Maybe you should’ve bought an electric car

[Jseis]

https://flip.it/CHvk5z

Great article. I commuted 6 years at 92 miles a day and 5.5 years with a BEV (Mach E then Lightning). Power at $.064/KWh and gas at $5.69/gal now makes it a no brainer although not anything predictable like Iranian War. With Hormuz shutdown and no one knows where this will settle out if ever… and gas could go down or up more though for us probably forever in the $4’s+ no matter what else happens.

It’ll be interesting to see how consumers respond though I’d say… not buying big ticket items right now still a safer choice. Unless you’re rolling a lot of miles daily.

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[TaxmanHog]

I expect the war to end in the near term, markets for energy will stabilize, and pricing will come down to prior levels, JMHO. The anti-EV rhetoric will continue with the luddites.

 

[jlferg0509]

Your posting is timely, in that I just had a friend ask me, given that Ford has discontinued manufacturing the Lightning, would I buy it again. Short answer YES!

Regardless of what has happend with the Lightning, I bought in with my eyes wide open. My '23 has served me well from everyday commuting to doing truck stuff (e.g., hauling, and towing) with only one recall that I'm aware of (water in the tail light). It continues to serve me well and I'm approximately 66k miles in...

If you aware of any conflicts in that region historically, you should recognize that the war will continue for years to come and continue to impact us daily, even if we say we're done and pull out. Doesn't mean they consider it done. That is unfortunate...

 

[nate002]

Short term pain for long term gain, or something. Love my Lightning.

 

[gbuydos]

Price of electricity varies across US. Some areas like CA, can see stupid high peak pricing. Those rival gas prices. In times like this everyone looks at the saving of EVs with low cost electricity, then the gas prices will drop again, and we will be back to where we normally are. EVs don't work, they take too long to charge and I cant drive them very far.

 

[CAVUBob]

The Electric Viking made a couple of videos on this topic. Here's one:

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[21st Century Truck]

I expect the war to end in the near term, markets for energy will stabilize, and pricing will come down to prior levels, JMHO. The anti-EV rhetoric will continue with the luddites.

I expect the war (the wider war, as there are now multiple countries involved) and certainly its economic effects to last several years.

Frankly, I bought EVs and went heavily into solar PVs and a ground-sourced heat pump for the house a good few years ago now because I fully expected more wars to randomly continue across the Middle East.

 

[MountainAlive]

I expect the war to end in the near term, markets for energy will stabilize, and pricing will come down to prior levels, JMHO. The anti-EV rhetoric will continue with the luddites.

Agreed. In about 3 months Americans will forgot all this happened and the EV haters will rise again. lol.

 

[nate002]

I doubt it, they’re fixing to send in troops. It’s going to be more than a few months.

 

[21st Century Truck]

Just because the U.S. and Israel began military strikes, is no reason that the now-wider regional war would stop if the U.S. were to cease combat ops. There's a reason this region is often referred to as "Pandora's Box".

 

[JRDM2]

As far as I understand, sales are slow for all vehicles. Also a lot of people don't tend to switch unless they think gas and diesel prices will be high for a while.

There's still a lot of decently speced new Lightnings available at relatively attractive prices with incentives (IMO).

 

[Jseis]

Price of electricity varies across US. Some areas like CA, can see stupid high peak pricing. Those rival gas prices. In times like this everyone looks at the saving of EVs with low cost electricity, then the gas prices will drop again, and we will be back to where we normally are. EVs don't work, they take too long to charge and I cant drive them very far.

Really depends on a BEV users situation. I’m a 93 mile a day commuter…Charging from home.. piece of cake. Charging on x-country trip.. far easier today than in 2021, 2022, 2023. Optimal charging as opposed to “fill-up” charging reduces time.

My range varies 270-330. Good enough for me.

But the real thing is rapid pace of BEV vehicle & charging infrastructure development. In an historical context, similar to ICE engine development post WW1 to WW2. China’s tech advancement phenomenal as they deliberately invested in engineering schools to train up the people who will build the future in China. That’s very similar to Japan’s changes post WW2.

In this modern age if you standstill… well good luck with that.

And our energy cost is low (.064/KWh), works for me, saves serious $$$.

EV’s “work” fine.

 

[EV Engineer]

The $ saving on energy for a personal vehicle is so variable I really can't say I would recommend EV purely from a saving $ standpoint.


60 mile daily commute and gas is $5 and electricty is $0.05c/kwh? - Yes an EV will save $.

20 mile daily commute gas is $4 and electricy is $0.22/kwh? - Probably minimal savings

People also overexaggerate fuel costs. $1 / gallon only likely amounts to $30 more / month.

Sure it's something --but not the financial hardship the media makes it out to be.

 

[WXman]

I will admit that THIS WEEK it would be nice to have the Lighting which I was "filling up" for $14 bucks at home, instead of my new diesel truck that costs $125 to fill up.

However, the freedom of being able to pull my camper anywhere I want anytime I want without trip planning is golden and well worth it.

I still say if commuting was all I cared about, the Lightning wouldn't be my choice anyhow. I'd buy a Tesla or some other small EV car. But since I need a TRUCK to get jobs done, I do not want to feel like I'm on a short leash.

Not a political statement at all, just the reality: midterm elections are less than two months away and there will be a strong push to get fuel prices down quickly in April.

 

[Discwizard70]

I guess I am a really big exception to all the economic situations then!? I live in CA, yes, expensive electricity, BUT WAY MORE EXPENSIVE gas, currently pushing $6/gal....normally around $4.5/gal. I drive a F150 Lightning about 300 miles a week and charge it nearly exclusively overnight because PG&E offers a cheaper rate by nearly half for EV owners 11p-8am. The wife uses a MachE for about 200 miles a week, we alternate charging overnight every other weekday. We both had the same job/mileage when I drove a tacoma for work, she had a Rav4 and there was no war at the time. Gas was costing $450-550 monthly, yet my electricity bill has only grown by $175-250 monthly. You can break down whatever cost breakdown you want, but I know what's coming out of pocket in the end. Insurance for Both way newer vehicles is up $45, but no oil changes, service, etc. Payments collectively are $80 more. Overall year to year, EVs, in my situation, even in my stupidly run expensive state(CA), are way more economical, especially when you start adding other factors like solar, batteries, time of charge, etc. All these studies done, yeah, useful, but practicality and actual use shows me exactly what I bought them for...
I got 2 new cars that cost me less than the ones I had, and over time that will likely increase the amount I save.
Nothing else matters for my situation.

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