times. I have a trickle charger at home and a L2 charger at work, so 95% of my driving is all electric. My last tank of gas lasted just under 1500 miles and my current tank is on track to hit 2500 miles or even more. I pay about $0.07/KwH and the car has a ~16Kw battery, so the economics have worked out very well for me.

We've got some road trips coming up this summer so I expect the overall mpg to plummet down into the 30-32 mpg range, which is what it tends to get when running in hybrid mode, but it's still not bad at all for an SUV.

I think PHEVs are the way to go in principle. More specifically, I think a PHEV as in a well engineered serial PHEV is the way to go. Throw a nicely powerful EV motor or two in there and a sufficiently powerful ICE generator in there to charge the battery under any load conditions and I'd be happy as a clam.
I'm not knocking you, but you ignore the main drawbacks of owning an EV. How will you charge it in the future? We don't have the power capacity and we still rely on fossil fuel for charging. I didn't even address some of the issues. A great majority of the interior and exterior components are products of fossil fuels. Just think about it.
 

KeithStone76

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I'm not knocking you, but you ignore the main drawbacks of owning an EV. How will you charge it in the future? We don't have the power capacity and we still rely on fossil fuel for charging. I didn't even address some of the issues. A great majority of the interior and exterior components are products of fossil fuels. Just think about it.
I agree. Rolling blackouts are already being predicted this summer because of 'green energy' The wind and solar farms just don't cut it with the existing transmission lines. I'm all for nuclear power but I'm sure I'll have stones thrown at me for saying so.

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djevox

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I'm not knocking you, but you ignore the main drawbacks of owning an EV. How will you charge it in the future? We don't have the power capacity and we still rely on fossil fuel for charging. I didn't even address some of the issues. A great majority of the interior and exterior components are products of fossil fuels. Just think about it.
Ssssssh 🤫. People aren’t supposed to think for themselves…
 

PurpleRT

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Still don’t see it practical for somebody like me..maybe if I worked in town then EV wouldn’t be a bad thing. Just as an example drove from where I live in FL up to MO for work yesterday 700ish miles. Stopped twice to fill up might of taken 10 mins to do so. Unless the infrastructure is increased in the future and fast charging becomes common I just don’t see me ever going that route unless I switch jobs. EV makes a 10 hour drive that much longer unless the range gets there along with fast charging.


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Biga

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I think the predicted EV battery shortage is going to be an even bigger challange for EV's then the charging networks. Currently, their is one Lithium mine and one Nickel mine operating in the US and the rest largely comes from China and Russia.
 

habu987

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I'm not knocking you, but you ignore the main drawbacks of owning an EV. How will you charge it in the future? We don't have the power capacity and we still rely on fossil fuel for charging. I didn't even address some of the issues. A great majority of the interior and exterior components are products of fossil fuels. Just think about it.
I'm not at all an opponent of fossil fuel and didn't say I was... 🤷

I like gas, I like diesel, and I like the performance of an electric engine even more. I specifically didn't mention the state of charging since that's been hashed and rehashed here as nauseam, but a PHEV is going to be a lighter load on the power infrastructure than a full BEV, hence why I think PHEVs are the way to go.
 

cochise111

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I'm not at all an opponent of fossil fuel and didn't say I was... 🤷

I like gas, I like diesel, and I like the performance of an electric engine even more. I specifically didn't mention the state of charging since that's been hashed and rehashed here as nauseam, but a PHEV is going to be a lighter load on the power infrastructure than a full BEV, hence why I think PHEVs are the way to go.
Never did I say that you didn't like gas. I just made the point that EVs are not viable until we devise a completely new method of charging. BTW, love your Chesty quote. Semper Fi!
 
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djevox

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I think the predicted EV battery shortage is going to be an even bigger challange for EV's then the charging networks. Currently, their is one Lithium mine and one Nickel mine operating in the US and the rest largely comes from China and Russia.
I honestly hope that and ongoing chip shortage slows down technological advance for vehicles a little bit. We can’t afford to have vehicles be as buggy as laptops.
 

WXman

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I agree. Rolling blackouts are already being predicted this summer because of 'green energy' The wind and solar farms just don't cut it with the existing transmission lines. I'm all for nuclear power but I'm sure I'll have stones thrown at me for saying so.

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I think if the Chernobyl disaster hadn't happened, nuclear power would have grown more than what it did. It's extremely efficient, extremely "clean", and can produce massive power. But, IF something goes wrong...........
 

djevox

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I think if the Chernobyl disaster hadn't happened, nuclear power would have grown more than what it did. It's extremely efficient, extremely "clean", and can produce massive power. But, IF something goes wrong...........
3 mile island is another nail in the coffin. Since that happened, no new nuclear plants have been commissioned in the US.
 

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