What is the Most Important Factor When Buying an Electric Car

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2021 Tesla Model 3 LR

We have owned this Tesla Model 3 for 14 months and have used it 9000 miles. We have driven it to Tamaqua - Washington DC - Richmond - Atlanta - Savannah - Pensacola - Jacksonville - Orlando - Miami - Sarasota - and Tampa. It has 9800 miles on it. With tax it cost $56000. 

The car has 450 horsepower and a range of 350 miles. Besides the power - the most noticeable feature is how quiet it is. It is as simple to drive as a golf cart. Your press the pedal to go - and leave of the pedal to stop. Everything else is just like a normal car - except no noise - vibration - smell - transmission - exhaust. It has a big battery that you plug into an outlet to charge. 

We have owned several other small electric vehicles - I will review some of them here. 

2012 NISSAN LEAF

2012 Nissan Leaf

I wanted to buy a golf cart that was street legal with lights and seat belts. They were about $10,000. Lulu told me if I bought one - she would not ride it on the street. She suggest that I buy a used electric car. A new Nissan Leaf cost $40,000 - way over what I wanted to pay for a second car. She looked around and found a 2 year old Nissan Leaf that we bought for $12,000. Little did I know I would be happily driving that car for 7 years! One of the longest car purchases I ever made. The car had a range of 75 miles brand new - but after nine years it was down to 40 miles range. Still - it was a dependable quiet car - that we loved using around town. My neighbor still drives it every day. In 7 years all we ever did to it was put on a cheap set of Walmart tires for $160. This car convinced me that electric cars were the future. 

1975 AURENTHETIC CHARGER

1975 Aurenthetic Charger

When we owned The Tamaqua Paper - we needed a small cheap vehicle for visiting stores downtown. It was easy to park and cost less than one cent a mile to run. It was an Aurenthetic motor scooter. It had two 12-volt auto batteries between your legs. You charged it by plugging into a regular 110-volt outlet. It went about 25 miles at 25 miles per hour. It had a two-stage controller - 12 volt - and 24 volt. Slow and fast. It was dependable but you had to keep an eye on that voltmeter. Hills would really cut down on the range. I paid $550 for it brand new in 1975. I later traded it for a piece of printing equipment. Lulu - my friend Paul Dodson - and I all took our motorcycle driver's license test on it. The motor looked very much like an automobile generator - driving the back wheel with a chain. Lulu did end up on the hood of a car once because this vehicle had poor brakes. 

2012 CLUB CAR

2010 Club Car

This golf cart was 2 years old when I bought for $3000. Lulu was away in Germany - and this deal came up so I had to act quickly - so I bought it without permission. The deal included a brand new set of batteries. I was banking on it being Florida State color - garnet and gold. Lulu would love that I thought. When she came home I promised her I would make money on it. I used it to run between houses when we were building the new house. I also used it to pull the sweeper on our new property - picking up all the pine needles. It was quiet and powerful. Finally - after 4 years - a visitor asked to buy it. I told them I wanted $3050. They asked why. I told them I promised Lulu I would make money on it. No questions asked - they handed me the cash. That must have made sense to them. I used it 4 years free and made $50. 

THE NUMBER ONE FEATURE WHEN BUYING AN ELECTRIC CAR

Most of the time when you use a car - you travel maybe 20-30 miles a day. At night you plug it into an outlet - and you have a full charge in the morning. When you have a range of 350 miles - that is like 7 hours of driving. It is slow to charge at home. 

On the highway you want to be able to charge fast. Tesla has the largest network of dedicated chargers in the world. It keeps growing every week. On the GPS screen - the Tesla shows where each charging station is. And boy do those superchargers charge fast! They can charge as fast as 1200 miles in one hour. That is like 300 miles in 15 minutes. I do not run mine down to zero. At about 100 miles left - I like to top up. That takes about 10 minutes. In that time I can use the rest room and grab a drink or donut. We have never come close to running out of power. 

Most other cars and chargers take a longer time to charge. In a few years - all cars will charge faster - have longer range - be able to charge anywhere. That is the main reason I bought a Tesla. In the future - I will buy a Ford - or a Mercedes - Volvo - VW. 

I have enjoyed 14 months driving our red car up and down the East Coast and all over Florida. In a few years - there will be electric campers that have 1000 mile range - and all the appliances will run off the big battery - heat - AC - refrigerator - microwave - hot water. That will be my next vehicle.