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But it might hurt the economy
(climatejustice.social)
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this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2024
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Degrowth
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Nissan Leaf, Chevy Bolt, Toyota Prius, and the early Honda insights are all rather round. Especially the earlier iterations of the cars.
Yes, exactly these models, they were the ones available in the early iterations. I love my 2019 Chevy Bolt and hope to get 5 more years and 200,000 more kilometres out of it, I love it for it's insane practicality and low costs, but it does have a sort of oval shape to it that I don't prefer to a sedan or crossover.
I remember we deliberately didn't buy an EV because there was one frequentish (regular holiday destination) road trip that we did that an EV couldn't do in a single charge. Things have changed though
We had that discussion in my household. We travel regularly (2-3 times a year) 1000KM round trip and the Bolt gets 420KM in absolutely ideal weather. So we must charge. We would never had bought an early, pre-2018. 250KM range EV but the BOLT EV and it's 400km+ range was a game changer for us.
We had to have an attitude adjustment over it, for long trips, to learn to roll with it and be a little less in a hurry. Also to think more holistically about our car use. I wake up every day with a full (well, 80%) charge that will take me anywhere I need to go in a normal day. Sure, we need to stop and charge on the infrequent long trips, but we never have to goto a gas station. So no self-pay ads, no pumping gas in bad weather, no tempting gas station taquitos and energy drinks, no waiting in line to pay inside, and no impact to my budget by fluctuating gas prices.
Instead we park the car to charge, head to a restaurant, the library, the community swimming pool, the boutique chocolate stores and deli shops. We enjoy the trip, enjoy the downtime, and make good use of it. Sure, we would appreciate a car with more range for this trip, but we aren't about to let a small percentage of our driving experience dictate the rest.
The range we needed was 80 miles. Maybe the time is now. I think the break on such a long trip is healthy.
Thanks to California regulatory changes, you might be able to get a plug in hybrid with that kind of range in the next model year or two.