It's a conversation you have with teenage drivers early in the process. "If you are ever in an accident Michael, call us immediately. The first thing we want to hear out of your mouth is 'I'm o.k.'; nothing else matters until we hear that." Some form of this conversation plays out in all families with new drivers. Once parents hear those magic words they can shift into recovery mode. That was the case last year after a mid-afternoon call on a beautiful fall day. "Dad, I've been in a car accident, but I'm o.k." Nailed it! It was the second time I'd taken such a call within a year from him, but the startle effect was still there. "I'm glad you are o.k. G-man, where are you? We'll head over right away." Jenni was working nearby and first to the scene. "He's fine, but I'm pretty sure the car is toast." Fair enough - only a fool wouldn't take that trade.
A few days later we were set up with a rental car courtesy of USAA. By the way, have you ever considered what you'd do if your teen needs a rental car to commute to school but isn't old enough to rent one? USAA had us covered; we had no problems renting one from Enterprise and he was covered just like he was on our normal policy. At the time we were still a two car family with three drivers and Cal in the pipeline on a learner's permit. We'd just purchased Jenni a Kia Niro to replace our 2015 Suburban (transmission failed) so the thought of adding two more vehicles was nauseating. But I'd been searching and talking with Cal about a new ride already, so a lot of the research was already done.
If you'd asked me a year earlier if I thought we'd end up with three hybrid/electric vehicles in the driveway by the middle of 2023 I'd have called you crazy. I thought some of the Tesla models looked cool and performed well, but have never been high on the Toyota Prius, Honda Clarity, Nissan Leaf or Chevy Volt/Bolt. Those were the names that came to mind at the time and I just didn't see a good fit for our family. Besides, even a secondhand Tesla was out of our price range and in late 2022 all used car prices were still riding high on lingering supply chain disruptions from Covid. But it turns out the universe of hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and fully electric was far larger than I thought.
For Jenni we were replacing a monster. Affectionately know as "Marge the Barge" the 2015 Suburban served us well for a few years but with fuel economy similar to an F-16 in afterburner.
We got it to haul extended family and tow a band trailer. It did those things well...apparently too well as we discovered metal shavings in the transmission. We elected to forgo the estimated $9,000 repair lottery ticket for an SUV out of warranty. With the need to tow and haul greatly reduced after family moved closer and Michael graduated, we decided we'd go look for a mid-size SUV. After looking at vehicles we'd researched pretty thoroughly and a buying experience I can only compare to a 3-hour root canal we left battered and bruised with a 2023 Kia Nero hybrid.
The Kia isn't the model we went in looking for, but it was for Jenni primarily and she really liked it on the test drive. Overall we have been happy with it. Fuel economy is a strength of course. It is a traditional hybrid; not a "plug-in" hybrid. That just means it uses regenerative braking to store energy in batteries that later propel the car in periods of low demand (city driving, downhill, etc.). The advertised fuel economy for the Nero we have is 53 mpg city/45 mpg highway. I'd say we get that with most of our miles coming around town. My biggest negative critique of the car is the lack of torque and quick acceleration, but it wasn't designed for that, so I'm not sure it's a fair gripe. It is a reliable, modern, fuel efficient car that meets our needs -- especially when we make the occasional road trip to LA or San Francisco. But if you are merging onto the freeway or passing make sure you get into the throttle early.
Michael's car selection came as a bit of a surprise to me. The car we lost in the accident was a 2011 BMW 328. It had excellent acceleration from an inline 6-cylinder, reasonable fuel mileage for the performance (21+ mpg combined) and classic, aggressive styling. As we were looking towards college I figured Michael would want something similar. But as he'd been purchasing gas (in California,...>$5/gal is standard...often higher) regularly he saw the value in a ride with great fuel economy. He's also blessed with an admirable lack of ego when it comes to what he drives. He's very utilitarian in that regard. The main criteria were that it had good fuel economy and could haul band gear to gigs. With those two things in mind the Toyota Prius popped to mind with it's spacious hatchback. He liked that car, but the Hyundai Ioniq also caught his eye. After his accident the rental agency had that as an option so we took it. Two weeks of driving an Ioniq around locked it in as top choice. I found a 2020 with 8,000 miles for a terrific price. We went with the plug-in hybrid model. Plug-in hybrids offer the best of both worlds. A relatively small battery range is coupled with a conventional engine to offer a car capable of electric driving in the city and traditional combustion for longer ranges. The Ioniq we added to the stable has a 29-mile electric only range and an additional 500+ miles with the conventional engine. If driven in fuel economy mode the range can easily exceed 600+ miles on a single charge and full tank. Michael puts about 20-miles on the car round trip 2-3 days a week commuting to college. He recharges the battery each night at home on our 220-v charger (we have solar) so he's ready for the next day. He can easily go over a month without filling his tank up. He's been driving the car for about 1.5 years now and loves it. As with all vehicles I highly recommend leather, but he got cloth because well,...we were buying it for him. :-)
Shortly after getting Michael settled into his new ride Cal was up. He finished up testing and became the latest member of the family to help drive our car insurance through the roof. As with Michael, with had plenty of discussions with Cal about what would suit him. After looking at many options we picked one we thought would serve well for the next 6 years at least: a 2017 BMW i3. While technically a hybrid, the i3 really falls closer to the fully electric mold. It has an electric range of about 129 miles with a small gas motor providing an additional 75 miles for about 204 miles of total range. The gas range is very interesting. Instead of powering the drive-train, when battery life is down to about 6% the gas motor kicks on automatically and recharges the battery at a rate more than the draw of the power train. It's pretty unconventional and rarely tapped. Cal tends to recharge the car at home about once a week and never really gets close to the auto start level on the battery. Of the 3 cars, Cal's is the most fun to drive. It's no Tesla, but the 0-60 acceleration is 6.6 seconds. We thought it was a good choice because Cal plans to stay in San Luis Obispo and attend community college before applying to Cal Poly.
I always planned to add solar to our home, but adding two plug in electric vehicles accelerated that process for us. As you might imagine, with the Suburban & BMW 328 out of the family our fuel consumption dropped dramatically. But some of that cost shifted over to my electric bill. With the solar system we had installed our average monthly bill for the solar is comparable to what we'd paid for conventional electricity delivery. But with the much better fuel consumption, our net cost for home/auto energy is lower.
So having had these vehicles in the family for over a year what have I learned? For me at least, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles are the best buy. All you generally need is about 30 miles of electric range to cover most daily driving around town scenarios. When you get ready for a longer road trip you don't have to sweat the charging. Until the non-Tesla charging network gets far more robust, the thought of planning a road trip and building in time for charging for a non-Tesla is not something I'd want to contemplate. There are plenty of YouTube videos out there you can check out where folks have done exactly that. With considerable difficulty they have planned trips and then tried to execute them with varying degrees of success. Many times the "real time" status of the chargers you plan to use isn't very good. People arrive to broken chargers, chargers that are working at only a fraction of advertised rates, and chargers with a line already formed. I don't know about you, but for someone that already loathes road trips my stress level climbs just thinking about it.
If you want a strictly "in-town" or 150-mile radius runabout then I think fully electric could be a good option. I do think a level 2 home charger is a must though, and solar would be very helpful for cutting your total electric cost if you live in an area with great sun. We bought Cal's car with this in mind. At some point when he leaves for college or a job in another town we'll take a look to see if the i3 still works for him in the new situation. If not we'll probably take it back as our "in-town" car and help him look for a plug-in hybrid with about 30 miles of electric range.
One last note. If you are a one car family I'd be very hesitant to have a fully electric vehicle as your sole means of transportation. We live about 5 miles as the crow flies from a Nuclear Power Plant (Diablo Canyon). Each year we get a planning calendar with designated evacuation routes and zones. There's also a handy tear off tab to pick up emergency Iodine tablets for radiation exposure. Can you imagine the lines that would form in an evacuation situation if even a fraction of the evacuation zone needed a charge? Plus, there would already be enormous strain on the grid with the plan potentially down. The same considerations apply to areas affected by hurricane evacuations, wildfire danger, ice storms, etc. The infrastructure just doesn't exist to support a mass adoption of purely electric vehicles in my opinion. Regulations that push 100 percent electric vehicles to the exclusion of plug-in hybrids ignore these scenarios at their own peril. The nightmare scenes of post-apocalyptic films showing cars jammed near the entrance or exit to a tunnel could play out instead anywhere there is a charging network. News reports recorded just such an event in the midwest this past winter when an incredible cold snap affected battery capacity and rate of charge.
Another scenario I considered when we went electric/hybrid was California's push to move away from combustion engines altogether. While I applaud the intention, I don't think the technology is where it needs to be for full execution. Our grid draws all it can produce right now, to the point where extreme temperatures and weather can result in rolling brownouts. I have not personally been affected yet, but it's a possibility as the regulations push more electric vehicles into garages. The only way you can "directly" power your home in California if you have a solar system, is if you also have a battery storage system. So we added that. Now I can power the essentials in my home with the energy I pull off my roof. I think it's ridiculous that I had to add a battery to do that, but such is life. I do hope eventually hydrogen cell technology will progress and the vision for a more sustainable fleet of electric vehicles will be realized, but I don't think we are there yet.
So there you go, everything you never asked to know about how my family became unintentionally electric (or hybrid really). Got questions? Find an expert. Got funny stories or jokes? Share with me. Seriously though, hit me up if you want to know anymore about my family's experience.
/// Late Breaking ///
After putting this post together I ran into my first major maintenance with two of the cars (the Ioniq & i3). Oddly enough I learned that accessory power (lights, electronics, etc.) is provided by a separate 12-volt battery for each of the vehicles. The power to the drive train is provided (and retained) by a separate battery. In both cases, I couldn't do what I'd always done with my vehicles...just purchase another battery. The batteries were specialized (not sold at parts stores or Wal-mart) and not readily or easily accessible. What would probably run me between $100-$200 (depending on battery) to do myself cost closer to $500 in each case. It also dawned on me that what would normally tip me to a low or dying battery was no longer available. How do you normally know your battery is dying? If they don't catch it at routine maintenance, it's normally the familiar sound of a struggling starter followed by the clicking sound indicating you are done. :-) With hybrids they normally start and remain in the fully electric mode at low speeds. Therefore you might not hear a struggling starter as the charge required to shift an electronic transmission is a much lower threshold to clear. Just another bit to pass along. If you do a good bit of maintenance on your own vehicles (I don't) then you might want to explore what that looks like before diving in!
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