What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[BDutch]

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This is what I found :

If you want to make a comparison with combustion engines, you have to include the CO2 that comes with producing electricity. At the same time, not only is CO2 released when petrol or diesel is burned in an engine block, but the production of these fuels is also anything but CO2 neutral. So this also has to be taken into account. The total emissions when you add these factors together is also called the well-to-wheel emissions (WTW). Research by TNO (see the PDF download at the bottom of this TNO webpage) shows that the WTW emissions of an electric car are three to four times lower than those of a petrol or diesel car.

Variable Tipping Point

The number of kilometers after which this tipping point occurs depends on many variables. TNO calculated that for a mid-size car, this is approximately 39,000 kilometers. Since the average lifespan of a car is around 220,000 kilometers, an electric car ultimately has 35 to 55 percent lower CO2 emissions than a comparable gasoline car.

Incidentally, a battery pack will most likely reach 220,000 km. This is subject to degradation (and therefore a steadily decreasing range), but it certainly won't always be necessary to replace a battery pack halfway through its lifespan, as is often assumed.

(published on https://www.anwb.nl/auto/elektrisch-rijden/elektrische-autos/hoe-duurzaam-zijn-elektrische-autos source research institute in the Netherlands)

I couldn’t find anything about solar energy which is used by many EV car owners.

 

[Sally PB]

We pay $2.20/gallon for propane here, and that's the "bargain buy-in member price." Natural gas is not available out here. Our woodstove keeps our house toasty -- to a point. If it gets down to about 10° F, we let the furnace run. The extremities of the house can get too cold, and then we'd have to worry about pipes in the outside walls freezing.

The furnace also requires electricity to heat the ignition bar (or whatever it's called), which is like heating a burner on the stove on high. Peak rate is 15¢ kwh, off peak is 10¢. On our latest bill, about 52% of the bill is "other charges." The big one is the distribution charge, at 8¢.

 

[gtaus]

Incidentally, a battery pack will most likely reach 220,000 km. This is subject to degradation (and therefore a steadily decreasing range), but it certainly won't always be necessary to replace a battery pack halfway through its lifespan, as is often assumed.

I wonder if we will soon get to the point where we have different tiers of used EV's for different consumers? Maybe someone needs to get that full 300 mile range in their EV. As the battery pack ages and it gets less range, maybe they buy a new EV. I would not mind buying a used EV with 200 mile range because we only drive about 20 miles to work and back each day. Let's say we stop at the grocery store or run a few errands in town before heading home, that really only amount to about 30 miles per day. As long as the rest of the EV is in good working condition, I would be plenty happy getting an EV as a commuter car for daily trips to town and back.

The guy I talked to at the EV show that had his 10-year-old Tesla Model X on display claimed his battery system was showing 85% health. Sounds like he has many more years he can get out of that battery pack.

I was hoping to see cars from BYD, but I guess they are blocked here in the states....

Most of our EV show was Tesla, some Ford pickups and I think a Chevy was there. We are a small town of 12,000 people, so most of the EV show was people showing off their EV's with Tesla being the only company that shows up with representatives each year. We are not a big EV market, I get that, but it would be nice to see more brands. Especially the BYD EV's because I hear they overtook Tesla in worldwide sales in 2024 to become number one.

 

[BDutch]

I wonder if we will soon get to the point where we have different tiers of used EV's for different consumers? Maybe someone needs to get that full 300 mile range in their EV. As the battery pack ages and it gets less range, maybe they buy a new EV. I would not mind buying a used EV with 200 mile range because we only drive about 20 miles to work and back each day. Let's say we stop at the grocery store or run a few errands in town before heading home, that really only amount to about 30 miles per day. As long as the rest of the EV is in good working condition, I would be plenty happy getting an EV as a commuter car for daily trips to town and back.

The guy I talked to at the EV show that had his 10-year-old Tesla Model X on display claimed his battery system was showing 85% health. Sounds like he has many more years he can get out of that battery pack.

I quoted an article.
Our EV still has almost the 100% range after 5 years. We started with approx 450 or 460 km range, and last summer we still have about 440 km to go with a full battery when we do not speed.