Pavel

Electric Cars and Lithium Americas. The future as I see it.

This may be off topic a bit but it is about EV’s vs. gas and diesel cars and that is what Lithium Americas is all about. I have hyped Lac to everyone I know and the same with Tesla. I may be coming at this a bit different than you and others. I’ve never bought a new car in my life or even close to one. I’ve always worked on my cars myself. Plus there are a few good stories here.  First, I don’t care about all the exterior stuff you mention, body flaws. For starters as far as I know there are none on my car and I don’t care what a car looks like. And you said  “all those economical/ecological calculations of EVs an utterly BS.” They may be BS but that isn’t why I bought the Tesla so that’s a moot point.   I admit that I haven’t researched over heating in Teslas and I have wondered about that.  To my knowledge it hasn’t happened yet driving in 85 degree summer weather here and over mountain passes. Here is why I like an EV. First I don’t have to get dirty working on it. In my younger years, I blew three VW bus engines from Sun Valley Idaho, to Cape Cod to Maine where I had a farm. Blew the transmission in Maine. I rebuilt all the engines myself, one in Rhode Island, one in Seattle and one in Sun Valley.  I finally heard the number three piston rod going in Chicago in winter on yet another cross country ramble and I sold it to two Polish kids in a junkyard for $25. Some time later, I fished salmon in Alaska and Squid in California  for 10 years: first as cook, then as engineer then as owner/investor. Diesel spills, clogged filters in huge seas, blown engine in Tenakee Inlet etc. Once I drove backwards up a mountain pass in California because the fuel filter was clogged and I recognized fuel starvation from my fishing days with a Screaming Jimmy engine. I didn’t even know cars had fuel filters. But I found it on the firewall on the 76 Toyota. The fuel pump just couldn’t pump through that filthy, blackened filter while driving uphill so I turned around and went the last miles in reverse. The fuel pump was assisted here by gravity. There were about 10 cops waiting for me  when I got to the bottom of the pass: Siskiyous. “Have you been drinking son?!”   “No, but I sure could use a double bourbon about now.”  So last month I sold my 1994 Subaru. Had it for 20 years. Blew one engine and one transmission and one top end head gasket. It was my work car, golf car, snow car, family car and skiing car. Sad to see it go. The money I made in the sale plus an insurance refund will pay for at least a year of Tesla charging at a Super Charger. Last week it cost $12 to fully  charge the Tesla full and about $85 to fill the tank of one of our Nissans. But I didn’t buy the Tesla to save money. It is so less stressful driving around in this bad traffic knowing all that crap isn’t under the hood. I didn’t realize how much time I spent driving. Also there is free charging here with Volta so I go there with a laptop and work while the car charges for free. Or I bring a book or I can watch Netflix, news etc. I just do what I do at home but with less interruptions and it is actually more comfortable than my home office chair. So I’ve sent for another Tesla Y that gets a little better mileage. You said that resale is bad for Teslas. Not from what I’ve heard. I see used Tesla Y’s going for more than I paid for it. I recently sold a 12 year old Tesla that didn’t run and had been totaled at one time for $20,000. I don’t work on my cars anymore and it remains to be seen what can go wrong with the Tesla. But it seems like every other time I bring a Nissan in for an oil change I end up spending over $1,000 for all the other stuff that goes wrong. It seemed like my life was being ruled by asking “Who needs gas this week?” Then I’d drive to Costco, buy a bunch of crap and fill up whichever car was low for $50-$85.  Maybe everyone wouldn’t want an Electric car if they haven’t been through all the crap I’ve been through with gas and diesel engines.  They won’t have that little light going off in their head. That lack of stress alone, not to mention the quiet atmosphere and the incredible acceleration make it all worth the price.