Is it over? By your own account, no. But it appears you reached your
primary goal - to handle all your daily vehicle travels in EV mode.
Nice story and great to hear about your early efforts !
Peri
------ Original Message ------
From: "Damon Henry via EV" <ev@lists.evdl.org>
To: "EV List" <ev@lists.evdl.org>
Cc: "Damon Henry" <damonhe...@hotmail.com>
Sent: 17-Dec-18 10:49:37 AM
Subject: [EVDL] 2 PHEVs, is my quest over?
My journey to driving electric started back in 2000 when I saw a story
on the local news. It wasn't long after that I first met John Wayland
who I found through some internet searches. He pointed me to the EVDL.
After describing my commute to him it was apparent that I could not
build the EV I wanted. It was the classic you can only have 2 of the 3
requirements scenarios. In my case, the extreme range that I required
meant that I would be stuck in the slow lane holding up traffic going
up some nasty inclines that were unavoidable, so in March of 2001 I
bought my beloved Honda Insight instead. It soon became apparent that
as cool as the hybrid thing was, I still really wanted to drive
electric. About a year later, I bought a 1974 Suzuki GT 250 with the
intent on doing my first conversion. I felt a motorcycle was a lot
less complicated and cheaper to convert, and I would learn lots of
valuable lessons along the way. It turned out well, and gave me the
ability to get around f
ully electric for some of my driving, but definitely would not cover my
full commute. I toyed with ideas of how I could make this vehicle
work. I even loaded it up in the back of my van on a couple of
occasions and drove half of my commute then rode the motorcycle for the
rest (the original PHEV). My thinking was that I could stage a dump
charger or swap-able battery pack at an EV friendly business or
residence along the way... I decided the motorcycle was not the
answer, so my next adventure was my 1970 Datsun truck conversion. Both
my motorcycle and my truck have served me well over the years in
specific scenarios and I have had lots of fun driving electric, but was
never able to make them work consistently for my needs, so the quest
went unfulfilled.
September of last year I bought my wife a 2017 Prius Prime with 4000
miles on it. Last week I traded in my 2016 Hyundai Sonata SE hybrid
for a 2016 Hyundai Sonata PHEV Limited with 15,500 miles on it. Both
of these cars cover all of our current daily driving needs on electric
alone. They both feature all the latest tech and are wonderful to
drive. Charging is a breeze and I never worry about murdering the
batteries. Trips to the gas station are months apart. I would
estimate that roughly 85% of our driving will be electric now and that
includes road trips which we usually do a few times a year (at least
4000 miles worth). I'm in no hurry now to buy an OEM BEV. There is
not currently one on the market that I find compelling. I suspect that
is going to change as there are lots of interesting ones in the works,
but I will probably wait a couple of years after that for good used
ones to be available. It's amazing how fast cars lose their value,
especially ones that are purchase
d with govt tax incentives. Both my recent purchases feel like brand
new cars without sticker shock.
I feel like I have finally arrived. My family is driving electric
everywhere now, and with the addition of the 8KW solar system I
installed on my roof this year, I'm also making my own fuel :) Its a
good time to be an EV enthusiast!
Damon
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