Tesla's vs Gas Cars | Florida Street Interviews 

This is a hard question for people who are guessing what the experience is like. But for me, after actually owning a Tesla, I am never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever going back to a gas car.

Just from the perspective of someone who owns an electric car: convenience is way better. I plug in when I get home (if I lived in an apartment this would be very different) and the occasional car trip might take slightly long but definitely is doable and overall time spent dedicated to charging over the course of a year is way less than spent refueling a gas car.

I'm older but I think you'll find that younger people are more willing to change. I bought electric motorcycle to see where the technology was at and then bought a Tesla Y. I mostly charged at home which is very convenient, my average charging time on a road trip 22 minutes about every 250 miles. Spend the time grabbing quick bite or getting a cup of coffee, taking the dog out. I prefer driving the electric car over my gas car.

My daily is a Model X Plaid. My weekend is a 720S. I have both worlds. I have a Sapphire on order and I'll probably be dumping the 720s after the Sapphire comes in. I LOVE my MXP. I get home, put it to charge, takes 10 seconds, and wake up to an 80% charge (recommended) every day. It's quiet, can drive itself, comfortable, and hilariously, it's faster than the 720s (up to about 120 mph). I've taken it on Road trips and supercharging at the rest stops is fine. I usually go in, put it to charge, grab a snack and a drink, eat it there, use the bathroom, check my phone for any messages, and by the time I walk back to my car, 20-30 minutes have passed and my car has enough charge to get to the next stop. I'd honestly take just as long with a gas vehicle, unless I was in a huge hurry. It's also easy as I just pull up, plug it in, and that's it. It recognizes my car and just charges my card on file the amount. I hate pumping gas. Gas is a lot of headaches. The Costco/BJ's/Sam's Club gas stations always have 50 cars in line. Unless the gas station is brand new, they never have tap to pay, and the credit card machine outside is always broken (not even mentioning skimmers), forcing me to go inside and wait behind the guy who forgets what brand of cigarettes he smokes or the guy checking his 50 lotto tickets. Then I have to figure out how much money to put, and wait for the last dollar to take 5 minutes because the pump slows to a crawl. I also have to worry about bad gas. You'd be surprised how many gas stations call something 93 octane when it's not. On more than one occasion I've had my check engine light come up shortly after pumping gas. Check the scanner, cylinder misfire. Run through the gas, put new gas from another station, check engine light goes away and never comes back. I also have to worry about homeless people approaching me at gas stations asking for money. I hate pumping gas so much I will admit that I've had employees go on the clock, drive my (previous gas) car to the gas station and fill up the tank for me quite a few times. Also electricity is so much cheaper. My electric bill went up about $40/month when before I was spending ~$80 five times a month on fuel on my old Range Rover. Huge savings. I live in South Florida, so the cold weather isn't an issue. If I think the power grid is an issue, I would just install solar at my house. Now with that being said, I rented a Hyundai electric car in Vegas a few months ago. Most miserable experience ever. I went to THREE different EV charging stations before I found one that didn't have every single charger out of order. Seriously, I don't think I've ever seen a broken Tesla supercharger, but with a non-tesla charger I think you have a 1 in 10 chance of it working. For the next two weeks I was in Vegas with that car, I had to plan around being able to go to that one particular charger and waste two hours of my day charging because it was slow. My hotel had chargers, but the one I tried didn't work (surprise!). I returned that car with like 3% battery and told Hertz screw you guys for renting out electric cars in a city where almost every single charger is broken. The guy told me everyone tells him the same thing.

I have a Tesla Model Y and a 94 Jeep YJ stick with no doors. They are both great! If I can only keep one, the Jeep is toast. :)

Many people seem to get concerned about where they will need to charge. 1. If you have a EV I highly encourage a wall connector/at home charger. 2. If you're going on a extended trip, most well thought out EV's and their software will automatically incorporate where you'll need to charge to the destination you desire. A Tesla does this very nicely and is extremely easy and simple to understand. Also many car companies are partnering or even incorporating Tesla's charging standard so in the very near future everyone will be able to charge at the most straightforward charging stations, literally just grab the cable and plug in.

You don't realize how much more convenient EVs are compared to gas vehicles until you own one. Every EV owner I know (including myself) has said they will never go back to gas. I just recently swapped my last gas car with an electric and I couldn't be more excited to ditch the gas pumps for good!

If you enjoy cars you can compromise the lack of infrastructure for overall drive quality which far exceeds the drive dynamics of most gas cars.

The argument of "what if the grid goes down" is ridiculous. Gas pumps are electrically powered as well, if the grid goes down you can't pump gas either. At least with EVs (when you can charge where you park) you start every day with a full battery. Few people keep their gas cars topped off every day.

Ev;s work for millions of people including myself (own a Tesla) but its true they do have limitations that gas cars don't. Mainly range and charging time. Fix those two issues and people would switch over a lot faster because EV's have a lot of benefits that gas cars don't. The charging infrastructure is getting built out fast. Charging at home is the best.

Also I would add, as you said, the tech is the best part about owning a Tesla, and when people see them they don’t realize that, they only see a car, and to them it’s just another car, “ why buy a Tesla when it does nothing different then my gas car?” . But it’s only when they ride in one or drive one that they notice the software and UI on the big screen…. Oh, and they don’t know, there is no lack of charging infrastructure if you have a Tesla, and if you have a Ford, it’s better now that they can use some Tesla Superchargers…

If you can recharge at home, as most EV owners can, each morning your car will start with up to 400 miles of range. On how many days do you drive more than say 300 miles? And when you do, be aware Tesla is installing thousands of new superchargers every year. One guy was worried that bad weather would kill the EVs and their chargers. That is not true, and note that gas pumps also need electricity. And ICE efficiciency also drops in cold weather. Now the cost of EVs matches or is lower than ICE, the only rational reasons to not buy EV are 1. You can't charge at home (ie you live in an appartment and do not have off road parking) 2. You frequently do long trips and NEED to refuel away from home (although EV can charge 200 miles in 15 minutes) 3. You like the noise/ engagement of ICE cars, although EV will accelerate faster and is more stable due to lower center of gravity

As a 10 year follower of electric vehicles, and a 3 and half year owner of an electric vehicle, I’m at the point to where discussions with people who say that wouldn’t want an electric vehicle is not needed, because the interest and purchasing of EVs are steadily increasing around them , sooner or later they will look around and half the vehicles on the roads will be electric. And sooner or later half of those that thought they would never have an electric vehicle will make the choice. I don’t even care about their opinions on electric vehicles, it really doesn’t matter at this point. Bottom line, EVs are a choice and so many people are making that choice more every month, you see even more Teslas , more Fords, Hyundai, BMW, Porsche , Mercedes, Rivian, Nissan, Toyota, Audi, Chevy, Cadillac, Hummer, Lucid, and more and more still coming just in the next year. The ironic ( Ioniq?😄) thing is that because they are not familiar, they probably only know Teslas as electric, and so they will not know all of those other brands of electric vehicles when they see them.

Some places for sure need to update the grid but most people don’t realize it is not as bad as they think. Not everyone is going to have one tomorrow anyways. Hey is there a reason you did not give answer to the problems. Like where can I charge uh your home.

Your approach to this was all wrong - sorry. If you ask people: 1. How many miles do you drive most days of the year - get the answer. (probably less than 100 in each case). 2. If you wake up and start you car in the morning to drive you XX (10) miles, would it be nice to have a fully filled car with 250-300 miles? 3. How often do you go on longer trips per year and how far? Whatever the number ask: do you drive or fly? If someone says "drive" ask them how often or after how many hours they stop to take a break and get a bite to eat. I bet you, if they are honest they will say 4 hours or 250 miles. If yuo ask the right questions people start realizing that all their arguments against electric cars are bogus