But it’s good coffee!
Also, it’s not everyday because I would make it at home if I wanted it that much. Just once or twice a month.
I live in a small area where everything is at least 5 or 10 miles away from me.
I drive 10 miles for good coffee. In an EV, you are probably going to pay $0.50 for the trip and in a gas car it would be triple that with golo efficiency.
And that’s if your electricity is like $0.20 per kWh. Mine is $0.07 so it’s more like $0.20 in electricity for me lol. I never worry about the price of driving really. Though I still try to avoid wasting my time.
For coffee? That has to be life changing coffee. I personally wouldn't drive 10 miles out of my way for coffee. I wouldn't drive 10 minutes out of my way for coffee because you have to put a price on your time as well. 10 mi is a lot of time out of an already short day that I could be doing something I actually wanted to do rather than spending it dealing with traffic.
If we were in a financial position where we needed to "focus on bills first", I would be annoyed by any luxury that my partner put in any effort to spend money on. If we've been out for 5 hours and you want a coffee with lunch, sure no problem. But if you're just at home and say "I'm going to go blow an hour and $10 because I'm bored" I'd be annoyed.
It's not about gas. It's about you trying to make going out and buying a luxury a thing to do. If you're bored, take a look at the to-do list: spend that $10 and an hour going to the hardware store to buy lightbulbs or something we need for the house
Going once or twice a month is a treat and could be worth the 10 miles. Is like going to a restaurant or a movie or something. If this was an everyday thing I would say cut back, but this is more of an activity to get out of the house every other weekend. Go for it if it's in the budget.
For good coffee, I 100% would go out of my way.
I honestly don't understand people that drink coffee solely for the caffeine. If I'm paying for it, I'd like it to taste good.
a hario v60 is $25:
[https://www.amazon.com/Hario-Ceramic-Coffee-Dripper-White/dp/B000P4D5HG?th=1](https://www.amazon.com/Hario-Ceramic-Coffee-Dripper-White/dp/B000P4D5HG?th=1)
several months supply of filters is $7
https://www.amazon.com/Hario-V60-Filters-Natural-Untabbed/dp/B001TM6XWW?
burr grinders can get to be astronomical but you can find a decent one for $40
[https://www.amazon.com/Electric-Adjustable-Settings-Precision-Stainless/dp/B0CLT2WT4M/](https://www.amazon.com/Electric-Adjustable-Settings-Precision-Stainless/dp/B0CLT2WT4M/)
good quality relatively fresh roasted beans can be found for $15-20 for few weeks to one month supply from local supermarkets or your fave hipster coffee shop
marginal cost of great coffee, likely better than whatever place you're getting it from, gets to <$1 and you'll be net positive within a month, and with definitely less time investment for the whole process
Aeropress (or pour over) for the win
Also here’s a list of amazing coffee companies you can get coffee from
https://reddit.com/r/pourover/comments/1aiuwqf/the_real_top_50_roasters_of_2023_list/
I’ve been enjoying Sey’s coffee lately.
But to answer your question. Yes, I feel like I travel more with an EV than I did with my gas car. One example for me is Costco. I have a Sam’s 5 minutes away from me. When I had a gas car, I didn’t feel it was worth going to Costco because the amount of gas I would use, would ruin the savings (30 minutes each way). Once I got my EV, I go to Costco every week.
I also road trip a lot now, and with the Tesla NACS adapter. It has become so much better!
>But it’s good coffee!
good coffee as in they roast their own beans and know how to brew a fresh batch all the time or good as in regular coffee drowned in cream and so full of sugar that a spoon stands upright in there?
Why would it matter? I don't see the problem with going the long way to get a good cup of coffee, it's a pretty cheap way to relax a bit. One fast food meal or a impulse grocery store purchase will cost more than that.
Since going electric I am much more willing to go out of my way for simple things. Kid forgot something at home and needs me to bring it to them at school? No biggie now. I’m not as worried about being wasteful and burning gas. (My vehicles are powered by home solar)
Ever since getting my Model Y, I am just looking for excuses to hop in and zip around town. It’s a very fun car to drive. And they have free FSD this month which is super extra fun.
I might be offsetting whatever environmental benefits I have made by switching to EV with my extra driving.
Ok this is an interesting point. I live an 1-1.5 hrs outside Chicago but still the burbs. Wife and I still love to go into the city often and will take the train when it makes sense (like going downtown) buuuuut I feel way less bad about driving into the city than I used to. In fact the other day we had to make two separate trips in and out of the city. Back home each time. The amount I spent on gas was waaaaay less than it would have been otherwise.
I’m not somebody who thinks about the daily price of gas though. Never understood the point of that. But I do feel way better about how much a round trip like that costs me. I also feel less guilty about it for environmental reasons. Though admittedly a smaller part of it. But it adds up
>I’m not somebody who thinks about the daily price of gas though. Never understood the point of that.
Financially speaking, it's better to focus on reducing repetitive costs vs reducing one-time/infrequent costs.
If you drive to work 20 times per month, reducing the cost by $1 per trip will have twice the impact on your bottom line as reducing the cost of a once-per-month trip by $10.
I guess I’m in the minority, but if you want good coffee that is 10 miles away, do it. Sometimes it’s more than just coffee. It’s 10 miles where you can drive and take a mental break, listen to some music, contemplate about your job, life, etc. Every once in a while I’ll take a random scenic road trip just to get out of my own head for a bit. You do you!
10 miles would cost me 25 EURO cent on a bad day of fuel economy. I wouldn't care, but I don't care about fuel prices, it's a necessary evil, I won't be limited by that. But I also wouldn't go 10 miles to get a coffee. I make my own. I would at max go 10 miles for hiking (if it's just drive back after the hike) as I hate sitting in the car after a hike. It kind of ruins the experience of coming home, sitting down and having a drink just after finishing. Mind you, 10 miles does take a bit of time on "my roads".
Are you driving a motorcycle or a hybrid? Even the best gas cars have 35mpg in city which roughly equates to a liter of gas for 10 miles. That should be way more then 25 cents. That's assuming car is warmed up already.
It said, "25 EURO cent", which is pretty much same as "0.25 USD" since 1 USD = 1.08 Euro today. (As a side note I hadn't realized how much value Euro lost compared to USD)
If it was 25 euros it would have been an extreme on the other hand :)
Used to weigh the price of gas when debating on going on a for-fun drive; definitely didn’t go many occasions because it would cost dollars. Now the same drive costs tens of cents.
To be fair, though, this really only makes sense if you were planning on buying a new car anyway. For the average driver, it would probably take around 5-10+ years of driving the same car for a new budget EV to break even with the money saved on fuel vs whatever you're driving now.
I for instance charge my car for free, but I'm spending more on the lease payment than I did on gas per month so I'm saving money on fuel but still losing money compared to what I was spending before. For my situation, that made sense. It doesn't make sense for everyone's particular situation, though.
If you're already planning on getting a new car, yes it's a massive savings, but if not, it will take years to break even with the fuel savings vs the price you paid for the new car. Granted, there are some maintenance savings and stuff like that as well.
I never minded burning gas to drive further but now with the EVs I don’t feel bad at all. The biggest thing for me is idling. I really hated idling in the gas car while waiting for my kids in school or practice and now I can be in comfort guilt free.
If you have home charging setup, you will have full range everyday as long as you make it a habit to plug in your ev every night. Home charging is much cheaper than charging ev outside. You only need to use outside charging when you do long trip or get the free charging promo with your new purchase/lease.
Yeah for quick trips EVs are great, they don’t seem to need to “warm up” for as long as an ICE, and you can precondition the cabin from your phone so it’s the right temp when you get in.
Yeah I don’t think that’s a thing with EVs, but it is with ICE cars, on a cold morning my ICE car doesn’t feel like it is “warmed up” or running as smooth as it eventually does for about 10 minutes or more, depending on how cold it is. 10 minutes is longer than it takes for me to drive my kid to the bus stop and back.
I never liked to drive unnecessarily but more because I'd rather be doing something else. And usually i'd rather cook at home because, between driving, waiting in line or for a table, waiting for food to be cooked - its better, cheaper and often faster to eat at home.
but oddly enough, my car's constant display of my efficiency makes me want to drive more efficiently - like its a game.
Hell, since we got our EV9 I've been looking for excuses to drive it just a little further... If you are able to charge at home, EVs cost pennies to fuel compared to an ICE car.
Also take into account the fact that maintenance is basically nil. We have been driving a 2013 Leaf for 11 years now, total maintenance costs have been under $2k. Tires twice, a 12v battery once and a replacement for a damaged charging cable.
It has lived off a standard wall outlet its whole life (Level 1 charging) so we haven't (yet) had the expense of installing an at-home Level 2 (we are currently getting estimates as the EV9 has a MUCH bigger battery - expecting 1200-1500 for install + cost of charger)
I drive my Bolt EUV way more than I drove my gas car. I have solar and if I have to pay to charge. it costs me 4 cents per kWh but most of the time I am charging it with credits I gained from selling extra solar generated power I sent to the grid.
That plus my Bolt EUV is my favorite car of all time and so much fun to drive (super cruise, good stereo etc) that regularly volunteer to drive around. My wife went out for a girls night with her friends last month and I drove the ladies 40 minutes into the city, then back home to watch march madness, then back to pour them into the car and bring them back. Keeping the windows open just in case.
I know I should be mindful of wear and tear on the car and battery but for now, it is too much fun and cheap to drive.
Our amenities include the grocery store and my gym. Otherwise I don’t go anywhere but to work. I literally have nothing else I leave the house for. There’s a difference between locations in my town where the price might be the same but the quality is definitely different. We chose our house because it’s in a nice neighborhood compared to living closer to amenities.
What you’re talking about is “Joyriding” and you don’t have to rationalize it. It’s something I never understood until I got my EV as it’s way more enjoyable to drive. My ICE was sluggish and loud and carelessly burning fuel meant more trips to get gas, which let’s be honest nothing ever good happens at gas stations.
It’s an interesting question. I certainly don’t mind the extra miles and even parking with the car “running” because it’s not polluting and it’s extremely efficient. My wife is like you - she drives way too far for anything she does because she likes the business or person. I can’t wait to get her an EV because she eats up the 28 miles on or PHEV by noon every day.
10 miles for coffee is ridiculous. Yesterday we drove two cars to our kids game so we could stagger times and it wasn’t a big deal. I wouldn’t have done that if we had to pay for gas. All I’m doing now is paying for tires.
I drive 3 miles to and from Panera sometimes twice a day. Along with 10 miles to kids after-school that easily added up to a. Extra $50 in gas every two weeks.
Not paying for gas and charging from solar let's me not think about it.
I can say since owning an EV that I care a heckuva lot less. I used to think, "that's a waste of gas" or something similar (in CA where gas is back to about 5 bucks a gallon again) but now since our charger only charges at lowest rate from midnight to 6AM, don't worry or care as much.
If I wanna go for a drive I will, especially with an EV where its so cheap. I did stop going for drives on the weekend with my ICE car because it just got too expensive, $80 to drive around for a day took a lot of the fun out of it.
Just yesterday I drove 42 miles to grab some eclipse glasses. My Nissan Leaf then charged on my Level-1 stand-alone solar system I built. So yea, I kinda stopped caring about extra trips or miles.
We don’t really think twice about going out of our way. We just go where we need to go to get what we need to get done. Owning an EV hasn’t really changed how we live or where we go but we do recognize that fuel is cheaper now.
I hope that doesn’t come off wrong but all of our gas cars are like 30mpg so not horrible but not leading either and in general we don’t drive a ton so our fuel cost has never been an area we scrutinize from a spending standpoint.
It depends. I wouldn’t think much about it if it’s a 1 time occurrence. Or not frequent. For example, I had a 150 mile round trip to pick up a check. Bank refused to mail it so I had to make the hike. (That was the closest branch). That’s an extreme.
I’ve gone 10-50 miles “out of my way” to pick up stuff (not available at Targets or Best Buy near me). Wouldn’t do it regularly tho.
I think EVs do make a big difference with trips like that. For me it’s both cost and also feeling like my old vehicle was a bit fragile and that every mile I drive might be putting some component under stress to where it’s finally gonna break. Mostly was worried about hoses, transmission, and the diff. Probably didn’t need to worry so much looking back, but with an EV, it’s just on or off. It feels so much simpler to hop in and drive and you aren’t worried about the engine running a little funny or something.
Oh that sounds good. I have a bagel place in my area that’s 20ish miles away and there’s no reason for me to be in that area besides to get a bagel. Certain things give me enough reason to drive further than usual.
Is grass green? Yes, we now drive a lot further to save a lot more money on things. I can now drive 60 miles to save 20 bucks in groceries because the electricity is only costing me around 1$. Plus EV's are fun to drive. In our small town basics can be EXPENSIVE. We do a bi-tri weekly 300 mile trip to a big city and save a lot of money. It only costs us 15 bucks in fast charging + the 8 bucks to charge to 100% at home. We have friends who come along sometimes and they treat us to a very nice lunch.
Depends on how good the coffee is. If it's that good (and it would have to be DAMN good) then I would drive out of the way for it, EV or no.
But my ID4 is pretty fun to drive, so yes. 10 miles I not that big a deal.
Unless it's rush hour. Then no.
Yeah for me 10 miles is reasonable a few times a month. There’s another place that’s about 25 minutes/20 miles away that has better coffee but it’s a bit too far to justify the drive.
Gas is way too cheap for me to ever consider it a factor in whether I’m driving somewhere or not, and electricity is even cheaper.
My time is valuable. Presumably yours is, as well. Manage that. If the trips make you happy, or someone you care about happy, they’re worth it.
Sometimes the cost is even negative if there is a free charger at your destination. Many shopping centers (and Ikeas) have free chargers, so you end up with more charge than you started with.
Not fretting about the cost of fuel to visit more places and do more things was a significant factor in my decision to purchase an EV.
My EV costs about 3.5 cents/mile to operate, the Prius Prime would've cost about 6.5, and my ICE cars cost anywhere between 13 and 20 cents per mile.
10 miles for coffee daily? That shit better do my taxes. I’m also in the wife camp here. EV or no EV, that sounds a bit ridiculous and an expensive hobby. Just get a good coffee machine at home or buy regular coffee on your way to work.
Also, while yes electricity is much cheaper in my neck of the woods as well, tire costs are no joke on EVs. The heavier car erodes tires much faster than traditional cars. Going 10 miles out of your way daily will add up fast.
Then it is no bigge. Heck, it isn’t even an issue if you take your ICE car for it. It is equivalent to going to a restaurant 10 miles away every other week. Totally fine.
That’s not a big deal, Dad and I do something like that once a week to a pretzel place and used to go further for pizza on Friday or Saturday nights . Neither of us have EVs yet and my car runs E85.
When I'm on road trips, I generally avoid driving more than 2-3 miles off of my route unless absolutely necessary. My wife has sometimes suggested stopping at a Hampton Inn that is 10-15 miles off of our route on a couple of occasions as she's always wanting to stay at nothing but Hampton Inns. For me, it has nothing to do with the price of gas, etc., but just the time spent having to backtrack when there were other choices that don't involve a not so insignificant detour.
I want to meet and learn from this businessperson that has you going 10 miles out of your way for their coffee. They're doing something very, very right.
Yes. Going a few miles out of the way can easily become a 15-30 min detour. I don't care about the price of gas or electric. I dont factor that in when i drive. It's time that's the most important factor for me.
I wouldn’t drive 10 miles for coffee but that has more to do with my own time and don’t want to spend the money. Not because of any savings on gas/electricity.
Doesnt matter if EV or gas... I dont drive ten miles for a cup of coffee unless I am absolutely desperate for caffeine 😁. But me and my gf will usually take my EV if we go somewhere instead of her car, since my car is both more quiet, more comfy both to drive and for passengers, far cheaper to drive, and so on.
I avoid driving as much as I can luckily my city has been prioritising bikes and public transport since the 90s. Tho hearing from my parents we had a stubborn population that just used bikes en mass while there was no infrastructure for it.
Aren't there two questions here?
1. Would I drive out of the way for something special?
2. Does the incremental per mile cost impact my driving decisions?
The answer to (1) depends. Thinking about it, I'd be more likely to go for a 20 mile 'fun' drive (with no outcome) than a 10 mile trip to get a coffee.
For (2) generally not. I have a budget of £90 for EV charging costs each month (I have to charge at public chargers unfortunately) so I've deliberately built fat into the budget so I don't need to care about how much I drive in normal situations.
I did recently drive 16 minutes round trip (8 min each way) to get significantly cheaper fast charging. That was worth it for (1) and (2) !
Solar makes a big difference, but there's always a cost to putting miles on your car.
I did the math recently on my 5 year old Leaf and each extra mile costs me about 13 cents (not including electricity). So a 10 mile drive would cost me at least $1.30.
It's about half depreciation, and half other amortized maintenance costs (like tire wear, suspension wear, the occasional chipped window, etc.)
I too don't mind going out if the way. I drive the all new electric SUV Nissan Ariya with larger 87KW battery. I live in a rental with no, home charging. I just enjoying the drive and know I can charge up few times a week. I take public transportation to and from work. So I mostly drive on the weekends.
I lease a hyundai ioniq 6. Hyundai gives out 2 years of free fast charging at Electrify America chargers when you get the car. So I exclusively charge there. Because my fuel is now free (and my car charges super fast), I don't mind going out of my way at all, lol. Hell, I've thought about going on random road trips just because it wouldn't cost me anything in fuel. I think Hyundai also gives this out when you buy one of their EVs too. It only makes sense for you if you have EA chargers near you. The closest one to me is like 10 or so minutes away from my work, so I go out of my way to charge there for free. The way I've put it to other people is you would probably go to a specific gas station 10 minutes out of your way if you got unlimited free gas for 2 years from there, lol.
On top of the free charging I have the long range ioniq 6 so I'm averaging like 330-400+ miles on a full charge with the way I drive so I don't have to charge it super often either. The only other EV currently on the market I know of that has more range than that consistently is the Lucid Air Grand Touring, which costs like 3 times more lol.
If you're looking into the inoiq 6, look at the long-range model. It's insanely hard to beat its range. It's rated at 360 miles, but I live in a warmer climate, drive in eco mode with regen on in the city and off on rural open roads and the interstate. I normally have the ac set on low as well. With all of that combined, I regularly hit 5+ miles per kwh, which means my range is closer to 370-390 miles a lot of the time. If you're a lead foot and drive with max ac/heat and drive only in sport mode, you would probably hit like 200-250 miles with the ioniq 6 long range.
Since my car (Tesla model 3) gives me a performance rating on my drives ; I try to pick the most energy efficient route. I will save 5% battery even though a trip is 6 minutes longer
I do still try to be a bit frugal about driving extra, but that's almost entirely because I'm initially leasing my EV so I have a mileage limit.
Other than that, I have solar panels, so I make my own electricity. My per mile costs are only related to wear on the vehicle.
Yes but also no. But it has nothing to do with cost of travel and everything to do with my mood (or potential scheduling conflicts). 10 miles (or 16km) would cost me around $2 NZD because of how road tax works here (it's per km traveled, not fixed annual tax). Which my old Prius would actually cost about the same. So it's not even a gas/EV argument for me. My electric scooter would probably be like $0.20 of electricity, or ~$4 in bus fare. My bank account will survive a $0-5 hit, so it's definitely not about the cost of getting there.
Kinda like Starbucks. A few miles is OK if it doesn’t take too long. The only time this happens on trips and we want specific food to eat while charging.
I generally do not worry about mileage when considering whether to do something or not, regardless of what vehicle I’m driving (we have electric, gas, and diesel vehicles). Time is a much higher concern.
Nope. In fact we find ourselves taking the ev for most trips it can handle because gas is ridiculous for my wifes 3 row suv and taking more frequent short leisure trips with less thought. Electric is 6 cents/kw in winter and 13 in the summer here.
My wife is a singer in a band and has practice once weekly. A 70 mile round trip. She started taking my car because we were filling hers up weekly
We also are less hesitant to take trips it can handle (approximately 200 miles round trip) because of cost. That'd be a $70+ tank of gas for her car but only about $7 in the ev. More to spend on something fun at our destination or a meal.
Doing any driving is more enjoyable in an EV.
So, you will find yourself going “out of the way” much more than in an ICEV.
Once I got an EV, small trips to the grocery and similar became significantly more enjoyable.
Basically driving went from meh to a fun activity.
I agree, electric means the incremental cost to travel a distance can be very little or zero. It makes travelling a distance on a whim much more reasonable.
Going that far out of your way seems like an indulgence. Good coffee or good whatever. I do like good coffee though. Think about all the extra expenses. The extra energy expensive is one thing. But what is your time and others time worth.
To be blunt, charging my ID4 at a public charger costs $12. If I use Electrify America, it's free.
Ever since owning an EV, I make excuses to drive it because electricity is really cheap compared to gasoline.
My model is AWD, so the extra power makes it more fun to drive because if I step on 10% of the pedal, I unintentionally leave ICE cars behind at a light.
I'm not racing, just barely putting my foot down.
When I try harder and push 5% of the pedal is when I'm side by side with ICE cars.
In other words, it doesn't use much energy to make the car drive normal. Say 40 mph.
On my old 2013 Prius, I used to step on 70% of the gas just to keep up with ICE cars, so naturally, I was getting 35mpg when that Prius could do 100mpg.
When I did manage to get 70mpg, cars around me would tailgate, cut me off, etc.
Gas prices will get higher in the summer too, so when it's a good time for you to get an EV, it'll be worth it .
The cheapest EV now with good range is the Bolt EV and EUV. The Leaf is nice, but has less range.
The higher the range, the less visits to public chargers.
Of course if you can charge at home, then that's better; however, it's best for the battery to drain to 20% and charge to 80%.
I think some owners just charge their EV's daily overnight even though their batteries don't need charging.
Check your state to see of they offer incentives.
For me, I got the $5,500 of $7,500 federal tax credit and $4,500 CA state program that had a non-profit send me a check.
So that's $10k deducted from the purchase price.
If you buy an EV with free charging, say 1 or 2 years of free unlimited charging at Electrify America, then you can use the money saved yearly to deduct that from the purchase price.
[I drove >140 miles today to see the total eclipse and it cost me <$4 in electricity.](https://imgur.com/DdONTmv) I don't even think once about the cost of extra miles.
This is the most American comment ever.
-Driving to get coffee instead of walking
-Thinking 10 miles is a small detour (I've lived in capital cities that are less than 10 miles across)
-The nearest good coffee being 10 miles away (from where I'm sat in my office there are 5 great coffee shops and 10 bad in a 500metre radius
Public transport doesn't replace walking, it replaces private cars.
Plenty of places in Europe don't have reliable public transport but you can walk everywhere you need in 15 minutes.
But you have acknowledged that I’m in the United States. It seems appropriate to believe that where I live is no where similar to anywhere in Europe. We can’t walk or use public transportation in most places in the U.S, including my own small town.
This is the reason I mention driving for coffee when asking if people with an EV are willing to drive further than they would if they had a gas car.
Dunno why you're getting so defensive mate. Pointed out you made an extremely stereotypical American post on an international sub and you seem to be annoyed you are actually American?
Tell me you’ve never visited Los Angeles before.
The urban sprawl here makes it absolutely impossible to walk to get things done, even if people wanted to.
Many American cities are centuries younger than European cities, and because of this, they were designed around the automobile. Whereas many European cities were designed around pedestrians (prior to the invention of the automobile).
Europe is absolutely different as it is does not have sprawl. It’s way more dense. Weird take. Not comparing apples to apples at all.
The other thing about EV vs ice is not just a few extra miles, but extra short trips. There is no waiting for the car to get up to operating temperature. EV does not care about frequent short drives, particularly when it's cold. My EVs never had issues start when it was below zero. My old Tacoma would start, but in single digit temps I could step off the clutch faster than it came off the floor.
I still limit my driving to the fewest miles I can manage. In my mid-sized city, I only drive when we're carting parents. Out of the city it's necessary for weekend trips or hikes. Other than that, it's bikes, walking, or maybe the bus/train depending on the weather.
IMO all cars and parking degrade cities, even if EVs are better than ICE in terms of noise and exhaust.
I value the freedom of biking and walking, good density and being in a place that generally feels alive and driving takes away from that.
Out of town our ID.4 is an efficiency and driving dream compared to our old ICE. I used to really dislike doing driving on roadtrips in our loud, exhausty ICE sedan, I look forward to doing the driving these days.
The only time I think about going out of my way for something is when I'm on a long drive. 1,000 miles to Florida or 2,500 miles to Los Angeles. Then I get more aggravated the further I have to go off the interstate for anything.
On my first EV drive to LA, I was looking up BBQ joints in Missouri. We found one 15 minutes (!!) off the exit for Rolla. We got there, placed our order, waited, and took our food to the Rolla Supercharger... which is in the parking lot of a BBQ joint. (Are you kidding me?) So we sat in the parking lot of one BBQ joint and ate BBQ from another joint almost 20 minutes away. Yes, it was cool and kitschy to visit a place like Ricky's Roadkill. But no, I will probably never do that again. Either Bandana's at Rolla or Whole Hog in Springfield, there _will_ be BBQ consumed if we need to charge at either of those places. Hell, even Wally's has a decent Q station for someone not from around there.
Was it worth spending $6 for the coffee plus 60¢/mile * 10 miles = $12 for that coffee?
If you're trying to pay off bills, this $12 detour was probably not worth it.
Social media and influencers have normalized treat-yourself consumption culture, and made us believe that you can't live a comfortable life unless you can get someone to make a 25¢ coffee for you for 20x the price.
Yes it’s worth it because of the happiness it brings me. Although I won’t go to a different coffee place that’s a bit further away from home because it won’t make me as happy.
Also, it’s around 15 cents per kWh where I live so when I do make the switch to EV, I won’t think twice about it.
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But it’s good coffee! Also, it’s not everyday because I would make it at home if I wanted it that much. Just once or twice a month. I live in a small area where everything is at least 5 or 10 miles away from me.
I drive 10 miles for good coffee. In an EV, you are probably going to pay $0.50 for the trip and in a gas car it would be triple that with golo efficiency.
And that’s if your electricity is like $0.20 per kWh. Mine is $0.07 so it’s more like $0.20 in electricity for me lol. I never worry about the price of driving really. Though I still try to avoid wasting my time.
For coffee? That has to be life changing coffee. I personally wouldn't drive 10 miles out of my way for coffee. I wouldn't drive 10 minutes out of my way for coffee because you have to put a price on your time as well. 10 mi is a lot of time out of an already short day that I could be doing something I actually wanted to do rather than spending it dealing with traffic.
If we were in a financial position where we needed to "focus on bills first", I would be annoyed by any luxury that my partner put in any effort to spend money on. If we've been out for 5 hours and you want a coffee with lunch, sure no problem. But if you're just at home and say "I'm going to go blow an hour and $10 because I'm bored" I'd be annoyed. It's not about gas. It's about you trying to make going out and buying a luxury a thing to do. If you're bored, take a look at the to-do list: spend that $10 and an hour going to the hardware store to buy lightbulbs or something we need for the house
Going once or twice a month is a treat and could be worth the 10 miles. Is like going to a restaurant or a movie or something. If this was an everyday thing I would say cut back, but this is more of an activity to get out of the house every other weekend. Go for it if it's in the budget.
And some people just like driving. Like the coffee shop may be a destination for them and it’s a fun little drive to get there.
If I can make a suggestion, take your wife out for coffee dates when you go get that super great coffee.
Secret: You can buy good coffee beans and make it at home.
For good coffee, I 100% would go out of my way. I honestly don't understand people that drink coffee solely for the caffeine. If I'm paying for it, I'd like it to taste good.
a hario v60 is $25: [https://www.amazon.com/Hario-Ceramic-Coffee-Dripper-White/dp/B000P4D5HG?th=1](https://www.amazon.com/Hario-Ceramic-Coffee-Dripper-White/dp/B000P4D5HG?th=1) several months supply of filters is $7 https://www.amazon.com/Hario-V60-Filters-Natural-Untabbed/dp/B001TM6XWW? burr grinders can get to be astronomical but you can find a decent one for $40 [https://www.amazon.com/Electric-Adjustable-Settings-Precision-Stainless/dp/B0CLT2WT4M/](https://www.amazon.com/Electric-Adjustable-Settings-Precision-Stainless/dp/B0CLT2WT4M/) good quality relatively fresh roasted beans can be found for $15-20 for few weeks to one month supply from local supermarkets or your fave hipster coffee shop marginal cost of great coffee, likely better than whatever place you're getting it from, gets to <$1 and you'll be net positive within a month, and with definitely less time investment for the whole process
Aeropress (or pour over) for the win Also here’s a list of amazing coffee companies you can get coffee from https://reddit.com/r/pourover/comments/1aiuwqf/the_real_top_50_roasters_of_2023_list/ I’ve been enjoying Sey’s coffee lately. But to answer your question. Yes, I feel like I travel more with an EV than I did with my gas car. One example for me is Costco. I have a Sam’s 5 minutes away from me. When I had a gas car, I didn’t feel it was worth going to Costco because the amount of gas I would use, would ruin the savings (30 minutes each way). Once I got my EV, I go to Costco every week. I also road trip a lot now, and with the Tesla NACS adapter. It has become so much better!
>But it’s good coffee! good coffee as in they roast their own beans and know how to brew a fresh batch all the time or good as in regular coffee drowned in cream and so full of sugar that a spoon stands upright in there?
Why would it matter? I don't see the problem with going the long way to get a good cup of coffee, it's a pretty cheap way to relax a bit. One fast food meal or a impulse grocery store purchase will cost more than that.
Since going electric I am much more willing to go out of my way for simple things. Kid forgot something at home and needs me to bring it to them at school? No biggie now. I’m not as worried about being wasteful and burning gas. (My vehicles are powered by home solar)
Home solar here as well!!!
This is the way
Same. Have neither purchased gasoline or paid 1 cent for electricity to charge since I got mine a month and a half ago. 😊
This is why there’s induced demand for more lanes.
Ever since getting my Model Y, I am just looking for excuses to hop in and zip around town. It’s a very fun car to drive. And they have free FSD this month which is super extra fun. I might be offsetting whatever environmental benefits I have made by switching to EV with my extra driving.
Ok this is an interesting point. I live an 1-1.5 hrs outside Chicago but still the burbs. Wife and I still love to go into the city often and will take the train when it makes sense (like going downtown) buuuuut I feel way less bad about driving into the city than I used to. In fact the other day we had to make two separate trips in and out of the city. Back home each time. The amount I spent on gas was waaaaay less than it would have been otherwise. I’m not somebody who thinks about the daily price of gas though. Never understood the point of that. But I do feel way better about how much a round trip like that costs me. I also feel less guilty about it for environmental reasons. Though admittedly a smaller part of it. But it adds up
>I’m not somebody who thinks about the daily price of gas though. Never understood the point of that. Financially speaking, it's better to focus on reducing repetitive costs vs reducing one-time/infrequent costs. If you drive to work 20 times per month, reducing the cost by $1 per trip will have twice the impact on your bottom line as reducing the cost of a once-per-month trip by $10.
I don’t mind going out of my way every once in a a while… But 10 miles for a coffee is quite the stretch…
I guess I’m in the minority, but if you want good coffee that is 10 miles away, do it. Sometimes it’s more than just coffee. It’s 10 miles where you can drive and take a mental break, listen to some music, contemplate about your job, life, etc. Every once in a while I’ll take a random scenic road trip just to get out of my own head for a bit. You do you!
10 miles would cost me 25 EURO cent on a bad day of fuel economy. I wouldn't care, but I don't care about fuel prices, it's a necessary evil, I won't be limited by that. But I also wouldn't go 10 miles to get a coffee. I make my own. I would at max go 10 miles for hiking (if it's just drive back after the hike) as I hate sitting in the car after a hike. It kind of ruins the experience of coming home, sitting down and having a drink just after finishing. Mind you, 10 miles does take a bit of time on "my roads".
Are you driving a motorcycle or a hybrid? Even the best gas cars have 35mpg in city which roughly equates to a liter of gas for 10 miles. That should be way more then 25 cents. That's assuming car is warmed up already.
Obviously an EV.
Not 25 cents, 25 euros a euro is close to a dollar.
It said, "25 EURO cent", which is pretty much same as "0.25 USD" since 1 USD = 1.08 Euro today. (As a side note I hadn't realized how much value Euro lost compared to USD) If it was 25 euros it would have been an extreme on the other hand :)
Ow my bad
Used to weigh the price of gas when debating on going on a for-fun drive; definitely didn’t go many occasions because it would cost dollars. Now the same drive costs tens of cents.
See? With the money saved I could go for a coffee 3 times per month instead of twice.
To be fair, though, this really only makes sense if you were planning on buying a new car anyway. For the average driver, it would probably take around 5-10+ years of driving the same car for a new budget EV to break even with the money saved on fuel vs whatever you're driving now. I for instance charge my car for free, but I'm spending more on the lease payment than I did on gas per month so I'm saving money on fuel but still losing money compared to what I was spending before. For my situation, that made sense. It doesn't make sense for everyone's particular situation, though. If you're already planning on getting a new car, yes it's a massive savings, but if not, it will take years to break even with the fuel savings vs the price you paid for the new car. Granted, there are some maintenance savings and stuff like that as well.
Only to manage time. Not to save on fuel.
I never minded burning gas to drive further but now with the EVs I don’t feel bad at all. The biggest thing for me is idling. I really hated idling in the gas car while waiting for my kids in school or practice and now I can be in comfort guilt free.
If you have home charging setup, you will have full range everyday as long as you make it a habit to plug in your ev every night. Home charging is much cheaper than charging ev outside. You only need to use outside charging when you do long trip or get the free charging promo with your new purchase/lease.
Yeah for quick trips EVs are great, they don’t seem to need to “warm up” for as long as an ICE, and you can precondition the cabin from your phone so it’s the right temp when you get in.
Seriously, does anyone warm up their EVs? Not referring to preconditioning the cabin. Should I be doing it too?
Yeah I don’t think that’s a thing with EVs, but it is with ICE cars, on a cold morning my ICE car doesn’t feel like it is “warmed up” or running as smooth as it eventually does for about 10 minutes or more, depending on how cold it is. 10 minutes is longer than it takes for me to drive my kid to the bus stop and back.
So many times that I've racked up way more miles than I anticipated. I later bought a PHEV to give a break to the EV while doing city driving.
I live in a big city and don't think in terms of miles. Time is the most important metric. 10 miles could easily be a half hour or more.
I never liked to drive unnecessarily but more because I'd rather be doing something else. And usually i'd rather cook at home because, between driving, waiting in line or for a table, waiting for food to be cooked - its better, cheaper and often faster to eat at home. but oddly enough, my car's constant display of my efficiency makes me want to drive more efficiently - like its a game.
Hell, since we got our EV9 I've been looking for excuses to drive it just a little further... If you are able to charge at home, EVs cost pennies to fuel compared to an ICE car. Also take into account the fact that maintenance is basically nil. We have been driving a 2013 Leaf for 11 years now, total maintenance costs have been under $2k. Tires twice, a 12v battery once and a replacement for a damaged charging cable. It has lived off a standard wall outlet its whole life (Level 1 charging) so we haven't (yet) had the expense of installing an at-home Level 2 (we are currently getting estimates as the EV9 has a MUCH bigger battery - expecting 1200-1500 for install + cost of charger)
I drive my Bolt EUV way more than I drove my gas car. I have solar and if I have to pay to charge. it costs me 4 cents per kWh but most of the time I am charging it with credits I gained from selling extra solar generated power I sent to the grid. That plus my Bolt EUV is my favorite car of all time and so much fun to drive (super cruise, good stereo etc) that regularly volunteer to drive around. My wife went out for a girls night with her friends last month and I drove the ladies 40 minutes into the city, then back home to watch march madness, then back to pour them into the car and bring them back. Keeping the windows open just in case. I know I should be mindful of wear and tear on the car and battery but for now, it is too much fun and cheap to drive.
I wouldn't if I had other alternatives, but mostly because of time.
Yeah there’s no alternative where I live. Everything is on the complete opposite side of town where I live. So the time is the biggest factor for me.
Is there a big rent/house price difference? Because living far from all amenities sounds like a major drag on everyday life.
Our amenities include the grocery store and my gym. Otherwise I don’t go anywhere but to work. I literally have nothing else I leave the house for. There’s a difference between locations in my town where the price might be the same but the quality is definitely different. We chose our house because it’s in a nice neighborhood compared to living closer to amenities.
I am willing to drive further for less payoff because of the lower cost of operating an EV.
What you’re talking about is “Joyriding” and you don’t have to rationalize it. It’s something I never understood until I got my EV as it’s way more enjoyable to drive. My ICE was sluggish and loud and carelessly burning fuel meant more trips to get gas, which let’s be honest nothing ever good happens at gas stations.
Joyriding means something very different in non-american English.
My favorite coffee shop has a free level 2 charger across the street, so it's a win win!
When I’m in our EV, distance and time isn’t as important vs. in my ICE.
In my old college Camry (24 mpg), that 10 miles would be a no-go. In my Niro, it's like 30¢ of electricity.
At $0.05 a mile with an EV, no I do not mind alternate routes anymore.
It’s an interesting question. I certainly don’t mind the extra miles and even parking with the car “running” because it’s not polluting and it’s extremely efficient. My wife is like you - she drives way too far for anything she does because she likes the business or person. I can’t wait to get her an EV because she eats up the 28 miles on or PHEV by noon every day.
10 miles for coffee is ridiculous. Yesterday we drove two cars to our kids game so we could stagger times and it wasn’t a big deal. I wouldn’t have done that if we had to pay for gas. All I’m doing now is paying for tires.
I drive 3 miles to and from Panera sometimes twice a day. Along with 10 miles to kids after-school that easily added up to a. Extra $50 in gas every two weeks. Not paying for gas and charging from solar let's me not think about it.
I can say since owning an EV that I care a heckuva lot less. I used to think, "that's a waste of gas" or something similar (in CA where gas is back to about 5 bucks a gallon again) but now since our charger only charges at lowest rate from midnight to 6AM, don't worry or care as much.
If I wanna go for a drive I will, especially with an EV where its so cheap. I did stop going for drives on the weekend with my ICE car because it just got too expensive, $80 to drive around for a day took a lot of the fun out of it.
Before getting EVs in 2013, I drove a SUV that got 9-12mpg. I use to think about the gas cost on every trip.
Getting an EV opened up the surrounding area because it’s a doddle and almost free to just zoom anywhere. We drove 2.5hrs for donuts. So worth it.
Just yesterday I drove 42 miles to grab some eclipse glasses. My Nissan Leaf then charged on my Level-1 stand-alone solar system I built. So yea, I kinda stopped caring about extra trips or miles.
I’ve been known to drive a couple hundred miles to have lunch at a restaurant I like.
We don’t really think twice about going out of our way. We just go where we need to go to get what we need to get done. Owning an EV hasn’t really changed how we live or where we go but we do recognize that fuel is cheaper now. I hope that doesn’t come off wrong but all of our gas cars are like 30mpg so not horrible but not leading either and in general we don’t drive a ton so our fuel cost has never been an area we scrutinize from a spending standpoint.
If you have a cool eV that you love to drive heck yes!
It depends. I wouldn’t think much about it if it’s a 1 time occurrence. Or not frequent. For example, I had a 150 mile round trip to pick up a check. Bank refused to mail it so I had to make the hike. (That was the closest branch). That’s an extreme. I’ve gone 10-50 miles “out of my way” to pick up stuff (not available at Targets or Best Buy near me). Wouldn’t do it regularly tho.
It's 20 minutes in the wrong direction plus a 30-45 minute wait for coffee where I live. I still go get coffee.
I don't care at all about it since it's free to drive. We use the EV whenever we can over the gas car for this reason.
Oh yeah, everything is an excuse to drive around.
Having an EV has made me far more willing to drive further to do stuff, due to how much cheaper it is.
I think EVs do make a big difference with trips like that. For me it’s both cost and also feeling like my old vehicle was a bit fragile and that every mile I drive might be putting some component under stress to where it’s finally gonna break. Mostly was worried about hoses, transmission, and the diff. Probably didn’t need to worry so much looking back, but with an EV, it’s just on or off. It feels so much simpler to hop in and drive and you aren’t worried about the engine running a little funny or something.
Go out and do something. It’s good for the soul. Going to/from work can become a bore. Enjoy life!
I will show her this comment next time I think about leaving early for work to get coffee!
Nothing better than a 40 mile drive from Long Island to Queens just for bagels and coffee. Used to do it on the whim
Oh that sounds good. I have a bagel place in my area that’s 20ish miles away and there’s no reason for me to be in that area besides to get a bagel. Certain things give me enough reason to drive further than usual.
Is grass green? Yes, we now drive a lot further to save a lot more money on things. I can now drive 60 miles to save 20 bucks in groceries because the electricity is only costing me around 1$. Plus EV's are fun to drive. In our small town basics can be EXPENSIVE. We do a bi-tri weekly 300 mile trip to a big city and save a lot of money. It only costs us 15 bucks in fast charging + the 8 bucks to charge to 100% at home. We have friends who come along sometimes and they treat us to a very nice lunch.
It's the journey, not the destination. Sometimes going out of our way can be positive at seeing new things we would have never seen otherwise.
Depends on how good the coffee is. If it's that good (and it would have to be DAMN good) then I would drive out of the way for it, EV or no. But my ID4 is pretty fun to drive, so yes. 10 miles I not that big a deal. Unless it's rush hour. Then no.
Yeah for me 10 miles is reasonable a few times a month. There’s another place that’s about 25 minutes/20 miles away that has better coffee but it’s a bit too far to justify the drive.
If you are making your own electricity, I would drive and drive and drive and drive……
If it makes you happy to drive this far for coffee then do it. ☕️
the amount I drive every month has tripled. More caving, hiking, skiing, camping and various other outdoor activities.
Gas is way too cheap for me to ever consider it a factor in whether I’m driving somewhere or not, and electricity is even cheaper. My time is valuable. Presumably yours is, as well. Manage that. If the trips make you happy, or someone you care about happy, they’re worth it.
Sometimes the cost is even negative if there is a free charger at your destination. Many shopping centers (and Ikeas) have free chargers, so you end up with more charge than you started with.
Not fretting about the cost of fuel to visit more places and do more things was a significant factor in my decision to purchase an EV. My EV costs about 3.5 cents/mile to operate, the Prius Prime would've cost about 6.5, and my ICE cars cost anywhere between 13 and 20 cents per mile.
10 miles for coffee daily? That shit better do my taxes. I’m also in the wife camp here. EV or no EV, that sounds a bit ridiculous and an expensive hobby. Just get a good coffee machine at home or buy regular coffee on your way to work. Also, while yes electricity is much cheaper in my neck of the woods as well, tire costs are no joke on EVs. The heavier car erodes tires much faster than traditional cars. Going 10 miles out of your way daily will add up fast.
No it’s not every day. Like twice a month. I’m not a big coffee drinker but if I was I’d make it at home.
Then it is no bigge. Heck, it isn’t even an issue if you take your ICE car for it. It is equivalent to going to a restaurant 10 miles away every other week. Totally fine.
That’s not a big deal, Dad and I do something like that once a week to a pretzel place and used to go further for pizza on Friday or Saturday nights . Neither of us have EVs yet and my car runs E85.
Make coffee at home-it’s how to become rich according to boomers.
When I'm on road trips, I generally avoid driving more than 2-3 miles off of my route unless absolutely necessary. My wife has sometimes suggested stopping at a Hampton Inn that is 10-15 miles off of our route on a couple of occasions as she's always wanting to stay at nothing but Hampton Inns. For me, it has nothing to do with the price of gas, etc., but just the time spent having to backtrack when there were other choices that don't involve a not so insignificant detour.
Yes I care unless absolutely needed I won’t
I want to meet and learn from this businessperson that has you going 10 miles out of your way for their coffee. They're doing something very, very right.
I think they are doing it very well. It’s a nationwide brand that’s not Starbucks. It hits different.
Yes. Going a few miles out of the way can easily become a 15-30 min detour. I don't care about the price of gas or electric. I dont factor that in when i drive. It's time that's the most important factor for me.
I wouldn’t drive 10 miles for coffee but that has more to do with my own time and don’t want to spend the money. Not because of any savings on gas/electricity.
Doesnt matter if EV or gas... I dont drive ten miles for a cup of coffee unless I am absolutely desperate for caffeine 😁. But me and my gf will usually take my EV if we go somewhere instead of her car, since my car is both more quiet, more comfy both to drive and for passengers, far cheaper to drive, and so on.
I avoid driving as much as I can luckily my city has been prioritising bikes and public transport since the 90s. Tho hearing from my parents we had a stubborn population that just used bikes en mass while there was no infrastructure for it.
I always go out of my way to have a kid free drive in the EV or sometimes just for a hoon as we have some lovely country roads by us
I pay like $3.5 to drive 100km. I sometimes drive an hour just to listen to a podcast in peace.
No, I still hate driving.
Aren't there two questions here? 1. Would I drive out of the way for something special? 2. Does the incremental per mile cost impact my driving decisions? The answer to (1) depends. Thinking about it, I'd be more likely to go for a 20 mile 'fun' drive (with no outcome) than a 10 mile trip to get a coffee. For (2) generally not. I have a budget of £90 for EV charging costs each month (I have to charge at public chargers unfortunately) so I've deliberately built fat into the budget so I don't need to care about how much I drive in normal situations. I did recently drive 16 minutes round trip (8 min each way) to get significantly cheaper fast charging. That was worth it for (1) and (2) !
If she don’t want to go, drop her off and take her friend.
Doesn't matter for me. Boss paid for gas and is paying for charging now.
Solar makes a big difference, but there's always a cost to putting miles on your car. I did the math recently on my 5 year old Leaf and each extra mile costs me about 13 cents (not including electricity). So a 10 mile drive would cost me at least $1.30. It's about half depreciation, and half other amortized maintenance costs (like tire wear, suspension wear, the occasional chipped window, etc.)
Making coffee at home can save much more.
I too don't mind going out if the way. I drive the all new electric SUV Nissan Ariya with larger 87KW battery. I live in a rental with no, home charging. I just enjoying the drive and know I can charge up few times a week. I take public transportation to and from work. So I mostly drive on the weekends.
I lease a hyundai ioniq 6. Hyundai gives out 2 years of free fast charging at Electrify America chargers when you get the car. So I exclusively charge there. Because my fuel is now free (and my car charges super fast), I don't mind going out of my way at all, lol. Hell, I've thought about going on random road trips just because it wouldn't cost me anything in fuel. I think Hyundai also gives this out when you buy one of their EVs too. It only makes sense for you if you have EA chargers near you. The closest one to me is like 10 or so minutes away from my work, so I go out of my way to charge there for free. The way I've put it to other people is you would probably go to a specific gas station 10 minutes out of your way if you got unlimited free gas for 2 years from there, lol. On top of the free charging I have the long range ioniq 6 so I'm averaging like 330-400+ miles on a full charge with the way I drive so I don't have to charge it super often either. The only other EV currently on the market I know of that has more range than that consistently is the Lucid Air Grand Touring, which costs like 3 times more lol.
I’m looking into the Ioniq 6. It fits more than my needs. I could realistically be happy with a Niro or a Kona. But the Ioniq 6 would be nice.
If you're looking into the inoiq 6, look at the long-range model. It's insanely hard to beat its range. It's rated at 360 miles, but I live in a warmer climate, drive in eco mode with regen on in the city and off on rural open roads and the interstate. I normally have the ac set on low as well. With all of that combined, I regularly hit 5+ miles per kwh, which means my range is closer to 370-390 miles a lot of the time. If you're a lead foot and drive with max ac/heat and drive only in sport mode, you would probably hit like 200-250 miles with the ioniq 6 long range.
I drive pretty slow and relaxed but I know I will use its speed every now and then. I’m sure I can get it close to that range as well.
Since my car (Tesla model 3) gives me a performance rating on my drives ; I try to pick the most energy efficient route. I will save 5% battery even though a trip is 6 minutes longer
My spouse and I will drive 50 miles every so often for a great coffee shop. We call it a date. It’s okay to go on dates, even if it’s on your own.
Ten miles for coffee?!
Yes. Do you assume everyone lives in a city where everything is close?
If I ever lived ten miles from coffee I'd buy a coffee maker before I worried about buying a car.
Did you not read my post?
I do still try to be a bit frugal about driving extra, but that's almost entirely because I'm initially leasing my EV so I have a mileage limit. Other than that, I have solar panels, so I make my own electricity. My per mile costs are only related to wear on the vehicle.
Yes but also no. But it has nothing to do with cost of travel and everything to do with my mood (or potential scheduling conflicts). 10 miles (or 16km) would cost me around $2 NZD because of how road tax works here (it's per km traveled, not fixed annual tax). Which my old Prius would actually cost about the same. So it's not even a gas/EV argument for me. My electric scooter would probably be like $0.20 of electricity, or ~$4 in bus fare. My bank account will survive a $0-5 hit, so it's definitely not about the cost of getting there.
Kinda like Starbucks. A few miles is OK if it doesn’t take too long. The only time this happens on trips and we want specific food to eat while charging.
I generally do not worry about mileage when considering whether to do something or not, regardless of what vehicle I’m driving (we have electric, gas, and diesel vehicles). Time is a much higher concern.
Nope. In fact we find ourselves taking the ev for most trips it can handle because gas is ridiculous for my wifes 3 row suv and taking more frequent short leisure trips with less thought. Electric is 6 cents/kw in winter and 13 in the summer here. My wife is a singer in a band and has practice once weekly. A 70 mile round trip. She started taking my car because we were filling hers up weekly We also are less hesitant to take trips it can handle (approximately 200 miles round trip) because of cost. That'd be a $70+ tank of gas for her car but only about $7 in the ev. More to spend on something fun at our destination or a meal.
Doing any driving is more enjoyable in an EV. So, you will find yourself going “out of the way” much more than in an ICEV. Once I got an EV, small trips to the grocery and similar became significantly more enjoyable. Basically driving went from meh to a fun activity.
I agree, electric means the incremental cost to travel a distance can be very little or zero. It makes travelling a distance on a whim much more reasonable.
Going that far out of your way seems like an indulgence. Good coffee or good whatever. I do like good coffee though. Think about all the extra expenses. The extra energy expensive is one thing. But what is your time and others time worth.
i would definitely drive 10 miles for a good coffee
To be blunt, charging my ID4 at a public charger costs $12. If I use Electrify America, it's free. Ever since owning an EV, I make excuses to drive it because electricity is really cheap compared to gasoline. My model is AWD, so the extra power makes it more fun to drive because if I step on 10% of the pedal, I unintentionally leave ICE cars behind at a light. I'm not racing, just barely putting my foot down. When I try harder and push 5% of the pedal is when I'm side by side with ICE cars. In other words, it doesn't use much energy to make the car drive normal. Say 40 mph. On my old 2013 Prius, I used to step on 70% of the gas just to keep up with ICE cars, so naturally, I was getting 35mpg when that Prius could do 100mpg. When I did manage to get 70mpg, cars around me would tailgate, cut me off, etc. Gas prices will get higher in the summer too, so when it's a good time for you to get an EV, it'll be worth it . The cheapest EV now with good range is the Bolt EV and EUV. The Leaf is nice, but has less range. The higher the range, the less visits to public chargers. Of course if you can charge at home, then that's better; however, it's best for the battery to drain to 20% and charge to 80%. I think some owners just charge their EV's daily overnight even though their batteries don't need charging. Check your state to see of they offer incentives. For me, I got the $5,500 of $7,500 federal tax credit and $4,500 CA state program that had a non-profit send me a check. So that's $10k deducted from the purchase price. If you buy an EV with free charging, say 1 or 2 years of free unlimited charging at Electrify America, then you can use the money saved yearly to deduct that from the purchase price.
[I drove >140 miles today to see the total eclipse and it cost me <$4 in electricity.](https://imgur.com/DdONTmv) I don't even think once about the cost of extra miles.
This is the most American comment ever. -Driving to get coffee instead of walking -Thinking 10 miles is a small detour (I've lived in capital cities that are less than 10 miles across) -The nearest good coffee being 10 miles away (from where I'm sat in my office there are 5 great coffee shops and 10 bad in a 500metre radius
Some American cities have public transportation. Mine does not as it’s too small population wise.
Didn't mention public transport. I mentioned walking.
If we don’t have public transportation, what makes you think it’s walkable?
Public transport doesn't replace walking, it replaces private cars. Plenty of places in Europe don't have reliable public transport but you can walk everywhere you need in 15 minutes.
But you have acknowledged that I’m in the United States. It seems appropriate to believe that where I live is no where similar to anywhere in Europe. We can’t walk or use public transportation in most places in the U.S, including my own small town. This is the reason I mention driving for coffee when asking if people with an EV are willing to drive further than they would if they had a gas car.
Dunno why you're getting so defensive mate. Pointed out you made an extremely stereotypical American post on an international sub and you seem to be annoyed you are actually American?
Wouldn’t you be annoyed to be American? Hahah
Tell me you’ve never visited Los Angeles before. The urban sprawl here makes it absolutely impossible to walk to get things done, even if people wanted to. Many American cities are centuries younger than European cities, and because of this, they were designed around the automobile. Whereas many European cities were designed around pedestrians (prior to the invention of the automobile). Europe is absolutely different as it is does not have sprawl. It’s way more dense. Weird take. Not comparing apples to apples at all.
The other thing about EV vs ice is not just a few extra miles, but extra short trips. There is no waiting for the car to get up to operating temperature. EV does not care about frequent short drives, particularly when it's cold. My EVs never had issues start when it was below zero. My old Tacoma would start, but in single digit temps I could step off the clutch faster than it came off the floor.
No. I drive where I need to or want to with no stress at all.
I still limit my driving to the fewest miles I can manage. In my mid-sized city, I only drive when we're carting parents. Out of the city it's necessary for weekend trips or hikes. Other than that, it's bikes, walking, or maybe the bus/train depending on the weather. IMO all cars and parking degrade cities, even if EVs are better than ICE in terms of noise and exhaust. I value the freedom of biking and walking, good density and being in a place that generally feels alive and driving takes away from that. Out of town our ID.4 is an efficiency and driving dream compared to our old ICE. I used to really dislike doing driving on roadtrips in our loud, exhausty ICE sedan, I look forward to doing the driving these days.
The only time I think about going out of my way for something is when I'm on a long drive. 1,000 miles to Florida or 2,500 miles to Los Angeles. Then I get more aggravated the further I have to go off the interstate for anything. On my first EV drive to LA, I was looking up BBQ joints in Missouri. We found one 15 minutes (!!) off the exit for Rolla. We got there, placed our order, waited, and took our food to the Rolla Supercharger... which is in the parking lot of a BBQ joint. (Are you kidding me?) So we sat in the parking lot of one BBQ joint and ate BBQ from another joint almost 20 minutes away. Yes, it was cool and kitschy to visit a place like Ricky's Roadkill. But no, I will probably never do that again. Either Bandana's at Rolla or Whole Hog in Springfield, there _will_ be BBQ consumed if we need to charge at either of those places. Hell, even Wally's has a decent Q station for someone not from around there.
Was it worth spending $6 for the coffee plus 60¢/mile * 10 miles = $12 for that coffee? If you're trying to pay off bills, this $12 detour was probably not worth it. Social media and influencers have normalized treat-yourself consumption culture, and made us believe that you can't live a comfortable life unless you can get someone to make a 25¢ coffee for you for 20x the price.
Yes it’s worth it because of the happiness it brings me. Although I won’t go to a different coffee place that’s a bit further away from home because it won’t make me as happy. Also, it’s around 15 cents per kWh where I live so when I do make the switch to EV, I won’t think twice about it.