Wow, that seems pretty expensive and high-end for our needs. Or do I just have a knee-jerk reaction to the word "Tesla"? :) The e-Golf is our first ever and only car, so I have no idea what the ballpark is for car prices of various specs.
I forgot to mention that we don't drive much. In the past six months I think we have driven 100-150 miles a month, plus one 200 mile trip. My husband walks to his everyday workplace (though occasionally needs to drive to clients) and we homeschool so no commute or school run.
Surely other manufacturers are jumping on the electric bandwagon and bringing out electric versions of larger cars?
TBH, if you drive that little, the EV isn't going to save you anything. It sounds like you're at <5000 (maybe way less) miles a year?
Which, btw, is totally awesome.
But if I drove that little, I'd buy any halfway decent used minivan and call it good.
-W
I concur. The greenest thing most people can do is buy a used, efficient gas vehicle and just drive a lot less or at least less than the average. The carmaker and American solution is to buy massive EVs that cover every eventuality so you don't have to change your behavior.
Hypocrisy check: have three kids, our only vehicle is a 15-year old Honda minivan (not so mini). Our average mileage us way up to about 8-10,000 miles a year more recently, but half or more are road trip miles (we like National Parks). Transportation costs are low. Fuel use and emissions are higher than I'd like, but we'd need $10,000/year in depreciation costs to bring that down. I'd rather donate some of that to environmental causes.
That's a good way of looking at it. I work in finance/accounting, so of course I have a spreadsheet tracking my emissions and spending on fossil fuel by device. But I realize most people think that's a little crazy. It probably is.
The most intuitive approach for most is to look at how much money they're spending on hydrocarbons (directly or through a utility) and find ways to spend less on that.
If someone is spending $7,000/yr on gasoline, they should really look at the most viable option to stop spending that. Buying an EV or driving less would make a lot of sense. It's less relevant for people spending $500/yr on gasoline.
Utilities are similar, although maybe pay attention to how much renewables are in your electricity mix. If you're spending $5k/yr on heating oil, an air source heat pump is probably a great deal for you. If you're in Florida and your annual heating bill is $0-$100, there's very little benefit in an hvac changeover. If you spend $2,500/yr on electricity on a mostly fossil-fuel grid, finding a way to add solar (direct or through community solar) would have a big impact. If you're like my dad and spend less than $300/yr on electricity (he goes as far as unplugging anything with a digital clock), solar probably won't make that much of a difference.
While this approach does ignore the differing emissions intensity of each technology, it's easy to understand and implement.
