March 21, 2024 • 38 mins
Buying an electric car may be financially responsible, but it may not be the right decision for you. Justin and Lance break down the math behind owning an electric vehicle and discuss how driving an EV might change the way you travel.
tags: tsou, justin weller, lance jackson, car, electric, EV, gas, travel, road, trip, money, finance, price, charging, chevy, ford, GM, tesla, environment
tags: tsou, justin weller, lance jackson, car, electric, EV, gas, travel, road, trip, money, finance, price, charging, chevy, ford, GM, tesla, environment
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Episode Transcript
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(00:03):
Today on the State of US.With gas prices guzzling, is it time
to buy an electric vehicle? Welcometo the State of US. I'm your
(00:26):
host, Justin te Weller. Joineda course today by the one and only
the friendly redneck liberal senior resident historianhere at True Chat, mister Lance L.
Jackson, And that redneck liberal partwill be important today as we're talking
again about electric vehicles. It's noshock as many people are aware that gas
prices are through the roof, breakingrecords left and right. They've come back
(00:52):
down a little bit here in recentweeks, but are still very high.
And as the price of electric vehiclesis becoming more in line with internal combustion
engine vehicles, certainly there's more peopleout there thinking about the possibility of would
it be worth it to buy anelectric vehicle? With the way gas prices
(01:12):
are? Could I get by?And what are my hesitations? What keeps
me from doing it? What amI most concerned about? So that's what
we're really going to be talking abouttoday. We'll start big picture and then
narrow into some anecdotal experience. Butbefore we dive in, lance do we
have a word of day? Wedo? It is four syllables. It
(01:34):
is the word molyft fluous, molyftfluss m e l l i f l
u o us I mean sounding sweetand smooth. So the idea of evs
has the mollifulous sound to it.But is it going to actually work?
(01:55):
And how is it working? Youknow, we talk all the time,
but we have our gas powered cars. By god, I've got my gas
station and I stop and get mycold drink or my coffee and my candy
bar and I just go. Butthose internal combustion vehicles also had this problem.
When people first started driving cars thatwere gasoline powered, they had to
(02:20):
buy their fuel from pharmacies and hardwarestores because there it was no such thing
as a gas station. Right,So it's kind of the chicken in the
egg piece? And what do wedo here? Right? What do we
do here? I mean, dowe build the charging stations and the cars
will follow? Or do we haveto build and buy so many cars before
(02:40):
then? People the outcry, thepublic outcry, or hey capitalism. Right,
there's a profit to be made andhaving some EV stations out there,
and so once there's a profit,then there's a business. Which way do
we go? That is the question. That's part of what we're looking at
today. We've got an article linkedfrom the Wall Street Journal and titled while
(03:00):
electric vehicles proliferate, charging stations lagbehind and for disclosure here of our episode,
lance, you want to tell ourlisteners what type of vehicle are you
driving these days? What's your what'syour main what you roll up in today?
Oh? When I rolled up intoday, Well, it's it's a
nice big fifteen hundred model truck withthe V eight engine, lots of horsepower,
(03:24):
but it currently is getting twenty twoand a half miles per gallon.
Then how much does it hold?Twenty five gallon tank? So that's a
that's a that's a nice, nice, pricey fill up. That's why I'm
not pushing on the accelerator really hardand we ease up to speed and we're
not speeding in on the like onehundred and fifteen bucks to fill up and
(03:45):
I'm that something like that. ButI'm getting twenty two and a half miles
to the gallon. Oh, Imean, it's been known, it's been
known fully loaded to drop down toaround twelve, you know, fourteen miles.
So I'm very happy with my twentytwo and a half that it says
the current take of gas that I'mearning. And for those listening, I
(04:06):
actually my first two vehicles were bothtrucks. First a small Dodge Dakota and
then followed up by a larger Silverado. And then I went to a Chevy
Cruise, which, for those notfamiliar, that is a subcompact car made
(04:27):
by Yes. Lance also had asix speed on the floor right had I
got to shift had a Chevy Cruise. I liked it, and when I
got rid of that. Actually whathappened is so husband and I both drove
He drove a Honda c r V. I was driving a Chevy Cruise,
(04:48):
so both gas powered vehicles. Overthe course of two years, we have
both transitioned. There are no gaspowered vehicles in our household, so we
both have heavy bolts the bolt EV. So they are both twenty twenty model
years. So that hopefully gives ourlisteners a perspective here on the different dynamics.
(05:10):
Lance and I are both intimately familiarwith gas powered vehicles. Lance still
an active ICE driver, while Justinis driving EV's, so hopefully it'll be
good from an anecdotal standpoint, Andto answer some of those questions things that
I've learned over time as we talkthrough this. But to sound a little
more moliphalous than you did about it, I'm not anti evs. My big
(05:32):
question is, Okay, how canwe make the EV fit my driving patterns,
what I do? And where dowe find this? I mean,
it's it's wonderful. And we gotinto the topic because both of my millennial
daughters will be buying cars soon andwe've had these discussions because they've listened to
(05:54):
the show and have listened to us. We talked a few months ago about
four or five different models of evsand EV trucks and which ones were the
best and the cost and so youknow, we're having those conversations in our
household and a lot of questions comeup. And that's why I thought it
would be good to do this show, because there are a couple of articles
(06:15):
where the government's trying to build moreEV stations, but there don't seem to
be any takers. And then what'sit mean If you're a traveler, you
know, how many miles a dayshould I travel to? Where it's cost
effective or where it's a pain inthe butt. That's where we get into
how where do things stand right now? Right? Because gas prices are high,
(06:41):
you're maybe thinking about an electric vehicle, but there's hesitation, right,
There's all these things that go intoAs Lance pointed out, will it fit
my lifestyle? Well, here's whatI can tell you. You are going
to have to make some lifestyle changes. Now will those change which work out
for the better? I believe theanswer is yes. It let me in
(07:03):
my life they have worked out positively. And just as a quick illustration breakdown
to whet your appetite. Here rightnow, what we're paying for electricity in
the city of Urbanta, which iswhere approximately where Lance and I live.
We have an energy aggregation program throughthe city, which isn't uncommon. There's
(07:26):
a lot of cities that do that. You know, they buy energy collectively
so as to get a better rate. We pay point zero four nine to
nine cents, so about five centsper kill a wat hour. Okay,
that's what we pay for electricity.And what does it then cost to charge
the electric vehicle that I have,the Chevy Bolt. Well, here's how
(07:51):
we figure this out, Lance,Right, I have a sixty five kill
a watt hour battery and we paypoint zero four nine nine cents for hours,
so you pay three twenty five tocharge it exactly, okay, And
I was done in my head forall you people out there. You know,
we have good before back when wehad to use an advocus back in
(08:11):
the day. Yeah, before wehad calculators. We had to do that
ourselves. So it's so I didthat all just top of my head.
I didn't know those were the numbers. So it's three dollars and twenty five
cents to charge basically at home.Now that's at home, you know.
And you might immediately say, well, I don't have a way to charge
at home. Well, and youcan only go though two hundred miles on
your charge, about two hundred andfifty. But yes, well, when
(08:33):
I filled up my gas tank,correct, I can go almost five hundred
and fifty miles, Yes, withouthaving to stop. So, and we're
going to compare apples to apples,So if we double that, call it
six dollars and fifty cents, sothat we're on. By the way,
the average is for people that arethe median range for gas powered vehicles in
(08:54):
the United States of America is fourhundred and twelve miles so if we double
the Chevy Bolt you know, getson a single charge, you would be
spending about six dollars and fifty centsfor the equivalent range in a gas vehicle.
So six dollars and fifty cents versusversus. The average gas tank in
(09:15):
an American vehicle holds fourteen gallons,and if you lived in Urbana right now,
because that's the energy prices we're using, so we want to compare fairly.
You know, we're using Urbana energyprices, so we're also using Urbana
gas prices. You'd be paying fourdollars and fifty nine cents a gallon for
your gas. That means it wouldcost you sixty four dollars and twenty six
(09:35):
cents to fill up your gas vehicle. The same range electric would cost you
six dollars and fifty cents. Soone tenth of what it would cost I
would go Those four hundred miles wouldgive me five hundred miles, would give
(09:56):
me whatever the number is there,would give me six to seven hours of
drive time. You would drive forthree hours and then sit for ten hours
and then try to catch up towell, if I stopped at a fast
charger, I wouldn't sit that long. Oh, but is there one available
on the route from which we're taking. While you're sitting there twiddling your thumbs,
(10:18):
I'm moving on down the road onmy cross country road trip or on
my you know, six hour visitto somewhere for the weekend. And then
the question comes in. This isthe next one, because this is a
common, you know question about electricvehicles. How often lance are you driving
five hundred miles in a single drive? How many times a month? Probably
(10:43):
once or twice, okay, becausewhen I visit, you know, I
mean, I'm I'm visiting, I'mdriving you know, a couple hundred miles
one way, or you know,at least once a month. I would
say, you know, I meanto be fair, not to just argue
with you, but to be oncea month. So if you're doing that
once a month, then it'd beprobably safe to say that what eighty or
(11:03):
ninety percent of the time, you'regoing how far in a day? Oh?
Yeah, no, on a typicalday, I'm going thirty miles for
your standard commute, a two hundredand fifty mile range would be No,
it would work for me. You'dbe able to go probably the whole week,
maybe long, which is why youcall me. You know, you
said, oh, this is youknow the redneck liar bull today. No,
(11:26):
I mean I've I've looked at it, and because I have that,
I have another vehicle, a ToyotaCamri that gets close to forty two miles
to the Gallon on the Highway thatI use anytime I'm running around town.
So that's why I'm not anti EV. I mean I can I can see
where, you know, Like Itold you, though, I bought the
(11:48):
Camri seven years ago because I expectedit to last a couple hundred thousand miles,
so I don't know that I willneed an EV before my Camri gives
out, right memory gives out.Then I would buy an EV for all
the day tripping. But if you'rethe if you're not someone like me who
(12:09):
decides that cars are important and I'mgoing to have multiple cars for one driver.
If you're a one driver, onecar person, if you're more sane,
what you know, how how doI then just get by with an
EV only? That's my that's mydilemma. An EV would work for me
(12:30):
as a secondary car to run aroundeighty percent of the time, But what
do I do on the that oncea month or twice a month that I
want to go more than in whatmy battery will take me. We're going
to talk about answering that question.Keep it here on the state of Us
and we'll be right back. Ifwhen you lived where Lance and I lived,
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and you were the standard American,it costs you about sixty four dollars
and twenty six cents to fill upyour vehicle. Right now, it cost
me six dollars and fifty cents tofill up my car for an equivalent Lance
mentioned as camery, which gets youknow, forty two miles to the gallon,
which I'm sure a lot of youout there who drive those gas vehicles
(13:24):
are like, Wow, isn't thatgreat? I mean, that is great,
right, That's that's pretty good,forty two miles a gallon. Well,
the the government, in its youknow, benevolent wisdom that it has
said that you know, for peopleto buy gas or to buy electric vehicles,
they're going to need to know theefficiency equivalent of a electric vehicle to
(13:45):
a gas vehicle. So what theyreleased is you frequently see on that window
sticker right miles per gallon MPG.Now they have on electric vehicles. What's
called MPGe miles per gallon electric equivalent, So forty two miles a gallon on
the camera sounds great. What soundsbetter to me, though, is one
(14:07):
hundred and ten miles per gallon withmy view. Again, though, you
go back to the convenience and thedistant traveling current, you know, and
we haven't discussed it. Here's anotherquestion I will throw at you. Right
we were talking about my daughters.They both rent currently their rental places are
not ev equipped, so if theywere to buy an electric vehicle, they
(14:33):
couldn't charge it at home. Andwe've been talking about home prices and you
know, pricing people out of themarket, and even rental prices are going
up. What do you do ifyou're a renter? You know, I
mean, you have a car,you you make the daily commute into the
city to work or whatever. Butyou don't have the money or you don't
you don't want to buy a homeand you want to rent, but you're
(14:58):
the people who own the rental po. Pretty don't have a charger there
for you. So how do yourent? You know, how do you
then charge your your vehicle? Ifyou buy an evy. I mean,
there's another problem. When we startto say this is going to go nationwide,
is it still a stumbling block thatwe can't overcome. So if I'm
a renter, it's like, yeah, you guys are talking about a great
(15:20):
deal for me, but I can'tdo it. Or is there a solution
so that if I want to saveone hundred dollars per fill up that I
could put towards you know, buyingmy own place or whatever else to support
the economy, how what can Ido? Sadly, that solution, I
(15:41):
think is less on the individual,more on you know, the the government
and the economy to end car companies. When I say the economy, we're
talking about them as well to continueto do that. A lot of the
benefit is focused on homeowners right now, because that really is if you own
a home, right you are inthe very best position to benefit from owning
(16:03):
an electric vehicle. If you commuteyou know, under two hundred and fifty
miles round trip in a single day, there is literally and you own a
home. If those two things aretrue, you should have an electric vehicle
in your driveway. Because with theprice reduction from General motors right now,
on and by the way, beworth noting this is definitely not sponsored.
(16:26):
I just happened to own these vehiclesand lived with them. I paid more
for these vehicles, by the way, because now that they're six thousand dollars
cheaper than they were one eyebottom,which is kind of frustrating, but you
know, that's a you need tocall them up and see if they want
to send me a check for theyou know, the difference here and refund
me that. But the point isright that with where they're at now,
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you can get into an electric vehiclewith two hundred and fifty miles a range
for under thirty thousand dollars if youown a home and you commute under to
it and fifty miles a day.The math tells you that if you're somebody
who wants to save money, youshould do this. It is a good
deal. The question becomes, toLance's point, if you don't fit those
(17:12):
very specific criteria, then what Andwhen I say very specific, there's a
lot of Americans, many millions,tens of millions of Americans who meet those
criteria right who should have an electricvehicle today because it would just economically make
the best sense for them. Forgetabout the environment. Now, if you
(17:33):
care about the environment, that's anice bonus as well, but that's not
the reason to do it if you'rejust a dollars and cents person. To
your point lance about renters though,or people that don't own their own home.
This is where the government car companieshave to work together to improve charging
in three places, at apartments,parking garages, and at places of business
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in a tight labor mark it.If I drive an electric vehicle and my
employer lets me charge my vehicle whileI'm at work for free, my vehicle
is sitting idle during the day anyway, probably right, it's sitting there for
eight hours. Well, guess howlong it takes at a level two charger
to charge most evs About eight hours. So I can drive to work,
plug in, pay nothing, drivehome, and I don't even need a
(18:22):
charger at home. Right, andnow for my commute, my day to
day, week to week, Ipay nothing rather than for my car.
That's a very you know, again, if you are in that situation where
you have a place of work thatoffers that, that's in a very attractive
opportunity. Or if you're an employerlooking to gain some employees, it might
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be worth it to you to investin five you know, five charging stations.
Sure, and then all of asudden you have twelve employees that want
to use it. So now youbuild more, and all of a sudden
you have people that are staying withyou. You've given them a perk,
right, that's I mean, it'sjust like insurance or anything else. You're
giving them something for working at yourbuilding or at your your place of employment.
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And so it's easier to then keeppeople. Right, and we just
got done with the great resignation andeverybody going jumping jobs and jumping ship and
looking for other places. It's like, well, yeah, you can make
a dollar or two more an hourover there, or you can you know,
make another five thousand dollars a yearover there that'll be taxed, or
you can keep coming here and notmake as much money. But now let's
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start figuring up how much you're savingand charging costs. And I mean again
saying right, I mean, justjust so that people can do apples.
So what are you putting one inout here for us your check? I
want to because I know there's oneyou're automatically taking it. Yeah, so
it's gonna have to be at leasttwo so that you got to pay it.
(19:56):
So I have a place, rightBecause the way to think about it,
right is, if you're you're inthe job market right now and you're
looking for a job, and youcome across the job that says we will
pay for your gas, and there'snot just no caveat just we will pay
for your gas. You fill up, you swipe the company card all the
(20:17):
time, don't care if it's personal. We will pay for your gas,
I would think. I mean,again, I don't drive a gas vehicle
anymore, so I guess you can'tspeak to this, but i'd imagine that'd
be a fairly attractive offer for somebodyto be, like, I bring me
out of retirement, right right.I mean, you know, that's that's
(20:37):
interesting. So I think there's opportunitieslike that for workplaces. There's obviously the
opportunity same thing in the apartment world. But there has to be incentives to
your rent. Okay, yes,you're renting. You know you're spending more
than twelve hundred dollars a month onrent, but hey, it gets you
your own charger. You know,we we have a yep, we have
a garage space that you're renting aswell, we're going to put we have
(21:00):
chargers in our garize. So ifyou have an electric vehicle, yes,
you're going to pay a little bitmore for this apartment twelve thirteen, fourteen
hundred dollars a month. And you'resaying, well, that's ridiculous. Live
in the big city, folks,right, that's not necessarily it's probably what
you're gonna have a super nice place. But hey, part of the lease
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agreement you have the option to chargean electric vehicle. To your point,
it's just another And you know whatif the government said, well, there's
this many billions of dollars for peoplewho own rental property to put this in,
I can tell you. I mean, I I'm fortunate that I live
in Ohio because Ohio, Michigan,Pennsylvania, those those three you know states
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in particular, when you talk aboutstates that have a large rule population,
they all have pretty good access tochargers and charging infrastructure relative to a lot
of other states that are rule.So I think that's important to note that
we've benefited from that. But that'swhere we talk about. You know,
everybody heard about the bipartisan and infrastructuredeal obviously, and there's a good bit
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of money in there for additional chargingstations, because the Great American road trip
is a real consideration. I thinkthe main thing, and that's part of
what we try to talk about thissegment, is what is most of what
you do right? Eighty ninety percentof what you do? What do you
need a car for eighty to ninetypercent of the time? Because if you're
buying a car for the ten percentof the time, that's probably not the
(22:36):
best economic decision. Does that meanthat when you go on a road trip,
your road trip's going to take longer? Yes? Is that worth the
savings the other ninety percent of thetime economically? Yes? Is it worth
it to you? That's a questionyou have to answer because dollars and cents
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wise, the time that you're gonnaspit spend right sitting and waiting for your
vehicle to charge, unless you arein a really, really, really high
paying job, will not offset thecost savings that you will experience the rest
of the time. So, inother words, the inconvenience economically speaking,
(23:18):
is worth it. Is it worthit to you? Are you willing to
be inconvenienced to Wait, that willnot always be the case. We're going
to talk about what the future holdsfor some of these near term and long
term. Right after this, cliancewants to get in his truck, go
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four or five hundred miles, andthen by George, he wants to take
a you know, maybe fifteen twentyfive minute break, you know, get
upstretch, fill that gas tank,maybe grab somebody to the gas station.
Then he wants to keep going.Can evs do that? Yes? Can
(24:11):
they do it as easily as gasvehicles right now? No, it's not
because the technology isn't there, Andthis is I think the important component.
For example, if you look atthe new Chevy Silverado EVY, it'll be
being released twenty twenty three, fourhundred plus miles range, four hundred and
(24:34):
fifty miles range, three hundred andfifty kilowatt hour fast charging. Well,
what does that mean? You're goingto be able to probably refill out a
three hundred and fifty kilowatt fast chargerbig caveat there um, probably in about
thirty minutes, right if you canfind one of those chargers, which yeah,
right, kind of like finding anugget of gold in your backyard exactly,
(24:55):
and there are vehicles like the HummerEV, which is a top end
electric vehicle, that are going tosupport eight hundred and fifty kilowatt fast charging,
which obviously is even faster. Sothe point is the technology component of
understanding how to charge faster exists mostof the time. You shouldn't be charging
fast at all because you ought tobe charging at home because that's always going
(25:18):
to be the cheapest place. Imagineif you had your own supply of gasoline
and your own fill up station athome, where would you fill up?
Why I'd fill up at my house. Of course, why would I go
to a gas station if I didn'thave to? Obviously that's not the case
for most people, So you wouldcharge at home. But you need those
public fast charging stations when you're takinga trip, right when you're going further
(25:41):
than your vehicle's range in a singleday round trip. So that's where from
a government standpoint, right from aprivate industry standpoint, that's where the investment
has to be is in building outalong those travel corridors and locations access to
ultra fast charging stations so that weare ready for the next generation of electric
(26:06):
vehicles. If I pulled up toa three hundred and fifty kiloo hour charger
right now today, Lance, myvehicle could not make use of that.
That's just how it is. Myvehicle doesn't support that. So you know,
it would charge it its maximum,but its maximum would be the maximum
that could charge at, which wouldbe like one fourth of the capacity of
the charger. What I would sayis that what I've done, you know,
(26:30):
in the last two years, leftthe state of Ohio multiple times.
And we're for those that don't know, Urbana's kind of in central Ohio,
approximately kind of west of Columbus.But to leave the state of Ohio,
you have to drive, you know, a good ways. We're not in
a place where it's like, oh, we're going to cross the state border.
So when I say that, you'regoing, you know, probably a
(26:52):
minimum of eighty miles, you know, to cross the state line. And
realistically you can only go one directionand go eighty miles. It's more like
one d and twenty miles from wherewe are to across the state line.
So I have I have been tosouthern Kentucky twice. I've been to Detroit,
(27:15):
I think four times, Detroit,Michigan. We've been to Cincinnati,
I don't know how many times,which for reference is about one hundred miles
from US one way, so twohundred mile round trip. So we've been
a good bit of places. Now, do we travel as much as Lance?
No. We've also been camping duringthat time twice. So in two
(27:37):
years, right, we've made anumber of road trips. Now are we
big road trip No, but wedo do some of those. Also.
You know, we didn't like driveto Florida or something like that either.
To your point by driving and thisis where you know my money mine starts
to work, right, and thatis well, if I drive an EV
(27:59):
for eighty percent of the time andI'm saving all this money on gasoline,
if I would every time I chargeput that money in the bank that I
would have spent on gasoline, thenI've got my airline tickets to Florida.
I've got my airline tickets to Alaska. You know. I mean that's the
point is that you buy the EVand you're saving so much money. If
you're and I don't want to usethe word smart, but if you then
(28:23):
save your instead of just spending it, right, because what most people do
is oh well I'm saving money ongasoline. Now I'm going to eat out
more. I'm going to go tothe movies more. I'm going to go
to the ball game more. I'mgoing to spend that money. If you
didn't spend that money, then sinceyou don't have the vehicle that can road
trip, you could afford the higherpriced airlines, renting a car once you
(28:49):
got to your location so that youcould then travel around. Since you don't
have your vehicle with you, youcould afford that off of your savings from
you your ev eighty percent of thetime. That's the point I think that
Justin's trying to make that makes sense. You can still travel and you can
(29:10):
actually pay for it out of yourgas savings if you are so inclined to
spend your savings that way. Well, and just to be clear, you
don't have to fly, I mean, and you can help the planet in
the meantime. If I wanted toright from where we are, right here
in Ohio, I've looked at thisa few times. If we wanted to,
(29:32):
I could go to Florida, whichI've made that drive by the way
before, but I haven't yet madeit in an electric vehicle. I've made
it a number of times in differentgas vehicles. But you could go from
Ohio to Florida along you know,any of the interstates that a regular human
being would take. They're you know, going that route. You could make
that drive an electric vehicle. Itwould it take longer, sure, of
(29:52):
course, but you can still makethe drive. Likewise, you know,
Brett and I have talked about goingout west to Yellowstone. It's been a
long time since I've been there andI'd like to go again. And when
you know, can we can wego in the cars that we have.
Is that's not what we can do? And the answer is yes, you
can make it all the way toYellowstone National Park and charge at Yellowstone National
(30:14):
Park by the way, you know, in an electric vehicle from the state
of Ohio, which is like,you know, round trip, it's like
four thousand miles or something, andevery couple hundred miles you can stop and
take eight hours to recharge, rightgoing a number four hours and then stop.
I am referring to keeping to stickingwith primarily fast charging. But yes,
you're gonna you're still gonna add folks, I mean, you're still gonna
(30:36):
add hours to your trap. Well, you're not gonna get two hundred and
fifty miles because I know how muchyou like air conditioning. No, you're
not, You're not gonna you know. Uh, just a spoiler alert there,
folks, when you read your EVand how many miles you can go.
That's if the windows are rolled downand you're not playing the radio,
and you don't have on the airconditioning or the heater in the winter,
then you can get that just likeyour car. Right, Just like I
(30:57):
said, I'm baby in my truckto get twenty two and a half you
know, miles of a gallon,right, if I drove it the way
I'd like to drive it, I'mdown to around fifteen or sixteen. Yeah,
you're no pedal to the metal outof the drive every exactly. So
the way you drive your easy,you know, gets you that optimal distance.
And so for most people you willnot get the optimal just like you
(31:21):
don't in your gas powered vehicle.So I have found most of the time
with the way that I drive,you know, without making many changes to
it, and and you know,and running the climate like I'm not,
I've not drastically changed my comfort levelin a car, you know what I
mean? I was because I don'thave to write because I live. My
(31:41):
commute, you know, much likeLance is very short. You know.
I run around town, run afew miles outside of town, run back
into town. I run around alot, but I don't go very far,
you know. I mean I'm probablydoing you know, like Lance said,
maybe we don't have big traffic jamshere in Urbana where you're sitting,
no idoling for thirty minutes at atime and going two miles. So you
(32:04):
know, those things are not hugeunless you stop at the local McDonald's.
Then you're gonna you may sit fora half an hour to get so much
for to get your sandwich. Yes, that's an oxymoron here in Vienna.
Yeah, there is no such thingas fast food. No, there's no
unless you shoot a deer, right, Yeah, that'd be faster than going
through the deer moves. That's theequivalent of fast food here anyway. So
(32:32):
that's that's kind of where I guesswhat I'm saying is we've made road trips,
right, it is still possible tomake road trips. I mean,
it's not like there aren't chargers,right, there's just not as many.
And we've talked about that there's notas many as there could be to make
it more convenient, and there's notenough fast chargers to make the traditional American
(32:53):
road trip as convenient as one wouldlike. Now, can you spend the
money right now to day, youknow, purchase a vehicle, have it
within the next year that can chargevery fast, very comparable to you know,
your typical road trip stop. Yeah, if money is no object,
you can do that. But partof what we've been talking about this episode
(33:15):
is for the for the regular Americanwho's got some kind of cost conscious nature,
should you be buying an electric vehicle? And I think that goes back
to that fundamental question of what isyour mission with your you know, Carne
might say, well, that's aweird way to and if you're a homeowner,
and if you're a home I meanthat's That's the takeaway that I have
from all the moleculous voices that I'veheard from you today, yes, is
(33:37):
that if I own a home thisis pretty much a no brainer because the
other way that my logistic mind works, the savings I have not going to
gasoline would help me make that carpayment, not all of it, but
probably well a third to half ofit. If people drive as much as
(33:59):
you do right by, you know, well, because it's going to make
a car payment, then I don'thave money left to fly to Disney,
that's right, you know, orto Alaska. Yeah, yeah, you
can't. You can't. I'm savingmoney to make car payment and to do
this, and you're not saving thatmuch money. But it'd be nice if
you were. But you could paya bill or two or save for a
big trip off of your savings.Well you of looking at it. The
(34:23):
other thing we didn't mention in thisis I'm a home owned owner that has
solar, so I don't pay fortyfour cents per kilowatt hour to charge because
much of our electricity has generated ourselves. And we're not trying to sell to
you people that are doing all theright those things. We're just trying to
say, I like trying to I'mjust still going to give you some props,
(34:43):
right which I don't usually do.No that if you own a home
you were being very maleficeless to me. I was, and I don't I'm
that way, and especially when itcomes to you, but it you know,
you did a good job of sellingthe idea. If you own a
home and drive less than two hundredmiles a day round trip, you should
(35:05):
be an electric vehicle. Yes,that's the conclusion. If you don't meet
those criteria, I would be keepinga close eye on things and looking into
is there a place near you thathas a charger? Is there a workplace
near you or a garage near youthat has a charger, because those may
open the door to that for you. It's not quite a no brainer if
you're not in that situation. Butyes, I think that's the conclusion that
(35:29):
we can tell people lance right todayis you can go buy an electric vehicle
and you can be saving money tomorrow. If you own a home and you
drive less than two hundred miles onyou know, nine out of ten days,
they're going to sell you the carcheaper. They're going to set up
your charger for you, and allyou got to do is drive, drive
and plug, drive and plug.I mean I have not been to a
(35:51):
gas station in over a year.You know I Well, now, I
turned around at Speedway the other day. I drove into Speedway to turn around
to go back the other direction.They shouldn't allow people like you to turn
it, but stop. I didn'tstop. No, I agree, I
agree, I you know, tearingup their their pavement. Turn out,
(36:12):
Think of all the money you're savingin candy bars and chips and soda.
Is oh I do breakfast? I'mhealthier for it. There you go,
because that's what do you do?You know, you're filling up and you
stroll inside and they get you tobuy something you didn't need that wasn't any
good for your health, or spendway too much on a cup of coffee
or a soda or something else,which is good business for them but not
great for your pocketbook. And wedidn't even factor remember it. Those things
(36:32):
didn't used to exist until there afterthere were internal combustion cars. So the
likelihood of us seeing charging stations startingto pop up is sooner rather than later.
I think all of these questions wereasking lance right, were the same
questions when cars were coming of age? Gas powered cars? You know,
(36:52):
there were lots of skeptical people outthere. That's can't be better than a
horse. You know it can't be. And here's why these ten reasons,
where the heck am I going tobuy this stupid thing called gasoline? Wow?
Am I gonna? And now wethink about wall, gasolines everywhere.
There's no problem with that, youknow, so it'll be here before we
know it. It'll be here hopefullyin my lifetime, which if you guys
(37:14):
are regular listeners, you know that, you know that could be pretty quick.
Why we do this show today aswell, because we have a mission
here at True Chat, and thatis to educate people by providing honest,
open and respectful conversations. And hopefullyyou've enjoyed it today, probably on your
way to work or on your wayhome, and you can share it with
your people at work and maybe askyour boss, hey, once you put
in a charging station out there,and then tell them you know I I
(37:37):
do it is a great idea,and you know, put in the suggestion
box at work and you can tellthem you heard it on Spotify, Overcast,
Ditcher, Apple Podcasts, and everywherepodcasts are found. The State of
Us is available Tuesdays and Thursday's firstthing in the morning as a podcast.
That's when you get new episodes andthen we're also heard those same episodes on
the weekends AM and FM radio stationsacross the country. Lance takes the victory
(38:00):
today, But I did get onein you got one in. I'm proud
of it. I did found aspot uh for the State of US.
I'm Justin t Weller. I'm LynceJackson. Special thanks to producer Bradley Butch.
Thank you all our audience for tuningin. We'll see you next time.
Be the change. Be sure tocheck out our website, the State
(38:29):
of Us dot org, for books, articles, and all the ways to
tune in the State of Us dotorg.
Today on the State of US.With gas prices guzzling, is it time
to buy an electric vehicle? Welcometo the State of US. I'm your
(00:26):
host, Justin te Weller. Joineda course today by the one and only
the friendly redneck liberal senior resident historianhere at True Chat, mister Lance L.
Jackson, And that redneck liberal partwill be important today as we're talking
again about electric vehicles. It's noshock as many people are aware that gas
prices are through the roof, breakingrecords left and right. They've come back
(00:52):
down a little bit here in recentweeks, but are still very high.
And as the price of electric vehiclesis becoming more in line with internal combustion
engine vehicles, certainly there's more peopleout there thinking about the possibility of would
it be worth it to buy anelectric vehicle? With the way gas prices
(01:12):
are? Could I get by?And what are my hesitations? What keeps
me from doing it? What amI most concerned about? So that's what
we're really going to be talking abouttoday. We'll start big picture and then
narrow into some anecdotal experience. Butbefore we dive in, lance do we
have a word of day? Wedo? It is four syllables. It
(01:34):
is the word molyft fluous, molyftfluss m e l l i f l
u o us I mean sounding sweetand smooth. So the idea of evs
has the mollifulous sound to it.But is it going to actually work?
(01:55):
And how is it working? Youknow, we talk all the time,
but we have our gas powered cars. By god, I've got my gas
station and I stop and get mycold drink or my coffee and my candy
bar and I just go. Butthose internal combustion vehicles also had this problem.
When people first started driving cars thatwere gasoline powered, they had to
(02:20):
buy their fuel from pharmacies and hardwarestores because there it was no such thing
as a gas station. Right,So it's kind of the chicken in the
egg piece? And what do wedo here? Right? What do we
do here? I mean, dowe build the charging stations and the cars
will follow? Or do we haveto build and buy so many cars before
(02:40):
then? People the outcry, thepublic outcry, or hey capitalism. Right,
there's a profit to be made andhaving some EV stations out there,
and so once there's a profit,then there's a business. Which way do
we go? That is the question. That's part of what we're looking at
today. We've got an article linkedfrom the Wall Street Journal and titled while
(03:00):
electric vehicles proliferate, charging stations lagbehind and for disclosure here of our episode,
lance, you want to tell ourlisteners what type of vehicle are you
driving these days? What's your what'syour main what you roll up in today?
Oh? When I rolled up intoday, Well, it's it's a
nice big fifteen hundred model truck withthe V eight engine, lots of horsepower,
(03:24):
but it currently is getting twenty twoand a half miles per gallon.
Then how much does it hold?Twenty five gallon tank? So that's a
that's a that's a nice, nice, pricey fill up. That's why I'm
not pushing on the accelerator really hardand we ease up to speed and we're
not speeding in on the like onehundred and fifteen bucks to fill up and
(03:45):
I'm that something like that. ButI'm getting twenty two and a half miles
to the gallon. Oh, Imean, it's been known, it's been
known fully loaded to drop down toaround twelve, you know, fourteen miles.
So I'm very happy with my twentytwo and a half that it says
the current take of gas that I'mearning. And for those listening, I
(04:06):
actually my first two vehicles were bothtrucks. First a small Dodge Dakota and
then followed up by a larger Silverado. And then I went to a Chevy
Cruise, which, for those notfamiliar, that is a subcompact car made
(04:27):
by Yes. Lance also had asix speed on the floor right had I
got to shift had a Chevy Cruise. I liked it, and when I
got rid of that. Actually whathappened is so husband and I both drove
He drove a Honda c r V. I was driving a Chevy Cruise,
(04:48):
so both gas powered vehicles. Overthe course of two years, we have
both transitioned. There are no gaspowered vehicles in our household, so we
both have heavy bolts the bolt EV. So they are both twenty twenty model
years. So that hopefully gives ourlisteners a perspective here on the different dynamics.
(05:10):
Lance and I are both intimately familiarwith gas powered vehicles. Lance still
an active ICE driver, while Justinis driving EV's, so hopefully it'll be
good from an anecdotal standpoint, Andto answer some of those questions things that
I've learned over time as we talkthrough this. But to sound a little
more moliphalous than you did about it, I'm not anti evs. My big
(05:32):
question is, Okay, how canwe make the EV fit my driving patterns,
what I do? And where dowe find this? I mean,
it's it's wonderful. And we gotinto the topic because both of my millennial
daughters will be buying cars soon andwe've had these discussions because they've listened to
(05:54):
the show and have listened to us. We talked a few months ago about
four or five different models of evsand EV trucks and which ones were the
best and the cost and so youknow, we're having those conversations in our
household and a lot of questions comeup. And that's why I thought it
would be good to do this show, because there are a couple of articles
(06:15):
where the government's trying to build moreEV stations, but there don't seem to
be any takers. And then what'sit mean If you're a traveler, you
know, how many miles a dayshould I travel to? Where it's cost
effective or where it's a pain inthe butt. That's where we get into
how where do things stand right now? Right? Because gas prices are high,
(06:41):
you're maybe thinking about an electric vehicle, but there's hesitation, right,
There's all these things that go intoAs Lance pointed out, will it fit
my lifestyle? Well, here's whatI can tell you. You are going
to have to make some lifestyle changes. Now will those change which work out
for the better? I believe theanswer is yes. It let me in
(07:03):
my life they have worked out positively. And just as a quick illustration breakdown
to whet your appetite. Here rightnow, what we're paying for electricity in
the city of Urbanta, which iswhere approximately where Lance and I live.
We have an energy aggregation program throughthe city, which isn't uncommon. There's
(07:26):
a lot of cities that do that. You know, they buy energy collectively
so as to get a better rate. We pay point zero four nine to
nine cents, so about five centsper kill a wat hour. Okay,
that's what we pay for electricity.And what does it then cost to charge
the electric vehicle that I have,the Chevy Bolt. Well, here's how
(07:51):
we figure this out, Lance,Right, I have a sixty five kill
a watt hour battery and we paypoint zero four nine nine cents for hours,
so you pay three twenty five tocharge it exactly, okay, And
I was done in my head forall you people out there. You know,
we have good before back when wehad to use an advocus back in
(08:11):
the day. Yeah, before wehad calculators. We had to do that
ourselves. So it's so I didthat all just top of my head.
I didn't know those were the numbers. So it's three dollars and twenty five
cents to charge basically at home.Now that's at home, you know.
And you might immediately say, well, I don't have a way to charge
at home. Well, and youcan only go though two hundred miles on
your charge, about two hundred andfifty. But yes, well, when
(08:33):
I filled up my gas tank,correct, I can go almost five hundred
and fifty miles, Yes, withouthaving to stop. So, and we're
going to compare apples to apples,So if we double that, call it
six dollars and fifty cents, sothat we're on. By the way,
the average is for people that arethe median range for gas powered vehicles in
(08:54):
the United States of America is fourhundred and twelve miles so if we double
the Chevy Bolt you know, getson a single charge, you would be
spending about six dollars and fifty centsfor the equivalent range in a gas vehicle.
So six dollars and fifty cents versusversus. The average gas tank in
(09:15):
an American vehicle holds fourteen gallons,and if you lived in Urbana right now,
because that's the energy prices we're using, so we want to compare fairly.
You know, we're using Urbana energyprices, so we're also using Urbana
gas prices. You'd be paying fourdollars and fifty nine cents a gallon for
your gas. That means it wouldcost you sixty four dollars and twenty six
(09:35):
cents to fill up your gas vehicle. The same range electric would cost you
six dollars and fifty cents. Soone tenth of what it would cost I
would go Those four hundred miles wouldgive me five hundred miles, would give
(09:56):
me whatever the number is there,would give me six to seven hours of
drive time. You would drive forthree hours and then sit for ten hours
and then try to catch up towell, if I stopped at a fast
charger, I wouldn't sit that long. Oh, but is there one available
on the route from which we're taking. While you're sitting there twiddling your thumbs,
(10:18):
I'm moving on down the road onmy cross country road trip or on
my you know, six hour visitto somewhere for the weekend. And then
the question comes in. This isthe next one, because this is a
common, you know question about electricvehicles. How often lance are you driving
five hundred miles in a single drive? How many times a month? Probably
(10:43):
once or twice, okay, becausewhen I visit, you know, I
mean, I'm I'm visiting, I'mdriving you know, a couple hundred miles
one way, or you know,at least once a month. I would
say, you know, I meanto be fair, not to just argue
with you, but to be oncea month. So if you're doing that
once a month, then it'd beprobably safe to say that what eighty or
(11:03):
ninety percent of the time, you'regoing how far in a day? Oh?
Yeah, no, on a typicalday, I'm going thirty miles for
your standard commute, a two hundredand fifty mile range would be No,
it would work for me. You'dbe able to go probably the whole week,
maybe long, which is why youcall me. You know, you
said, oh, this is youknow the redneck liar bull today. No,
(11:26):
I mean I've I've looked at it, and because I have that,
I have another vehicle, a ToyotaCamri that gets close to forty two miles
to the Gallon on the Highway thatI use anytime I'm running around town.
So that's why I'm not anti EV. I mean I can I can see
where, you know, Like Itold you, though, I bought the
(11:48):
Camri seven years ago because I expectedit to last a couple hundred thousand miles,
so I don't know that I willneed an EV before my Camri gives
out, right memory gives out.Then I would buy an EV for all
the day tripping. But if you'rethe if you're not someone like me who
(12:09):
decides that cars are important and I'mgoing to have multiple cars for one driver.
If you're a one driver, onecar person, if you're more sane,
what you know, how how doI then just get by with an
EV only? That's my that's mydilemma. An EV would work for me
(12:30):
as a secondary car to run aroundeighty percent of the time, But what
do I do on the that oncea month or twice a month that I
want to go more than in whatmy battery will take me. We're going
to talk about answering that question.Keep it here on the state of Us
and we'll be right back. Ifwhen you lived where Lance and I lived,
(13:01):
and you were the standard American,it costs you about sixty four dollars
and twenty six cents to fill upyour vehicle. Right now, it cost
me six dollars and fifty cents tofill up my car for an equivalent Lance
mentioned as camery, which gets youknow, forty two miles to the gallon,
which I'm sure a lot of youout there who drive those gas vehicles
(13:24):
are like, Wow, isn't thatgreat? I mean, that is great,
right, That's that's pretty good,forty two miles a gallon. Well,
the the government, in its youknow, benevolent wisdom that it has
said that you know, for peopleto buy gas or to buy electric vehicles,
they're going to need to know theefficiency equivalent of a electric vehicle to
(13:45):
a gas vehicle. So what theyreleased is you frequently see on that window
sticker right miles per gallon MPG.Now they have on electric vehicles. What's
called MPGe miles per gallon electric equivalent, So forty two miles a gallon on
the camera sounds great. What soundsbetter to me, though, is one
(14:07):
hundred and ten miles per gallon withmy view. Again, though, you
go back to the convenience and thedistant traveling current, you know, and
we haven't discussed it. Here's anotherquestion I will throw at you. Right
we were talking about my daughters.They both rent currently their rental places are
not ev equipped, so if theywere to buy an electric vehicle, they
(14:33):
couldn't charge it at home. Andwe've been talking about home prices and you
know, pricing people out of themarket, and even rental prices are going
up. What do you do ifyou're a renter? You know, I
mean, you have a car,you you make the daily commute into the
city to work or whatever. Butyou don't have the money or you don't
you don't want to buy a homeand you want to rent, but you're
(14:58):
the people who own the rental po. Pretty don't have a charger there
for you. So how do yourent? You know, how do you
then charge your your vehicle? Ifyou buy an evy. I mean,
there's another problem. When we startto say this is going to go nationwide,
is it still a stumbling block thatwe can't overcome. So if I'm
a renter, it's like, yeah, you guys are talking about a great
(15:20):
deal for me, but I can'tdo it. Or is there a solution
so that if I want to saveone hundred dollars per fill up that I
could put towards you know, buyingmy own place or whatever else to support
the economy, how what can Ido? Sadly, that solution, I
(15:41):
think is less on the individual,more on you know, the the government
and the economy to end car companies. When I say the economy, we're
talking about them as well to continueto do that. A lot of the
benefit is focused on homeowners right now, because that really is if you own
a home, right you are inthe very best position to benefit from owning
(16:03):
an electric vehicle. If you commuteyou know, under two hundred and fifty
miles round trip in a single day, there is literally and you own a
home. If those two things aretrue, you should have an electric vehicle
in your driveway. Because with theprice reduction from General motors right now,
on and by the way, beworth noting this is definitely not sponsored.
(16:26):
I just happened to own these vehiclesand lived with them. I paid more
for these vehicles, by the way, because now that they're six thousand dollars
cheaper than they were one eyebottom,which is kind of frustrating, but you
know, that's a you need tocall them up and see if they want
to send me a check for theyou know, the difference here and refund
me that. But the point isright that with where they're at now,
(16:49):
you can get into an electric vehiclewith two hundred and fifty miles a range
for under thirty thousand dollars if youown a home and you commute under to
it and fifty miles a day.The math tells you that if you're somebody
who wants to save money, youshould do this. It is a good
deal. The question becomes, toLance's point, if you don't fit those
(17:12):
very specific criteria, then what Andwhen I say very specific, there's a
lot of Americans, many millions,tens of millions of Americans who meet those
criteria right who should have an electricvehicle today because it would just economically make
the best sense for them. Forgetabout the environment. Now, if you
(17:33):
care about the environment, that's anice bonus as well, but that's not
the reason to do it if you'rejust a dollars and cents person. To
your point lance about renters though,or people that don't own their own home.
This is where the government car companieshave to work together to improve charging
in three places, at apartments,parking garages, and at places of business
(17:59):
in a tight labor mark it.If I drive an electric vehicle and my
employer lets me charge my vehicle whileI'm at work for free, my vehicle
is sitting idle during the day anyway, probably right, it's sitting there for
eight hours. Well, guess howlong it takes at a level two charger
to charge most evs About eight hours. So I can drive to work,
plug in, pay nothing, drivehome, and I don't even need a
(18:22):
charger at home. Right, andnow for my commute, my day to
day, week to week, Ipay nothing rather than for my car.
That's a very you know, again, if you are in that situation where
you have a place of work thatoffers that, that's in a very attractive
opportunity. Or if you're an employerlooking to gain some employees, it might
(18:47):
be worth it to you to investin five you know, five charging stations.
Sure, and then all of asudden you have twelve employees that want
to use it. So now youbuild more, and all of a sudden
you have people that are staying withyou. You've given them a perk,
right, that's I mean, it'sjust like insurance or anything else. You're
giving them something for working at yourbuilding or at your your place of employment.
(19:11):
And so it's easier to then keeppeople. Right, and we just
got done with the great resignation andeverybody going jumping jobs and jumping ship and
looking for other places. It's like, well, yeah, you can make
a dollar or two more an hourover there, or you can you know,
make another five thousand dollars a yearover there that'll be taxed, or
you can keep coming here and notmake as much money. But now let's
(19:33):
start figuring up how much you're savingand charging costs. And I mean again
saying right, I mean, justjust so that people can do apples.
So what are you putting one inout here for us your check? I
want to because I know there's oneyou're automatically taking it. Yeah, so
it's gonna have to be at leasttwo so that you got to pay it.
(19:56):
So I have a place, rightBecause the way to think about it,
right is, if you're you're inthe job market right now and you're
looking for a job, and youcome across the job that says we will
pay for your gas, and there'snot just no caveat just we will pay
for your gas. You fill up, you swipe the company card all the
(20:17):
time, don't care if it's personal. We will pay for your gas,
I would think. I mean,again, I don't drive a gas vehicle
anymore, so I guess you can'tspeak to this, but i'd imagine that'd
be a fairly attractive offer for somebodyto be, like, I bring me
out of retirement, right right.I mean, you know, that's that's
(20:37):
interesting. So I think there's opportunitieslike that for workplaces. There's obviously the
opportunity same thing in the apartment world. But there has to be incentives to
your rent. Okay, yes,you're renting. You know you're spending more
than twelve hundred dollars a month onrent, but hey, it gets you
your own charger. You know,we we have a yep, we have
a garage space that you're renting aswell, we're going to put we have
(21:00):
chargers in our garize. So ifyou have an electric vehicle, yes,
you're going to pay a little bitmore for this apartment twelve thirteen, fourteen
hundred dollars a month. And you'resaying, well, that's ridiculous. Live
in the big city, folks,right, that's not necessarily it's probably what
you're gonna have a super nice place. But hey, part of the lease
(21:21):
agreement you have the option to chargean electric vehicle. To your point,
it's just another And you know whatif the government said, well, there's
this many billions of dollars for peoplewho own rental property to put this in,
I can tell you. I mean, I I'm fortunate that I live
in Ohio because Ohio, Michigan,Pennsylvania, those those three you know states
(21:47):
in particular, when you talk aboutstates that have a large rule population,
they all have pretty good access tochargers and charging infrastructure relative to a lot
of other states that are rule.So I think that's important to note that
we've benefited from that. But that'swhere we talk about. You know,
everybody heard about the bipartisan and infrastructuredeal obviously, and there's a good bit
(22:11):
of money in there for additional chargingstations, because the Great American road trip
is a real consideration. I thinkthe main thing, and that's part of
what we try to talk about thissegment, is what is most of what
you do right? Eighty ninety percentof what you do? What do you
need a car for eighty to ninetypercent of the time? Because if you're
buying a car for the ten percentof the time, that's probably not the
(22:36):
best economic decision. Does that meanthat when you go on a road trip,
your road trip's going to take longer? Yes? Is that worth the
savings the other ninety percent of thetime economically? Yes? Is it worth
it to you? That's a questionyou have to answer because dollars and cents
(22:56):
wise, the time that you're gonnaspit spend right sitting and waiting for your
vehicle to charge, unless you arein a really, really, really high
paying job, will not offset thecost savings that you will experience the rest
of the time. So, inother words, the inconvenience economically speaking,
(23:18):
is worth it. Is it worthit to you? Are you willing to
be inconvenienced to Wait, that willnot always be the case. We're going
to talk about what the future holdsfor some of these near term and long
term. Right after this, cliancewants to get in his truck, go
(23:48):
four or five hundred miles, andthen by George, he wants to take
a you know, maybe fifteen twentyfive minute break, you know, get
upstretch, fill that gas tank,maybe grab somebody to the gas station.
Then he wants to keep going.Can evs do that? Yes? Can
(24:11):
they do it as easily as gasvehicles right now? No, it's not
because the technology isn't there, Andthis is I think the important component.
For example, if you look atthe new Chevy Silverado EVY, it'll be
being released twenty twenty three, fourhundred plus miles range, four hundred and
(24:34):
fifty miles range, three hundred andfifty kilowatt hour fast charging. Well,
what does that mean? You're goingto be able to probably refill out a
three hundred and fifty kilowatt fast chargerbig caveat there um, probably in about
thirty minutes, right if you canfind one of those chargers, which yeah,
right, kind of like finding anugget of gold in your backyard exactly,
(24:55):
and there are vehicles like the HummerEV, which is a top end
electric vehicle, that are going tosupport eight hundred and fifty kilowatt fast charging,
which obviously is even faster. Sothe point is the technology component of
understanding how to charge faster exists mostof the time. You shouldn't be charging
fast at all because you ought tobe charging at home because that's always going
(25:18):
to be the cheapest place. Imagineif you had your own supply of gasoline
and your own fill up station athome, where would you fill up?
Why I'd fill up at my house. Of course, why would I go
to a gas station if I didn'thave to? Obviously that's not the case
for most people, So you wouldcharge at home. But you need those
public fast charging stations when you're takinga trip, right when you're going further
(25:41):
than your vehicle's range in a singleday round trip. So that's where from
a government standpoint, right from aprivate industry standpoint, that's where the investment
has to be is in building outalong those travel corridors and locations access to
ultra fast charging stations so that weare ready for the next generation of electric
(26:06):
vehicles. If I pulled up toa three hundred and fifty kiloo hour charger
right now today, Lance, myvehicle could not make use of that.
That's just how it is. Myvehicle doesn't support that. So you know,
it would charge it its maximum,but its maximum would be the maximum
that could charge at, which wouldbe like one fourth of the capacity of
the charger. What I would sayis that what I've done, you know,
(26:30):
in the last two years, leftthe state of Ohio multiple times.
And we're for those that don't know, Urbana's kind of in central Ohio,
approximately kind of west of Columbus.But to leave the state of Ohio,
you have to drive, you know, a good ways. We're not in
a place where it's like, oh, we're going to cross the state border.
So when I say that, you'regoing, you know, probably a
(26:52):
minimum of eighty miles, you know, to cross the state line. And
realistically you can only go one directionand go eighty miles. It's more like
one d and twenty miles from wherewe are to across the state line.
So I have I have been tosouthern Kentucky twice. I've been to Detroit,
(27:15):
I think four times, Detroit,Michigan. We've been to Cincinnati,
I don't know how many times,which for reference is about one hundred miles
from US one way, so twohundred mile round trip. So we've been
a good bit of places. Now, do we travel as much as Lance?
No. We've also been camping duringthat time twice. So in two
(27:37):
years, right, we've made anumber of road trips. Now are we
big road trip No, but wedo do some of those. Also.
You know, we didn't like driveto Florida or something like that either.
To your point by driving and thisis where you know my money mine starts
to work, right, and thatis well, if I drive an EV
(27:59):
for eighty percent of the time andI'm saving all this money on gasoline,
if I would every time I chargeput that money in the bank that I
would have spent on gasoline, thenI've got my airline tickets to Florida.
I've got my airline tickets to Alaska. You know. I mean that's the
point is that you buy the EVand you're saving so much money. If
you're and I don't want to usethe word smart, but if you then
(28:23):
save your instead of just spending it, right, because what most people do
is oh well I'm saving money ongasoline. Now I'm going to eat out
more. I'm going to go tothe movies more. I'm going to go
to the ball game more. I'mgoing to spend that money. If you
didn't spend that money, then sinceyou don't have the vehicle that can road
trip, you could afford the higherpriced airlines, renting a car once you
(28:49):
got to your location so that youcould then travel around. Since you don't
have your vehicle with you, youcould afford that off of your savings from
you your ev eighty percent of thetime. That's the point I think that
Justin's trying to make that makes sense. You can still travel and you can
(29:10):
actually pay for it out of yourgas savings if you are so inclined to
spend your savings that way. Well, and just to be clear, you
don't have to fly, I mean, and you can help the planet in
the meantime. If I wanted toright from where we are, right here
in Ohio, I've looked at thisa few times. If we wanted to,
(29:32):
I could go to Florida, whichI've made that drive by the way
before, but I haven't yet madeit in an electric vehicle. I've made
it a number of times in differentgas vehicles. But you could go from
Ohio to Florida along you know,any of the interstates that a regular human
being would take. They're you know, going that route. You could make
that drive an electric vehicle. Itwould it take longer, sure, of
(29:52):
course, but you can still makethe drive. Likewise, you know,
Brett and I have talked about goingout west to Yellowstone. It's been a
long time since I've been there andI'd like to go again. And when
you know, can we can wego in the cars that we have.
Is that's not what we can do? And the answer is yes, you
can make it all the way toYellowstone National Park and charge at Yellowstone National
(30:14):
Park by the way, you know, in an electric vehicle from the state
of Ohio, which is like,you know, round trip, it's like
four thousand miles or something, andevery couple hundred miles you can stop and
take eight hours to recharge, rightgoing a number four hours and then stop.
I am referring to keeping to stickingwith primarily fast charging. But yes,
you're gonna you're still gonna add folks, I mean, you're still gonna
(30:36):
add hours to your trap. Well, you're not gonna get two hundred and
fifty miles because I know how muchyou like air conditioning. No, you're
not, You're not gonna you know. Uh, just a spoiler alert there,
folks, when you read your EVand how many miles you can go.
That's if the windows are rolled downand you're not playing the radio,
and you don't have on the airconditioning or the heater in the winter,
then you can get that just likeyour car. Right, Just like I
(30:57):
said, I'm baby in my truckto get twenty two and a half you
know, miles of a gallon,right, if I drove it the way
I'd like to drive it, I'mdown to around fifteen or sixteen. Yeah,
you're no pedal to the metal outof the drive every exactly. So
the way you drive your easy,you know, gets you that optimal distance.
And so for most people you willnot get the optimal just like you
(31:21):
don't in your gas powered vehicle.So I have found most of the time
with the way that I drive,you know, without making many changes to
it, and and you know,and running the climate like I'm not,
I've not drastically changed my comfort levelin a car, you know what I
mean? I was because I don'thave to write because I live. My
(31:41):
commute, you know, much likeLance is very short. You know.
I run around town, run afew miles outside of town, run back
into town. I run around alot, but I don't go very far,
you know. I mean I'm probablydoing you know, like Lance said,
maybe we don't have big traffic jamshere in Urbana where you're sitting,
no idoling for thirty minutes at atime and going two miles. So you
(32:04):
know, those things are not hugeunless you stop at the local McDonald's.
Then you're gonna you may sit fora half an hour to get so much
for to get your sandwich. Yes, that's an oxymoron here in Vienna.
Yeah, there is no such thingas fast food. No, there's no
unless you shoot a deer, right, Yeah, that'd be faster than going
through the deer moves. That's theequivalent of fast food here anyway. So
(32:32):
that's that's kind of where I guesswhat I'm saying is we've made road trips,
right, it is still possible tomake road trips. I mean,
it's not like there aren't chargers,right, there's just not as many.
And we've talked about that there's notas many as there could be to make
it more convenient, and there's notenough fast chargers to make the traditional American
(32:53):
road trip as convenient as one wouldlike. Now, can you spend the
money right now to day, youknow, purchase a vehicle, have it
within the next year that can chargevery fast, very comparable to you know,
your typical road trip stop. Yeah, if money is no object,
you can do that. But partof what we've been talking about this episode
(33:15):
is for the for the regular Americanwho's got some kind of cost conscious nature,
should you be buying an electric vehicle? And I think that goes back
to that fundamental question of what isyour mission with your you know, Carne
might say, well, that's aweird way to and if you're a homeowner,
and if you're a home I meanthat's That's the takeaway that I have
from all the moleculous voices that I'veheard from you today, yes, is
(33:37):
that if I own a home thisis pretty much a no brainer because the
other way that my logistic mind works, the savings I have not going to
gasoline would help me make that carpayment, not all of it, but
probably well a third to half ofit. If people drive as much as
(33:59):
you do right by, you know, well, because it's going to make
a car payment, then I don'thave money left to fly to Disney,
that's right, you know, orto Alaska. Yeah, yeah, you
can't. You can't. I'm savingmoney to make car payment and to do
this, and you're not saving thatmuch money. But it'd be nice if
you were. But you could paya bill or two or save for a
big trip off of your savings.Well you of looking at it. The
(34:23):
other thing we didn't mention in thisis I'm a home owned owner that has
solar, so I don't pay fortyfour cents per kilowatt hour to charge because
much of our electricity has generated ourselves. And we're not trying to sell to
you people that are doing all theright those things. We're just trying to
say, I like trying to I'mjust still going to give you some props,
(34:43):
right which I don't usually do.No that if you own a home
you were being very maleficeless to me. I was, and I don't I'm
that way, and especially when itcomes to you, but it you know,
you did a good job of sellingthe idea. If you own a
home and drive less than two hundredmiles a day round trip, you should
(35:05):
be an electric vehicle. Yes,that's the conclusion. If you don't meet
those criteria, I would be keepinga close eye on things and looking into
is there a place near you thathas a charger? Is there a workplace
near you or a garage near youthat has a charger, because those may
open the door to that for you. It's not quite a no brainer if
you're not in that situation. Butyes, I think that's the conclusion that
(35:29):
we can tell people lance right todayis you can go buy an electric vehicle
and you can be saving money tomorrow. If you own a home and you
drive less than two hundred miles onyou know, nine out of ten days,
they're going to sell you the carcheaper. They're going to set up
your charger for you, and allyou got to do is drive, drive
and plug, drive and plug.I mean I have not been to a
(35:51):
gas station in over a year.You know I Well, now, I
turned around at Speedway the other day. I drove into Speedway to turn around
to go back the other direction.They shouldn't allow people like you to turn
it, but stop. I didn'tstop. No, I agree, I
agree, I you know, tearingup their their pavement. Turn out,
(36:12):
Think of all the money you're savingin candy bars and chips and soda.
Is oh I do breakfast? I'mhealthier for it. There you go,
because that's what do you do?You know, you're filling up and you
stroll inside and they get you tobuy something you didn't need that wasn't any
good for your health, or spendway too much on a cup of coffee
or a soda or something else,which is good business for them but not
great for your pocketbook. And wedidn't even factor remember it. Those things
(36:32):
didn't used to exist until there afterthere were internal combustion cars. So the
likelihood of us seeing charging stations startingto pop up is sooner rather than later.
I think all of these questions wereasking lance right, were the same
questions when cars were coming of age? Gas powered cars? You know,
(36:52):
there were lots of skeptical people outthere. That's can't be better than a
horse. You know it can't be. And here's why these ten reasons,
where the heck am I going tobuy this stupid thing called gasoline? Wow?
Am I gonna? And now wethink about wall, gasolines everywhere.
There's no problem with that, youknow, so it'll be here before we
know it. It'll be here hopefullyin my lifetime, which if you guys
(37:14):
are regular listeners, you know that, you know that could be pretty quick.
Why we do this show today aswell, because we have a mission
here at True Chat, and thatis to educate people by providing honest,
open and respectful conversations. And hopefullyyou've enjoyed it today, probably on your
way to work or on your wayhome, and you can share it with
your people at work and maybe askyour boss, hey, once you put
in a charging station out there,and then tell them you know I I
(37:37):
do it is a great idea,and you know, put in the suggestion
box at work and you can tellthem you heard it on Spotify, Overcast,
Ditcher, Apple Podcasts, and everywherepodcasts are found. The State of
Us is available Tuesdays and Thursday's firstthing in the morning as a podcast.
That's when you get new episodes andthen we're also heard those same episodes on
the weekends AM and FM radio stationsacross the country. Lance takes the victory
(38:00):
today, But I did get onein you got one in. I'm proud
of it. I did found aspot uh for the State of US.
I'm Justin t Weller. I'm LynceJackson. Special thanks to producer Bradley Butch.
Thank you all our audience for tuningin. We'll see you next time.
Be the change. Be sure tocheck out our website, the State
(38:29):
of Us dot org, for books, articles, and all the ways to
tune in the State of Us dotorg.
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