We've Owned an EV for 3 Years, Was it Worth it?

[00:00] So we've owned an electric car, our only car, for almost three years. I can prove it. Almost three years. Yeah, that's the truth. See? And boy, do we have thoughts. Do we like it? Is it worth it? Are we filled with regret? Are we there yet? Can you pull over? I have to pee.

[00:14] How many times do you have to go to the bathroom? Ah! Electric vehicles are fraught with opinions. Let's do a rundown. Too expensive, not necessarily. Actually, worse for the environment. No, they're not. But they do have their own problems.

[00:27] Unreliable! Depends, but I'll tell you what is reliable. Depends. Can't drive long distances. Depends, but you probably can. The industry's tanking. No, it's not. We should stop relying on automobiles at all, live in high-density areas, increase public transit, walking and biking.

[00:39] I agree, but we are where we are. So, with all these opinions, what does the world need more of? Our opinions. By our, I mean, China in my opinion. My wife, China, not the country. Though the Chinese company BYD probably has very positive thoughts on the matter.

[00:52] Set to take Tesla's crown as the number one producer of battery electric vehicles in 2024. Fun fact, while researching, I watched a video on CNBC about BYD. Yeah, you know me. And they said BYD stood for Build Your Dream. Fuck, BYD is not an acronym. It's a acronym, meaning it was already named BYD.

[01:07] And then they made it mean build your dreams after the fact. Both shirt! BYD are the initials of the Chinese company BYD, which was originally BYD electronics named after a street called BYD. They added the BY to avoid name duplication and to get an alphabetical advantage at trade shows.

[01:22] I can't blame them. My name used to be Craig Zenzine, but then I changed to Benzine to get an alphabetical advantage at trade shows. Anyway, time to go through the list of all the reasons people like EVs. First, let's answer the big question. Do you like having electric vehicle?

[01:37] Haha, teasing that question to answer later for watch time. Okay, now, now we'll do it. I do, almost 100% of the time. Probably did that too soon. That's why I'm a low-wrong YouTuber. Oh well.

[01:49] Anyway, why we like our electric car? First, don't gotta pay for gas, duh. You're not supposed to put gas in here. I know this because every time I try to do that at a gas station, people gasp at me. Unless I was at a gas station, but that's not a thing. So yeah, they don't need gas, and electricity is usually cheaper than the gas required.

[02:05] And we have solar panels, so it's even cheaper. Next. Because we have a charger at home, it's like having gas station at your house. Yeah, charging at home is awesome, but here comes the caveat monster.

[02:17] You can just charge it into a regular outlet, but that is much slower and usually takes at least overnight to fully charge. But you can get a level two charger, which will fully charge in a matter of a few hours, that will cost somewhere in the hundreds of dollars depending on installation costs and blah, blah, blah.

[02:31] The point is, having a charger at home is not available to everybody, and it is less convenient without that because there aren't as many chargers as there should be. We'll talk about that later in the sure things about electric cars section.

[02:43] Little to no maintenance. They just look at it and go, yep. And then you leave, maybe they put like fighter fluid on it and check your headlights and so on. So awesome to not have to worry about oil changes and all the random parts of a regular car.

[02:57] You do have to rotate tires, replace fluids, change air filters, but there's so much less stuff that will break. You will eventually have to replace the expensive battery in 12 to 15 years, or 8 to 12 depending on extreme weather or good behavior. If you have a lenient judge, what are we talking about?

[03:10] And there's a warranty usually in the first few years of owning the battery, so that's cool. But it's great to not have to do maintenance all the time. As someone who owned a 91 Corolla in 2013, I literally had to latch the door shut with a Bungie cord.

[03:22] It's pretty nice. It was convenient to have that Bungie cord around all the time though in case I wanted to jump off a cliff. The car door would be open though. It's really smooth and quiet. I didn't even realize how loud our last car was until we got this car.

[03:36] And it's one of those cars where you close the door and it makes like a satisfying, like a trunk sound when it closes. And then it's just like really quiet. Okay, yes. The footage makes it sound not very quiet.

[03:48] I do bring up the audio so you can hear what's being said, which raises up the background noise. It's not accurate to how it really sounds. Here. Okay, now I'm going to play actual sound to the car. Here it goes.

[04:00] That was really quiet, wasn't it? Okay, maybe that was audio editing trick. Oh my gosh. That's really dishonest. It's relatively quiet. But if you're someone who wants to have your car be loud, here's what I'll say.

[04:12] Also, if you're worried that it's so quiet that it's unsafe, at least our car, the Volkswagen ID4, when it goes below 20 miles per hour, it makes a spaceship sound, which I find kind of awesome. Some people might not like it.

[04:26] Well, to that I say. It's very responsive in a way that gas-powered cars aren't pushing the accelerator. It just like does. When you push down a lot on the accelerator, it rolls you back in your chair.

[04:40] It's powerful and makes you feel like you have more control. And as a Megalomaniac, I love control. It's great. Should I do it? No, there's a bunch of cars in there. Okay, I won't smash into them.

[04:52] Yeah, that's one thing I don't like about it as if you smash into other cars. It still like wrecks your car. What's the point? Yeah, crashes are still a thing. Now some things we specifically like about our EV, the 2021 Volkswagen ID4. Yes, I own one of those putty cars according to Hank Green.

[05:04] Cars look like putty now. Cars look like putty now. What's up with all these putty-looking-ass whips? It's got like the tightest turn radius of any car I've ever been in or had by a long margin.

[05:18] According to my random googling, it has a turning radius of 33.5 feet, which if you've ever measured turning radiuses and you haven't, and either have I, it's amazing. Imagine this.

[05:30] But a bigger radius because it's a car. So I have no idea what this is completely used as actually. Lane keep assist. And it also has travel, something, two different things. One of them is like bumpy back over if you're like starting to edge over.

[05:44] And then the other one is like keeps you in the center of the lane. And it will match the speed of the car in front of you. Yeah, it's really nice. But that is on a lot of newer vehicles. Yeah, sure.

[05:56] Freakin' love adaptive cruise control. And not having to think about moving my foot down and then up and then down and up and down. And you can set how close you follow. I like to give a wide berth because I prefer not crashing in cars more so than crashing in cars.

[06:08] But yeah, this is in a lot of cars. Not just electric cars. But I've never been in a car that I've had and I like it. Next one. No hump in the back seat. I realize a lot of you might like humps in the back seat, but get your mind out of the gutter.

[06:20] In the back seat, there's not that like bump. I mean, that's really nice. I looked it up and it's because electric vehicles don't require a gearbox, exhaust system, or differential. Yeah, no differentials. We keep it same up in here.

[06:32] Fortunately, it's time for what we don't like. It's about to get negative up in here. Travel. That's a pretty commercial for a car. Yeah, maybe long distance travel. Long distance travel.

[06:44] A lot to do with the fact that we have a small child. It can add a good chunk of time. It requires a little more planning. You have to know where the next charger is. And that's because they're not everywhere. Okay, that's the big issue.

[06:56] That's the big problem. China and I would have no other problems with electric cars. The problem I'm talking about. We need more chargers. The infrastructure for chargers needs to improve. It's been the same since we got this car.

[07:08] We drive past all these gas stations. If there were even half as many fast chargers as there are gas stations, we would be set. So, yes, it can lead to problems, especially during winter. Because in winter.

[07:20] You don't get as much range. Also, it won't charge as fast. The rate of charger availability is actually not that bad. It's situational. Driving around town is the best. Especially if you are lucky enough to have a garage and a charger.

[07:34] Driving a couple hours, that's not so bad. I don't mind it. Driving nine hours to visit your family, that's not as good. Not as good. I mean, there have been a few times that we've rented gas cars. We rented cars.

[07:46] And so, take the drive to Kentucky. If you're unlucky with your charging stops, it can add three hours. Yeah, but despite all the possible inconvenience. If it was just the two of us, you know, eight hour road traffic, we might enjoy it.

[07:58] Stop, walk around, get a real meal. There's a stop in Effingham, Illinois. Is it a parking lot of a nice restaurant? A very nice restaurant. That we never would have gone to. Firefly grill, you guys.

[08:10] Yeah, I could totally drive across the whole country with this thing. If it was just, you know, me and you. I'm not. And we're optimistic for the future of EVs. It's improving and eventually, I assume the dam is going to break.

[08:24] They're going to be all over the place. And batteries are getting better. I've looked into the reasons why it's taking so long for new chargers to show up. And it's quite complicated and beyond the scope of this video. But it involves a debate between utilities, charger companies, subsidies, permits,

[08:38] merging technology in, and yang, and cheat, and chong. I don't know if it involves something. I bet they have electric vehicles. Let me look it up. No, Google's not getting past that whole marijuana van thing.

[08:50] Never mind, moving on. But I'm also reading there's a lot of optimism that we will eventually figure this out. And eventually, I think it'll be pretty darn easy and convenient to own an electric vehicle. I mean, you can be a naysayer in the comments if you want.

[09:02] And if you are, yeah, that's an immature and unhelpful. But I really do think the future is electric cars. It's kind of just a debate about when that's going to happen. And despite some inconvenience on longer trips, like we already said,

[09:14] we've owned the car for almost three years. It had very little problem. And for the most part, it is convenient. But all in all, deep regret for buying an electric car. Oh, no, I love this car.

[09:26] I love this car. It's the best car I've ever owned. Yeah, it's really comfortable. I've owned a lot of cars. And most of them were pretty crappy. But this is the best car I've ever owned. Yeah, I mean by a long shot.

[09:38] But yeah, the other cars that we've owned were good cars too. No, not all of them. Okay, the other cars I've owned were good cars. The parole was a good car. It was a good car. It was just really old. But that wasn't its fault. You know, you don't choose when you're born.

[09:50] It's true. And that's really it for me. I love the car. And we'll continue driving the car. And my next one will be an electric vehicle. And on and on and on until they develop a robust high speed rail system. And cheap self-driving flying taxis that can take you anywhere.

[10:02] And you don't need a car. Then I won't have a car. But unless there's some major change in the way America works, a car will always be a factor. And now I would like to thank the sponsor of this video factor. Oh wow! I just said factor.

[10:14] Wow, listen. It's summer. Don't you just want to relax, show off that beach bod, go surfing or whatever, people... I don't know. I don't know. But with factor, I don't have to go outside. And you don't have to stress about finding your meal before you go parasailing or whatever people do who go outside.

[10:29] Because you see, factor delivers delicious, fresh, never frozen, chef-crafted, dietician-approved meals ready to eat in two minutes. Well, it could just do takeout. Yeah, you could do that over-priced takeout trap. Or you could eat factor, which is cheaper and more delicious.

[10:44] Oh, but restaurant. We're talking about not stressing out in summer. Restaurants are stressful. Have you seen the bear? What about the environment? Actors, the sustainable choice, they offset 100% of their delivery emissions and they source 100% renewable electricity at their production sites and offices.

[10:58] Okay, perspective, electric car driver, what do you think of that? What about hello, fresh, what you've talked about before? Factors owned by hello, fresh. And I enjoy going between the two. Sometimes I want to prepare a meal, sometimes I want to prepare a meal.

[11:12] Options, I love options. Oh, there's the option fairy again. And did I mention factor meals truly are delicious, I like them a lot. So just why not? Especially with this deal I'm about to drop. Head to factor 75.com or use the link below and use code Weasy50 for 50% off your first box.

[11:28] And the next month of orders, that's factor 75.com, code Weasy50 for 50% off your first box and 20% off your next month of orders. That is a good deal, okay? So thank you for watching. I hope our opinion of our electric car enlightened you in some way.

[11:41] Or if it didn't darkened you, turn a light on because you're going to bump into something if you don't and that's dangerous. And if you want to support me, I have a Patreon page. I do monthly live Hangouts. Lately we've been playing jack box games monthly and it's been very fun.

[11:55] I also do a monthly video update about what I'm doing which includes a minute long banjo face which is an old thing I used to do but I still do on Patreon all the time. And I'm going to do it right now. That is all.

[12:07] I'm going to take my electric chair over here. I'm a dork.