I'm always amazed by the ability of people who have never had an EV or even driven one to tell people who have them and live with them every day the drawbacks of EVs lol

 

Did you ever consider that those people may have friends or relatives who have shared their negative experience with BEVs. I have had three BEVs since 2018 and I have plenty of stressful stories to tell. I have since switched to an E53 PHEV, but I intend to go back to an ICE vehicle the next time around.

 

No, they're just mostly full of crap.

Very few people who go BEV go back, I know lots of people who have and don't know anybody who has any interest in going back. Every single person I know with a BEV loves it. Doesn't mean they are for everybody, I haven't gone to a BEV because I don't want to deal with charging on trips...but we do have a PHEV and my wife and I both agree niether if us want to buy another fully ICE vehicle. PHEVs or BEVs for us unless something we really love isn't available in one or the other.

Around town driving though, I don't see what the possible issue could be with BEV when I can just charge it every night while I sleep.

 

Most EV Buyers In The U.S. Won’t Buy A Gas Car Again: Study

https://insideevs.com/news/757390/us...n-to-gas-cars/

 

Yeah, lets just build stuff without any regards to animal habitats and let every dufus harass marine mammals. We are the superior species and the earth belongs to us. F all the animals. Come on! Fish and Game just finally added the California puma to the endangered specifies list, because roads and other human developments have been cutting into their habitat, causing isolation, because they can't safely cross human infrastructure or are isolated because of humans nearby and fail to find a mate. Causing the population to decline due to inbreeding and such. But I guess you don't give a flying fart about the well-being of the pumas.

I'm not sure what that has to do with burying power lines underground, though. I'm not aware of environmentalist having an issue with that. On the contrary. So many wildfires have been caused by trees touching powerlines and burning down habitats as well as entire towns.

 

Our Pacifica is in the shop and I have a PHEV Prius as a loaner car. Driving it around with the gas engine is a drag, its loud and buzzy and slow. Charged it last night and driving it in EV mode its actually a very enjoyable little car to drive. Smooth, quiet, not fast but the EV acceleration feels satisfying.

EV makes economy style cars much, much better than a crummy 4 (or even 3 cyl) engine. When you get into higher end cars like my car, you can make an argument for a great TTV8 feeling and sounding great but for most cars? 4 cyls and V6s? EVs are better in every way...except highway travel...

 

I drove a Tesla M3 for 3 years averaging less than 1000 miles per month. Never had a single charging issue since there were plenty of underutilized and well maintained Tesla Superchargers. I was frequently the only car at the charging stations. I switched to a Taycan for just under a year. The driving experience and comfort was an order of magnitude better than the Tesla. The Porsche charging experience could not have been worse. EA had a high percentage of non-working chargers, although there was rarely a queue, so I had access to the chargers. Unfortunately, back in 2022 I had to call EA customer support about 50% of the time to initiate a charge. I wasted a lot of time at EA chargers. After the L2 plug got "stuck" in the Taycan three times when charging in my garage I gave up on the Taycan.

I should have gone back to ICE when I traded the Taycan, but instead, I moved to an MB EQS SUV. After getting the EQS I started taking more road trips and have averaged 2000 miles per month for the last three years. For the two years I drove the EQS, EA reliability did not really improve, but I frequently encountered poorly organized queues at charging stations. Instead of wasting time with the EA call center, I was wasting time in line to charge the EQS. My wife insisted that I get rid of the BEV before we embarked on another cross-Country trip last year. The PHEV E53 eliminated stressful road trip charging sessions since we were able to skip the chargers when overcrowded.

The E53 has been fun to drive and very reliable for the first 22000 miles. But I have been disappointed with some aspects of its PHEV features. Unfortunately, none of the shortcomings were made known in the MB marketing materials available prior to delivery. Three surprises I encountered were: 1) EL mode is not available when it's very cold (somewhere around 15ºF), 2) mpkWH is much lower than in a BEV (frequently around 1.6 mpkWh), 3) MB did not include the E53 Hybrid in its arrangement to use Tesla Superchargers (drastically reducing the number of chargers available for road trips).

You are smart to avoid BEVs for road trips. I can't argue with the convenience of keeping the car ready for local trips by charging overnight. But the poor mpkWh in EL mode offsets any cost savings over using gas for the ICE.

 

Agreed. I've said similar for a while. All those 2.0 liter turbo charged 4-bangers out there cannot disappear quick enough. Most of them are super laggy, because they have no oomph until the turbo charger kicks in and then many react like a hockey stick overshooting the response. Terrible cars to drive IMHO. I am however gonna say this. I recently had a 2025 CLA 250 loaner while my AMG was getting its annual service. In the past, the CLA was a total dog and I refused to drive it, but the FL such as the 2025 has mild hybrid now. What a change that made. It's now actually pleasant to drive. First regular MB loaner I could actually stand in Comfort mode. The engine goes in and out smoothly and there's never a lack of response as the mild hybrid system fills the torque and provides instant response off the line while the engine is kicking in. I made a similar positive experience last October in Europe with a new Golf. It also has mild hybrid now.

 

Reminds me of an article that was just posted yesterday. New Supercharger opened in San Francisco and it's causing major issues. Probably not the best idea to build them in residential neighborhoods. Human behavior has made technologies fail in the past. Nothing specifically wrong with EVs in this case, but everything wrong with planning around the Supercharger and inconsiderate people.

https://www.sfgate.com/local/article...t-21359085.php

 

I considered a Plaid as my 5th car. Next door neighbour got one (his 6th car....well, his company has a few dozen). He sold it after about five months. It would not make it to his weekend home and back with out a charge

 

Now you have the ability to use Tesla chargers with a non Tesla vehicle which changes the charging situation tremendously. When I was considering the i7 vs my S580 that was not yet the case, but honestly if Tesla charging had been available to that car at the time I probably would have gone for it.

If you drive a lot on road trips though, just the time and mental load of planning charging stops etc is off putting. Thats why I like the PHEV, I get EV driving around town and ICE driving on trips. I didn't get the PHEV S580e because I didn't like how the car felt in the 6cyl mode, but I loved it in EV. At that price point I wanted to be able to love it under all circumstances, so I stuck with the V8.

Cost savings doesn't move the needle for me, we just love the silent smooth EV driving. I wouldn't bother trying to charge a PHEV on a trip, not worth the time to get 30 miles of range.

How far away is the weekend home? Model S Plaid has 350-400 miles of range depending on the wheels, if you're driving 300+ miles you will likely need to stop and charge, but that stop is maybe 15-20 minutes, enough time to go to the bathroom and get a snack, not a big deal. I'd rather not have to stop, but thats just one of the tradeoffs. Never having to get gas and 0-60 in under 2 seconds are pretty solid pros.

As was said above though, most people who go EV don't want to go back.

 

I met a cool guy at the car wash the other day that was checking out my AMG. He has two Tesla - said he relies 99% on auto-drive to get him everywhere and it works great. He will never, not ever go back (unelss he is in his 1970 something or other convertable).

As for the neighbor - Crystal River FL is about 80 miles (from our home to the weekend home). They would have "run around" miles there and what not. NOTHING to charge between here and there. No charger at that home. They own a chain of tire/auto shops. The other cars are all 3' off the ground and 4x4 (tow trucks, box trucks, truck support trucks). They just got the new $100k Jeep (third row conversation) and are upset the 3rd in the Jeep is not as big as the GLS (upset is not the right word). No matter what, the Plaid was not the right fit for them - nor would an 100% engine S63 AMG. They are truck people (heck, most of central FL is).

 

Unfortunately, the W214 E53 cannot use a Tesla V3 or V4 Supercharger with an adapter. For some reason the MB PHEVs are excluded from the MB/Tesla agreement. Whatever the reason for this annoyance, it is not a technical issue since the E53 can charge at Superchargers equipped with MagicDock.

 

All they needed to do was install a Level 2 charger at their weekend home. Sounds to me like the issue is more the car just wasn't for them moreso than it being an EV.

Thats my issue with an EV for me. When we travel and stay somewhere. I drive 350 miles down to southern WV to visit family several times a year. To get there I would need to stop once along the way for 25 min or so...thats annoying but not the end of the world. The bigger issue is what to do when I get there. There isn't any fast charging anywhere near where my cousin lives, there is a Tesla Supercharger in Beckley which is about 30 min away, but I don't want to have to stop twice and get a charge there to have charge while I'm there. If it were my own house though I would just put in a Level 2 charger.

 

Like I said I wouldn't worry about charging a PHEV. I mean for the Taycan and EQS you had before, the ability to use Tesla chargers vs having to rely on EA or EVGo or whatever is a game changer.

 

The poor mpkWh is a function of it being a PHEV which is why I wouldn't buy one.

 

I don’t even know what our PHEV’s mpkWh is, all I know is it drives great on EV power and we need gas maybe once every 6 weeks if we aren’t traveling. When we travel we don’t have to worry about charging at all. To me it’s the best of both worlds.

MB PHEVs are great because they have really good range, same with Range Rovers. Our Pacifica is 35 miles, 50 miles would really be great.

 

My former business partner who is retired in his 70s now just recently upgraded his Model 3 to a Model Y with full self driving and says he is now letting it drive him everywhere. He says it sees things that he didn't, which is frankly scary and says more about this driving skills than Tesla's full self driving. It's to the point where his wife trusts FS over her husband's driving. So I'm all for it, if it stops elderly from crashing their cars through store fronts etc., because they are confusing the accelerator with the brake, but frankly we should take their driver's license away.

 

He shouldn't have put the city in, as his story falls apart. Plenty of chargers around there and two Tesla Superchargers.

 

We live in a world of all rights and no responsibilities.

 

You must be kidding. Hell, as part of the local MTN bike club we have to close dirt trails if there is the wrong critter....or butterfly. For the clinic we are trying to build, the property is inspected over and again just in case some turtle was to show up (it is illegal to touch or move these turtles). It is CLEAR where the (low voltage) power lines are buried. Even more clear where the high voltage over head lines are (as they clear cut the trees under them). What is also clear - the MASSIVE trains that come to our region full of coal for our "Clean Energy"...they are seriously a mile or more long.

 

I don't have an issue with protecting wildlife. What do you have against turtles? If I'm building a building I don't want to kill turtles to build it. I don't want to hurt animals to ride my bike...

 

Personally I think its funny when people try to justify why an EV would be awful or is terrible or was too difficult...its okay to just not like them! Its the constant trying to explain why they are awful or make no sense that irritates me. The neighbor had a Plaid, he didn't like it and got rid of it. No harm no foul.

Highway travel is a drawback, even with plenty of chargers you have to stop and charge. When I travel with my family thats no big deal, we always stop. Have to feed the kids and let them go to the bathroom and let the dog go to the bathroom. When I travel alone though I will get in the car and drive 350 miles and not stop, maybe just to use the bathroom for 2 minutes or go through a drivethru but having to stop for 25 minutes vs having 600 miles of gas range would be an adjustment. I go back and forth as to whether or not the daily joy of the EV is worth that tradeoff...it probably is. I will say though when I am on a trip in the S580 by myself I always think "I AM glad I don't have to stop to charge". I do that 2-3 times a year so its not an every month thing.

 

@SW20S Turtles? You mean speed bumps?

 

Who would want to hurt that cool turtle! lol