EV's and Cold Weather

[seanmclean]

Did you receive a letter or something instructing you to buy an EV? Nowhere in this country is it impossible to buy an ICE, these lofty goals idiot places like California set? Yeah, its all bullshit, and anyone with an ounce of critical thinking knows that. Remember the 55mpg CAFE standards? Yeah, that's supposed to be in place for 2025. It's not, and not a single thing will come of it, and you're still free to buy whatever vehicle your heart and wallet can contend with.

This is what government does, it does it to encourage you to have children, buy a house, and dozens of other kinds of behaviors that they feel need to be steered, incentivized, or discouraged. It would be nice to have an EV discussion without it being rooted in your political camp. I'm certain none of you are refusing a child tax credit or interest deduction because "the man" shouldn't be influencing your decisions. Shit, just decide on your own. I bought one - no tax credit coming my way, because its an excellent piece of technology that is fun to drive, costs very little to operate, and meets my needs for this vehicle purchase. I only did that because I have the luxury of additional vehicles to choose from when I need a different capability -if it doesn't fit in your lifestyle, don't buy one. If you live in the middle of nowhere and drive 500 miles a day, just don't friggin buy one. If you don't want to spend an extra thirty minutes on the 6 hour trip you take once a year? Don't buy one.

In my day, Americans liked to make up their own minds and not parrot everything their favorite mouthpiece shared.

 

[zpaul]

Agreed it is political BS.
However, because of those unrealistic CAFE standards were set by certain administration, now Ford is making F150 with aluminum panels to reduce weight to increase milage. Because of this political BS V8s are disappearing from the market. You can't buy Tundra truck with V8 anymore.

At least 16 more states jumping on CA wagon to prohibit ICE sales by certain year.
States Banning Gas and Diesel

Go to Home Depot look at bulb section you can't even find regular bulbs, all LED. I like LEDs. But to your point if I don't - I can't buy it anymore.
Look and Gas powered lawnmowers - soon they will be a history, same as light bulbs. And battery powered ones cost double.
Gas stoves are already prohibited in new builds in some states. You say I can buy whatever I want?!?!? No one is preventing me?!?!
I am 100% sure that if I get new build - I will not be allowed to put gas line into the house - because there is no gas line for that community. And I prefer to cook on Gas not Electric.
So dumb government decisions are forcing BS on manufacturers and those happily jump on that wagon just to find that consumer doesn't really want it.
So, I strongly disagree that it is just incentivized through the tax credits and as an American I can do whatever I want.
Look at Teslas - a year or 2 ago people were paying nuts prices for it with $0 incentives, full price $60-120K.
Today in Maryland you get $10,500 in incentives and 10% off if you get Tesla from current inventory. And there is NO line there.
And again those who want latest tech, believe it is cheaper to operate can buy it without $7,500 hand out.
How do you create the line for EVs if incentives do not work? - increase Gas prices by cutting oil production and prohibit ICE sales!
Soon will be getting Yamahas with 35HP engines to get us to 6 miles per gallon. You say BS - I say - it is coming sooner or later.

 

[BlkGS]

I completely agree, it's all bullshit, and it isn't gonna happen. It's a play by a guy like Newsom who knows he will be well out of office before the house of cards collapses for his ideas. So he picks up brownie points with some and doesn't have to deal with the fall out from it.

My point of it was, if they have never even brought up the idea of mandating EV only by 2035, of government hadnt meddled with it beyond just offering incentives, I think that EVs would be doing better overall.

 

[Jim_in_Delaware]

Go to Home Depot look at bulb section you can't even find regular bulbs, all LED. I like LEDs. But to your point if I don't - I can't buy it anymore.
Look and Gas powered lawnmowers - soon they will be a history, same as light bulbs. And battery powered ones cost double.
Gas stoves are already prohibited in new builds in some states. You say I can buy whatever I want?!?!? No one is preventing me?!?!
I am 100% sure that if I get new build - I will not be allowed to put gas line into the house - because there is no gas line for that community. And I prefer to cook on Gas not Electric.
So dumb government decisions are forcing BS on manufacturers and those happily jump on that wagon just to find that consumer doesn't really want it.
So, I strongly disagree that it is just incentivized through the tax credits and as an American I can do whatever I want.
Look at Teslas - a year or 2 ago people were paying nuts prices for it with $0 incentives, full price $60-120K.
Today in Maryland you get $10,500 in incentives and 10% off if you get Tesla from current inventory. And there is NO line there.
And again those who want latest tech, believe it is cheaper to operate can buy it without $7,500 hand out.
How do you create the line for EVs if incentives do not work? - increase Gas prices by cutting oil production and prohibit ICE sales!
Soon will be getting Yamahas with 35HP engines to get us to 6 miles per gallon. You say BS - I say - it is coming sooner or later.

Some of this, however, is change in consumer demand, not only mandates.

Who the heck wants to buy incandescent light bulbs? LEDs are almost the same price, draw a lot less power, and last a lot longer. If most customers want LED lights, why would home depot waste shelf space on old fashioned light bulbs?

Regarding, gas powered lawn mowers, for a very small yard a battery mower might be easier and cheaper in the long run. This is what I used to use in our rental townhouse. Now with a large yard I use a gas powered JD ride-on mower but use battery powered push mower and trimmer (similarly priced new to gas powered mower and trimmer and have zero maintenance and always start).

Want gas appliances but no gas lines - use propane, that‘s what us folks in the countryside do (I have a 500 propane tank buried in my yard).

Jim

 

[BlkGS]

I tried the battery powered lawnmower when we moved to FL. Figured we were down to a .25 acre lot, really flat, electric mower would be fine.

I was wrong. It burned through 2 batteries in a third of my yard. Maybe this GMO Florida grass is extra tough or something, but the electric mower could barely cut it, and took a couple of bites to get the longer stuff. Bought a $300 one at Lowe's with a Honda motor. It powers through all but the longest of grass without needing a second bite, starts up every time, and has taken and gotten zero maintenance. I haven't even sharpened the blade or anything. No oil changes, no spark plugs, I just put regular 87 octane pump gas in it and it runs like a champ.

A couple of my neighbors with even smaller yard so have electric push mowers. They mow at least twice a week, because they're retired and have nothing better to do, but also because it's the only way their electric mowers will cut it.

That said, I've heard the electric string trimmers work well. When my old ryobi 2 stroke I paid $90 for new dies some day (maybe?), I will probably get an M18 string trimmer.

 

[HangOutdoors]

I also tried the Electric Lawnmower.. i Liked the idea. Piece of junk imho.

anyhow, just saw this popup. Interesting.....

New breakthrough brings batteries that charge in five minutes (msn.com)

 

[Jim_in_Delaware]

The original 18v push mowers were definitely somewhat limiting in power, my newer 40v is actually pretty good. Of course, with an acre to mow, most of it is done on my other mower:



Jim

 

[BlkGS]

I used a 40V dual battery one. No dice. I will give them the benefit of the doubt, Florida grass is TOUGH. It's absolutely a quarter inch wide, and more like a vine than the seeds lengrasses up north. It literally grows out of a series of vines that cover the area.

The Flortan or whatever GMO grass we have down here shares a name and a color with the fescue we had up in NC. If we had a smaller, flatter yard in NC, it probably would have worked.

I did see these big like 100Ah battery powered ride ones now. They were like $5k. At that price I'd be more inclined to just get one of the gps automated ones and never worry about it again.

 

[Jim_in_Delaware]

I looked at the battery ride ons before I purchased my mower two years ago. The one I looked at could cut an acre of grass. The batteries, however, scared the crap out of me - as they typically only lasted a couple of years and were a bucket load of money to replace. Decided that I would rather go through 30 gallons of gas and an oil change, a season, instead.

Jim

 

[seanmclean]

We switched to electric yard tools last year (Home Depot had a zero turn electric for $500). I think you need to look at the stated range on them like you do with EV trucks and towing. If it says it'll get an acre, probably only an acre of dry grass that's cut regularly - let it turn into a jungle or cut it wet and its gonna suffer. That being said, mine is rated for 3 or 4 acres, probably have a half acre of actual grass but lots of driving due to the layout - I think I only needed to charge it three times last summer - and that included lots of 'tractor' use with the dump cart. Push mowers probably even worse with the smaller batteries. String trimmer is excellent as well, arguably better than my gas trimmer.

Still have two bigass backpack gas blowers though. Electric just cannot move enough air for a long enough duration to be useful for a wooded lot. The electric blower is excellent for the deck and patio and cleaning little jobs up, but still far below gas standards IMO.

 

[GTBRMC]

We switched to electric yard tools last year (Home Depot had a zero turn electric for $500). I think you need to look at the stated range on them like you do with EV trucks and towing. If it says it'll get an acre, probably only an acre of dry grass that's cut regularly - let it turn into a jungle or cut it wet and its gonna suffer. That being said, mine is rated for 3 or 4 acres, probably have a half acre of actual grass but lots of driving due to the layout - I think I only needed to charge it three times last summer - and that included lots of 'tractor' use with the dump cart. Push mowers probably even worse with the smaller batteries. String trimmer is excellent as well, arguably better than my gas trimmer.

Still have two bigass backpack gas blowers though. Electric just cannot move enough air for a long enough duration to be useful for a wooded lot. The electric blower is excellent for the deck and patio and cleaning little jobs up, but still far below gas standards IMO.

Getting rid of most of my small gas tools for electric was one of my best moves ever. No more futzing w different gas/oil mixes. Always starts right up. (Relatively) quiet, clean, etc. Recently, however, the batteries have become much more expensive.

If I have a major project to do, I can run down to the hardware store and rent a gasser. Needed to do that maybe once every three years.