Vancouver, British Columbia is a very unique North American city for several reasons and some of them make for great car spotting. First, Vancouver is blessed with a very mild climate. It rarely freezes so road salt is hardly ever used. What’s more, we are highly urbanised; many people live in or near the city’s core, myself included. This makes space critical as narrow streets make parking an issue for large vehicles. Coupled with the highest fuel prices in the Western Hemisphere, including North America’s first carbon tax, we have a rather different range of vehicles on the road than most places. This “study” is by no means scientific. It’s just the cars I see on my walks.
Toyota Corolla
I didn’t realise how ubiquitous the Corolla was until I started to think about the article. If I exit my building and look around, there will be at least one Corolla. There are new Corollas, old Corollas and plenty of Matrixes. What’s not to like about the humble Corolla? They are tough as nails and last forever. The Corolla is the car of choice for new immigrants and why not? For $1000 you can get a runner and it will probably last as long as would want to you keep it.
Honda Fit
We Vancouverites are an outdoor lot. When it’s not pouring rain we’re out hiking, skiing or mountain biking to name a few. For this reason, the Fit is very popular. Again, what’s not to like? The loading system is brilliant, the cars are roomy, they drive well and are as reliable as rocks. My sister bought a 2010 new and it has yet to have a repair outside of regular maintenance.
Honda Civic
The Civic is so popular that Honda built a factory in Ontario to make them. In fact, it’s close to the factory Toyota built to make the Corolla and Matrix. There are old Civics, new Civics and thrashed Civics; they are ubiquitous. Just a quick peek off my balcony spotted three of them.
Volkswagen Golf
The Golf has always been more popular in Canada than in the USA. VW is seen as kind of an upmarket brand in Canada. I am a Golf owner myself and the cars suit British Columbia well. A Golf will handle the city with its torquey motor and charge up the Coquihalla Highway. They are all over the place here. Owners, like myself, are willing to do some wrenching to enjoy the superior driving dynamics of a Golf.
Mazda 3
The Mazda 3 is a very popular car, probably the third most popular model on the street. The zoom-zoom handling and economical operation make the Mazda 3 a good car for Vancouver’s congested cities. The box on the top is a cool thing in Vancouver.
Tesla Model 3
As of today, regular gasoline is selling for C$1.50/litre but electricity is going for C$0.885 kw/h. When added to our $8000 EV rebate, the Model 3 has a total cost of ownership less than a new Honda Accord. There is an EV boom going on here. The most popular is the Model 3 but the other Tesla models are also common. What’s more, I see more EVs every day. On the Cambie bridge near my home, I commonly see several EVs in succession. An interesting note is that many car advertisements are made on the Cambie bridge. Our electrical service is 95% renewables so an EV isn’t affected by the carbon tax or the C$0.17/L transit tax.
Old Stuff
The mild climate and smooth roads of Vancouver make classic car ownership a lot easier. There are some daily drivers such as the New Yorker illustrated but once spring hits, loads of old cars will hit the road. In my younger days, I took cars to Toronto on two separate occasions. I sold both at enough profit to pay for my entire trips.
This wraps up our short examination of the cars of Vancouver. Yes, gasoline is expensive and yes, the cost of living is high but one sunny day makes it all worthwhile.
Vancouver, BC is one of only a few places where true zero-emission transit vehicles operate. San Francisco is another. Their electric transit is powered by hydroelectric generation…BC Hydro and Hetch Hetchy. Just about all else, from battery-powered electric jitney buses to Amtrak electric trains, uses electricity from fossil fuel generation which creates its own emissions. They may be upline but are emissions nonetheless.
What’s a “Hetch Hetchy?”
Never heard of it.
San Francisco’s giant reservoir in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Provides water and electricity.
Dammed for electricity and water in 1923, against campaigns by John Muir and the environmentalists of the day who called it a second Yosemite valley.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hetch_Hetchy
We’ll call the concrete in the dams a sunk emission.
Vancouver is also famous for having the most exotic cars per capita. Every day you’ll see a Lambo, McClaren, Ferrari or some other 6-figure car driven by a young person with a “N” sticker (Novice). Also, being close to Japan, lots of JDM and kei cars driven by hipsters roam our streets.
It has suddenly changed. Our government run insurance company would insure a Ferrari, driven by a seventeen year old, for the same basic cost I pay.
That has ended now, finally. The present government has overhauled ICBC and no longer is this loophole available.
Combined with a no-fault system, my car insurance cost has gone down 30%.
Yes, I’m well aware of our crown corporation auto insurance provider and some of the loopholes the young Ferrari drivers take advantage of…. but that’s another discussion entirely.
I haven’t been to Vancouver in years, last time was just for 2 days for a business meeting. I was talking with another young-ish project engineer who was from there and said “So, how often do you get out of the city and into the mountains?”
And he said “oh, I never do that”. It was totally wasted on him. 🙁
Anyway, yes it’s a great locale for old cars. Fond memories of touring Vancouver Island in my GF’s 1979 Datsun back in the early 90’s…
Any time we can we are hiking in the North Shore mountains. We have alpine meadows an hour from downtown.
In Contrast my buddy who lives in North Van thinks nothing of Driving 4 hours in to the big country for a hike. Back in 89 I came a across an Austin 1100 .aka America and a Cambridge . These had left British roads a decade before!.
There was talk of the BC gov baning Japanese RHD imports Due to accidents.
I was last there in 1995, and impressed with the physical beauty of the setting. I also noted how modest older houses were being torn down and replaced with grossly outsize ones, with money from Hong Kong, before mainland Chinese got in the act. This has undoubtedly continued ever since, given the outsize real estate prices there.
I’ve really lost my appetite for big cities, so maybe I’ll just remember it the way it was.
Paul, it depends where. Kerrisdale and Kitsilano, for example, have small lots and many heritage buildings, so tear downs are illegal. As for the Hong Kong monster houses, they were mostly on Cambie Avenue and also 25th Avenue West. They have been torn down and replaced with apartments.
The real turning point in my neighbourhood was the opening of the Canada Line SkyTrain extension. It has led to massive development along Cambie. The development may be disconcerting to others but we don’t have the housing problems of say, San Francisco.
The city has done a great job keeping Vancouver livable. To whit, any large rental project must have 30% rent to income suites as our housing has been made into a commodity. Finally, the anti-money laundering laws of the present government, combined with foreign buyers and empty homes taxes have alleviated the system problem.
Took them decades to extend the Sky Train to the airport . North Van around Lonsdale has the most expensive real estate in the country with two bed condos going for 1.3 MIL $. +. My buddy lives there. Vancouver is in a Vally around the Frazier river and they have built up as far as they can around it. One of the most beautiful cities, not only in North America but the world. Yes I have been to Toronto to compare it. They are very different .
The most expensive real estate in in West Vancouver and the area around UBC, not Lonsdale. That area is mostly small condominiums.
Vancouver is not in a valley. The “Fraser” valley starts at Abbotsford.
The SkyTrain was extended to YVR in 2009. There have been extensions to Coquitlam and one to UBC is presently under construction. The continuation of the Expo Line to Langley is being planned.
WOW! Vancouver sounds like the Democrats’ Dream for the USA with all those high bills, taxes, fees, and supplement $$$$$$$$$(paid by SOMEBODY!) !!!
Our gasoline has soared up to $.65/Litre… Electric is $.11/KWH… lower in hydroelectric areas… did you misplace a decimal point in your electric rate? Natural gas is $.38/CCF…
German and Japanese cars may not be so popular in USA because we still have a lot of WWII vets living… and they want to retain jobs… but the young people nowadays go along with anything: sloth, prostitution, rioting, looting, robbery, burglary, raping, arson, destruction, murdering… it’s all considered ‘normal’… especially the young just south of Vancover… Seattle, Portland,,, and in most Democrat run large cities…
Step 1
$0.0930 per kWh for first 1,350 in an average two month billing period (22.1918 kWh per day).
Step 2
$0.1394 per kWh over the 1,350 Step 1 threshold
Canada is a democracy and we have collectively decided this is they way we want our country to be.
I may add, my two sons are enrolled in university. They are each paying C$2600 per semester and this includes transit passes. They will both graduate with no debt.
Our health insurance premiums are C$0.00.
The bill for my medications for a chronic health condition is $0.00. Again, this is in Canadian dollars.
Were you come to Vancouver, you’ll see a gorgeous, well kept city with first class amenities. Again, we are democracy. We have voted for this.
CC is not a place for politics. The take home is that other countries can decide to do things differently than you do.
It would be best to take your politics somewhere else because they don’t belong here.
Your comment is highly offensive. Didn’t your parents teach you how to behave?
A lot of WW2 vets? What are you smoking? The youngest ones are over age 90.
We live in a very safe city with little crime.
There are a lot of Americans over age 90… look at the List of 10 Oldest People in the world’s 250+ countries… usually about 4 – 6 of those 10 people are in the USA !
Japanese cars have been the best selling cars in America for a very long time. What century are you living in?
And the over 90 demographic is largely irrelevant to the new car market. If they’re still driving, it’s the well-preserved Camry.
Come on, Paul, when I bought my Golf in 2018, I’d wager that 90% of all the customers in the VW store were over the age of 95.
Pappy is living around 1950 it seems. He likes to watch Fox “News” but the look of it.
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Thanks Paul. A lot of folks make wild comments both positive and negative ,with out personal experience ,on the net. Back in 89 me n friend drove his New Plymouth Colt to Eugene from Vancouver loved every minute of the Twilight country, miss it now.Thanks for all your hard work.
You must live in Surrey then?. Vancouver is what Seattle what’s to be when it grows up. Now Democrats nor Republicans here. Wrong country,
Me? Surrey?
HAHAHAHA!
I live on Vancouver’s Westside.
The youngest WWII veterans are 94.
My last time in BC was 2008, but only on Vancouver Island, not the mainland. What I remember most was the number of Toyota Echo’s (1st Gen Yaris). From other visits to BC including Vancouver, starting in 1977, I don’t remember the automotive landscape being too much different from other West Coast US cities. The Vancouver metro area does seem huge now, but if you’re lucky enough to live on the outermost periphery, like we do in SF Bay Area, these areas can be pretty nice.
The Echo has largely been replaced by the Toyota Prius.
Very interesting! I’ve never been there, but would love to visit sometime. A few questions spring to mind.
Are there very many pickup trucks? Are many of those full sizers?
How about SUVs? In much of the US, two-boxers are vastly outnumbering three-boxers and hatches. Do you ever see Suburbans or other big boys?
What percentage is US brands other than Tesla?
Is there such a thing as suburban Vancouver? Is the car mix significantly different there?
It makes sense there would be a lot of old cars, with the PNW climate though probably not to the extent of Eugene for other economic reasons. That New Yorker reminds me how homely the K-based Chryslers were!
The Canadian market is much like the American one – full-size pickups and CUVs rule. One primary difference is that cars in the Civic/Corolla class have always been the big sellers, while the Camry and Accord are also-rans on the sales chart.
Since you know nothing about Canada, it would be better not to display your ignorance.
Trucks are not common in Vancouver. There is no place to park them and they cost too much to run.
Canada and the USA are very different places. It would be best, however, would you not come and see for yourself.
When I visited New York City just before the 9/11/2001 attack and went to the top of World Trade Tower, it cost $25/day to park there, so I saw why many residents didn’t own vehicles and tried to walk everywhere or take a taxi. Parking meters were a bit less so I tried to get one early each day before they were all taken, but New Yorkers double park at them and you can get blocked in at the curb. Fortunately, we were on vacation and we didn’t have to rush to free up our vehicle by a certain time. Also fortunately my girlfriend’s son-in-law who worked in WTC was hunting in upstate NY on 9/11… although we didn’t get that relief of an info for several days… I assume by now with inflation parking is more like $50/day there…
If I want to go to downtown Vancouver I can walk in 40 minutes or take the train for $3 and 20 minutes. Way easier than driving and parking.
Pappy, you are living in the past. Try to keep up, okay, Boomer?
According to CBC, Canadians buy long bed pick up in case they want to
Transport Snow Mobile’s .and not short bed ones. More Mustang convertibles are sold there than the US so they can enjoy the two weeks of sunshine a year.
Base trim large sedans with small v8s with out A/C were popular until the eighties as they represented the best valve for money. Properly replaced now by the Corolla
Two different markets.
The photo showing zero trucks.
I’d expect those snowmobile-swallowing longbed pickups mostly go to owners in more rural areas than the City of Vancouver (or Toronto, or Montreal) proper.
What Len’s picture shows that the main article doesn’t is the well-known(?) popularity of the Dodge Caravan in Canada.
The Caravans belong to the Catholic Seminary and church that are literally next door and across the street from me. The really sing nicely in the summer, too.
I was going to infer from the picture that minivans are popular, but I guess that’s not really repesentative.
There is a lot more to Canada than Vancouver.
The 10 best selling vehicles in Canada in 2020 were….
1 F-Series
2 Ram
3 RAV-4
4 Sliverado
5 Sierra
6 CR-V
7 Civic
8 Corolla
9 Kona
10 Rouge
US top 10 2020
1 F-series
2 Silverado
3 Ram
4 RAV-4
5 CR-V
6 Camry
7 Equinox
8 Civic
9 Sierra
10 Tacoma
So 7 of the top 10 vehicles are the same between the two. 4 of the top 5 in Canada are Full size pickups while in the US only 3 of the top 5 are Pickups in the US.
“This “study” is by no means scientific. It’s just the cars I see on my walks.”
(paragraph 1, line 6)
I think the gist of all the comments is that Vancouver differs from Canada generally (automotively). Personally, I am facinated by places that are regionally unique. The world is increasingly homogenous, in cars and other ways, too. It’s refreshing to see places that do their own thing!
This was in reply to your comment.
“Since you know nothing about Canada, it would be better not to display your ignorance.
Trucks are not common in Vancouver. There is no place to park them and they cost too much to run.
Canada and the USA are very different places. It would be best, however, would you not come and see for yourself.”
So I was pointing out the fact that the overall automotive landscape in Canada is not that much different than in the US. There are a few key differences, first and foremost that full size pickups are even more popular in Canada than they are in the US.
I can go into Seattle and sure enough you can drive for blocks and blocks and see no full size pickups, unless they are a tradesman on site and just the occasional compact/midsize. However get out here in the suburbs and full size pickups are everywhere.
I am describing where I live. What’s wrong with that?
Certainly nothing wrong with describing how things are where you live.
However what I disagree with is replying to Stumack with
“Since you know nothing about Canada, it would be better not to display your ignorance.”
When in fact his comment
“The Canadian market is much like the American one – full-size pickups and CUVs rule. One primary difference is that cars in the Civic/Corolla class have always been the big sellers, while the Camry and Accord are also-rans on the sales chart.”
does indeed sum up the Canadian market pretty well.
I believe the electricity rate of C$0.885 per kw/h above is incorrect. It’s too high by an order of magnitude. C$0.0885 would make more sense, although this may also be a bit outdated.
According to energyhub.org, the average residential rate for B.C. is currently C$0.126 per kw/h (based on 1000kwh).
Canadian average is C$0.174. This drops to C$0.138 if the Northern Territories are excluded (most electricity there comes from diesel generators).
Cheapest rates are in Quebec (where I live) at C$0.073, where the vast majority of power is hydro-electric, supplemented by wind and a bit of solar. Our one nuclear plant was shut down a few years back, and is being dismantled. Our single thermal plant was never used and sits idle waiting for emergency use only.
Clean electricity and low rates in Quebec make electric cars attractive, but our cold winters really cut down the range of electric cars, because batteries are less efficient at cold temperatures, and the energy required to heat the interior is significant. Add to that the long distances between major cities.
Here in Ohio, USA the electricity is about $.05/KWH to generate it by coal, gas, atomic, and maybe some wind (much higher if select ‘all renewable’) and about $,06/KWH for the infrastucture to get it to us… at the low usage level I generally have… giving total around $.11/KWH mentioned way above… $45 monthly bill in Spring and Fall… $55-60 bill in winter running the furnace… up to $150 in Summer adding the central A/C and depending on the average temps… some summers we never get above 80’s F., usually some 90’s F., occasionally 105 degrees F…
This state is in a big scandal about cost recoveries for atomic plants. A state politician got $60Million from electric utilities to pass a state bill allowing them to collect $1.1Billion more on our electric bills. That was just prevented, but the fallout is still happening…
What does your comment have to do with my post?
Try to keep up, okay, Grampy?
I have been visiting Vancouver for way too long and now live in Oak Bay, the ritzy part of Victoria on Vancouver Island. This article shows us a rather one sided view of Vancouver automobiles i. e. all the crappy (metaphorically – they are all quite good cars) little cars. What a visitor (particularly from the smaller cities of the U. S.) would be most struck by in Vancouver is the preponderance of luxury automobiles and SUVs. There are of lot of them in my neighbourhood but even I am always astonished by the sheer number in Vancouver. One might ask, what are all these rich people’s cars doing in the socialist paradise of British Columbia? For that matter, what are all these huge pickups doing in Victoria (and Vancouver) in the land of outrageously priced and idealogically over taxed gasoline? You got me. They must know something I don’t.
I am describing my Fairview neighbourhood.
Trucks are not common as there is no parking for them. Pretty much all parking is on the street. Try finding a space for a truck.
It’s one of the last places on the Westside where normal humans dwell.
Head west to find all the expensive stuff.
The post is titled cars of “Vancouver”, so I can see how one might get the impression that it’s all econocars (nothing wrong with that) city-wide instead of just in Fairview which wasn’t what I noticed the last time I was there either.
In general I do believe that Canada purchases a lot of pickups per capita (I believe the pickup market share there is 25%, which is 25% more than the 20% share that they have in the US), but perhaps not in your neighborhood, those pictures make it seem a lot like SF and Seattle, which don’t have a lot of large pickups in the tighter neighborhoods either.
Is your electricity really almost a dollar per kWh as you stated? That seems extraordinarily high. Is it that the hydro costs 10x what the dirtier power costs? It’s confusing, and others have asked too, please clarify if possible.
I erred on the electric cost. It’s just under C$0.1 kw/h.
If you look at my post, I states that I am describing the cars out on my walks with Lola the Big White Dog. These walks don’t take me to Point Grey or West Vancouver. They are in areas mostly of young professionals. The areas to the wests of me are mostly made of Chinese immigrants who love to buy fancy cars. They seem cheap to them after what they pay for them in China.
Trucks are popular in areas with more space but there are not many in my neighbourhood. There is no parking for them. Heck, my Golf barely fits into my underground spot that costs me $600 a year.
Ah, that makes more sense, I know stuff costs more in Vancouver (it did when I was there) but that original power figure was outrageous!
Sorry, maybe I totally missed it, I was just trying to clarify in relation to Bluenose’s post, I didn’t see any mention of your dog in the original text or that your walks are superlocal, but I did see you make a point that you can walk to downtown in 40 minutes, which would be about 2.5 – 3 miles for a normal person and then you make mention of crossing (and show a picture of) a bridge. I obviously got the mistaken impression originally that you walk further than just around the immediate area until the dog finally takes a turd. Some people walk much further with their dog than they do without same, especially a big one. I’ve walked with Paul N and his dog, his “neighborhood walks” seems to almost span from the outskirts of Portland down to around Crater Lake. I don’t know why he owns a car. 🙂
Seems like a decent neighborhood though, I’ll lay off the commenting, sorry.
This is my (almost) daily walk. Very few cars at all on the entire route. It’s 15 km and takes me 2.5 hours.
Paul and I have similar walking habits. In the last year I might have driven 3,000 km since I am working from home. If I need groceries, I walk. If I need hardware, I walk. If I need to go to the bank, I walk. All are much, much easier than trying to park along West Broadway Ave.
You think Vancouver’s got old daily drivers – try visiting Vancouver Island! (and yes, despite “Island” in the name, the Island is quite large – over 300 miles by road from north to south – and has four-lane highways, overpasses, separate communities, etc.)
My father lives in Vancouver and has a mid-1980s VW Westfalia, and that’s by no means an uncommon sight on our roads. He also has a 1994 Volvo 850 station wagon. These are both routinely driven, year round.
We routinely see much older vehicles driven here, even in the winter, and many are rust and dent free. I can go to the supermarket any given day and see cars in the parking lot from the 1990s, or even older.
I know of what you speak!
I grew up on Vancouver Island. Lots of of classics in daily use.
Sounds like NZ 🙂
Wow you have very cheap gas and electricity over $2,00 per litre for regular 91 here which reminds me my Superminx and Citroen need feeding today while one outfit has a 15c special on, I dont pay electricity it is incorporated into my appartment rental as is parking rubbish removal and internet but its 95% renewables in NZ old cars are getting scarcer as daily drivers but more common as weekend cars though old Corollas are common as are Hondas and Mazdas, Mazda 2 Demios are the most frequently stolen car as the JDM versions dont have immobilisers and are popular here.
Pickups are popular but mostly diesel versions of Aisian brands, American pickups are horrendously expensive just to buy, never mind run but are a common sight both old and new.
Yes, the entire western hemisphere pays less for gasoline than for bottled water with a label. You guys in NZ have a nice mix of cars and it’s a bit of a Japanese car lover’s paradise with excellent driving roads to boot.
Carbon taxes are a scam, it’s just outright theft. CO2 is not pollution. Governments that implement such nonsensical schemes need to be tossed into the woods.
Too bad you are wrong, but thanks for playing:
https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/july-2019/lessons-from-british-columbias-carbon-tax/#:~:text=A%20growing%20body%20of%20research,harm%20to%20low%2Dincome%20households.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/carbon-tax-bc-1.5083734
Great place. The bride & I spent a week there in 2018. And Doug kindly took a day to drive complete strangers around in real style.
Not a car, but it’s curbside and Vancouver!
I live in Vancouver`s West End and I see many older vehicles parked on the street with the parking permit that stay stationary for weeks at a time. The ones that stand out the most to me is an early 1990`s VW Eurovan in a bright aqua green color and a yellow early 1990`s Geo Metro convertible. In my buildings underground parking there are 2 Tesla 3`s, 2 Toyota Matrix`s, a 1990 ish Honda Civic hatback that is owned by the little old lady that looks like it rolled right out of the showroom and a 1970`s Cadillac Fleetwood which is covered in dust with four flat tires – it has been there since I moved in 15 years ago. They pump up the tires and wash it every couple of years. Then there is just the random mix of 3 – 10 year old vehicles. My own car is a 2008 Pontiac Wave with only 63,000 kms. I pretty much walk everywhere except grocery shopping.
Pretty much the same for me. I drive my car every ten days or so to get groceries or just to keep the battery up.
In my parkade in Yaletown there is such a weird mixture of cars.. like most parking garages LOTS of Tesla Model 3’s, a mid 90’s BMW 8 Series, a Lotus Elise, a few leaky old Diesel Merc’s and some immaculate regular 90’s cars (a very early Miata, a shiny two-tone Jeep Comanche). The expected late model BMW’s and Merc’s but there are also some “eh” every day cars you see on the time. A few 10 year old VW’s, Hyundai’s, Honda’s.. lots of variety
Interesting. Thank you for the article. I’ve never been to Vancouver, but we did spend several days in Toronto in 2011. The Honda Civic was very popular there, and I saw a fair number of Acura ELs and CSXs. They caught my eye, as the Acura EL and CSX are vehicles we didn’t get in the U.S.
Vancouver is a very beautiful city and I hope it will remain so. The decisions made there don’t fit other places because the city is so different from other places. What works there, won’t work elsewhere.
Enough with the politics. Lets do cars, OK?
The number of imported Asian cars is understandable due to the market preferences. The demographics is skewed there towards a great number of Asian immigrants. Vancouver has always had vast numbers of Asian immigrants, so choosing Asian cars is a no-brainer.
Once you leave Vancouver, you leave everything. Western Canada is as different as different can be. So opinions are as polar opposite as found between any urban and rural areas.
I have a new friend who, for over 30 years, worked in the electric industry as a lobbyist. He is, as a result, very knowledgeable and a good person to ask about the future of electricity. This week we discussed what I read here about the new electric Mustang. Well, I learned a lot from him. He told me that what is needed to electrify only 10% of traffic currently on the road is far beyond the electric industry to meet in many ways. The infrastructure costs for a single city is beyond its ability to afford. While we are all very excited about electric vehicles, listening to him takes out a whole lot of that excitement. Science cannot be denied. An electric future is still very far away. There will need to be many new technological advancements before we can reach it. There will need to be many environmental sacrifices to make as well, and it is possible that the sacrifices to the environment in one area would be too great to offset the advantages. Bottom line – there is no free lunch and electricity is not without many considerable disadvantages.
I like Vancouver. I hope it can keep on being a wonderful place to live.
“Science cannot be denied”. Wait, what? This is rich on so many levels…
Please ask your lobbyist friend (who by definition is one-sided and who knows what part of the “industry” he represents) why the electric industry is and has been actively working in many states to deny people the ability to install cost-effective solar on their own roofs and generate their own power to help meet that supposedly insurmountable need. I’m not even a particularly passionate supporter of solar since supplied electricity is so cheap here I’d see a better ROI on investing the money elsewhere but if every electric vehicle owner in the sunbelt (which includes Colorado with our 300+ annual days of sun) had a small array to only offset the power their car uses (of which 95% or more of the total annual mileage is local driving with overnight home charging) there would be zero additional need for utility power).
The vast and overwhelming majority of charging is done at home, in the nighttime hours, when most people use far less power and most businesses are closed. There is a reason why many power companies offer significant (2/3rds off in my case) discounts for power at those times. If you had a mini-refinery in your yard and could pump your gas in your own driveway what percentage of your annual gas station visits would be eliminated? Likely 95% or so, perhaps 100% for at least one of your cars. It’s like that.
No one denies that a full electric future is some ways away. The average age of the vehicle fleet is over eleven years old. On that basis alone if there were never a single ICE car sold again it would take over two decades to replace the majority of them.
Why do people think that the “many new technological achievements” that are supposedly needed can’t occur? We just developed multiple effective vaccines against a global pandemic in under a year. We put a man on the moon. The internet wasn’t even imaginable when I was a kid. And yet again many people here in this country just give up and say nope, nothing can be done if it involves electricity, let’s just go back to the 1950’s. Where’s the “can-do” spirit?
Your friend is utterly clueless. The overwhelming majority of EV charging is done at night, when electric use plummets, and the utilities are very eager to utilize their vast excess capacity.
This has been known and verified for a very long time. I hope he’s retired now.
Those are good points.
I’ll ask him about them and see what he thinks!
I’ll show him what you wrote.
Thanks!
Good. Here’s the math: The Mustang Mach-E you mentioned was easily able to be at 3 miles per kWh which is not at all the most efficient EV. Assume 15,000 miles per year as an average user. That’s 5,000kWh per year or 417kwH per month. When I charge at night or weekend day (or anytime in the week that’s not between 2pm and 7pm) I pay under 8c per, similar to what Len in this post pays. That comes out to $33 per month or per 1250 miles. To me (and most others), $33 a month is a rounding error in the monthly expenses. (Of course there’s also the gasoline I don’t have to buy that much more than completely offsets this). Assuming an average car gets 25mpg these days that’s the same as paying 66cents per gallon of gas. I don’t know what gas or electricity prices are where you are but likely you can pay a LOT more for electric power and still be paying less than for gasoline even if it’s the one or two times a month that most people stray more than 100 miles one way from their home.
What you are saying makes absolutely zero sense. Your “friend” is talking out of his ass. EVs are charged at night when loads are the lowest. There is a huge amount of power available past 11:00 PM, especially in thermal plants.
A dear friend in Germany recently built a new home. She had solar panels installed on the German gabled roof. The power provided charges their Tesla Model Y and on most days, they sell more power than they use.
My daily electricity use in my LEED certified apartment averages 7 kw/h per day. It doesn’t take a lot of solar cells to produce that much power. Even with an extra 10 kw/h for a car, it is quite affordable.
Canadians don’t remotely care where our cars are made. Japanese cars have been popular here since the 1970s. In fact, both Toyota and Honda have significant investments in Canadian manufacturing facilities.
You are wrong in one thing: the Japanese cars are almost always bought by long term Canadians, ie people born here. Chinese immigrants much prefer BMW and MB as they seem cheap by their standards. There is a 100% tariff on cars imported into China.
This is changing as having an EV is considered way cool.