I tend to agree with Wentwest in that it could be very useful in a city, since the range is apparently low. I would hope it is more reliable than my (puirchased new) 1970 Fiat 124 Spider that had multiple mechanical and electrical problems. As Wentwest suggested, I used to carry spare belts, spark plugs and points as well as a bunch of tools AND the factory shop manual. I needed them all!
I purchased a similar-vintage used Fiat 124 Spider soft top many years ago, but only owned it two days. Owner changed mind, wanted it back, so I returned it. In my my two-day ownership I definitely got the sense it wasnāt a super- robust design, but was fun to drive.
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I had mine for 2 1/2 yearsn not two days!. You were kind to give it back! It was fun to drive, but the mechanical issues tempered the enjoyment.
On the one hand, youāre a good man because you let the previous owner have the car back
But you probably also dodged a bullet . . . while it may have been fun, you probably would have been repairing it 52 weeks out of the year 
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You are willing to drive a 40 mile round trip to charge your electric car? Not me. I live in an assisted living facility and it is less that 100 feet from our parking lot to the nearest gas pumps.
How long does it take to charge your car and do you ever have to wait for a charging station?
They are going to build a new building less than a block away with offices and retail shops and offices on the first floor and 30 apartments above. There are plans for ONE charging station. I would not consider an electric car there either.
Then the planning board for your town should be taken to task. A storage facility is being erected a few miles from my house, and its approval was contingent upon the inclusion of a Level 2 Charging Station. A small apartment development on the other side of town will be constructedāas long as the required 10 charging stations are built by the developer.
The Tesla super chargers cost a lot less than the high voltage charger closest to me. I havenāt done the math to see if the extra distance is cheaper despite the trip. I use one of the super chargers about 20 miles away because I can get food while I wait. The closest one is on a Walmart parking lot and there isnāt any food close by. I havenāt decided whether itās worth it to install a home charger yet. My basement is finished and running a dedicated 220VAC line to the opposite side of the house is expensive. I had estimates about 3 years ago and it was about $2000 including the interface. It takes about 30 minutes at Tesla and 45 minutes at the other chargers for a full charge. Cost is per kW so time isnāt a big concern.
I might install a home charger in the future, but at this point I am satisfied with simply using a regular 120v outlet in my garage to recharge my plug-in hybrid. Yes, it takes ~10 hours to recharge, but once Iām home for the day, Iām not going out again until the following day, so that 10 hour interval meets my needs.
I have a 50 kW battery and it takes too long to charge with a 120V line. Maybe I could top off overnight with it and occasionally do a full recharge. Tesla says my LFP battery should be kept full and fully recharged once a week, which I translate to just fully recharging only since I donāt put on a lot of miles.
Yes, I understand that situation. My battery is only 18.1 kW, so a 10 hour charge in my home garage is fine for my needsā¦ so far.
I am curious about whether your range increased after a few months. The mfr claims a 37 mile range for my plug-in hybrid, butājust as other owners statedāthat range began to slowly increase over the space of a few months. At this point, I am up to a 53 mile range, which is more than sufficient for my needs. I donāt even recharge every night if I am anticipating only short drives over the next day or two.
Iāve never gotten the full 273 miles of EPA range but it seems to be closer than it was in March (took delivery 2/28). Iām not sure if that is due to warmer temperatures or not. I always use climate control though. I think Iām losing about 15 miles per charge to overhead now and it seemed like more before. Iām only half way through my 4th month. BTW, I had a lead foot during the first month and I backed off since. That probably has a lot to do with range too.
Co-worker and her dad upgraded to the new a pair of new Kia Niro EVās, trading in theirās with 24K after 3yrs for the dadās and 2,500mi in one year for my co-worker. With the optional cold pack including a battery heater they were getting the rated range or better year round.
At the time Kia was offering 10K lease cash but it looks like now itās $5,000 olus $2,500 trade assistance. With the equity from trading in the old Niroās to the dealership the lease payment ended up being lower than the previous cars.
I think the Fiat 500e might be one of those unreliable cars that is ONLY suitable for leasing
It should literally be crushed for the scrap metal value at the end of the leasing period
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If a simple version was available, might be ok. No A/C, roll -up windows, am/fm radio instead of complicated info-tainment package, no dashboard display screens, just a simplified instrument panel. But I doubt such a configuration is, or will ever be, available. Sometimes it is difficult to understand corporate decision making. There used to be an AM radio station in this area, very popular news-talk format, that consistently placed among the top three in the ratings. The corporate types decided to change it to a sports betting format ā¦ lol ā¦ as you might expect, it is now rated near the bottom of the 40+ Bay Area radio stations.
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A coworker who works in the office drives a Fiat 500e. Iāve seen it in the parking lot for several years, too old to be a lease.
A technician had a 500e a few years ago when he worked farther from home, now he drives a 500 Abarth.
These cars arenāt big on profit, they keep the Corporate Average Fuel Economy in balance so more V-8 powered vehicles could be sold.
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I have a battery heater as standard equipment and I could get better range if I used it, but using it decreases range. Since I charge at a commercial charger, i figure using battery prep is about the same as the lost range by not using it.
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peop;e in the Buffalo area are not generally early adapters. Not many people around here want to take the chance of getting stuck in a blizzard in an electric car.
Can anyone explain why the government is subsidizing $80,000 EVās?
Absolutely ridiculous.
I know the argument against āsubsidiesā, but if you want to āsave the planet from climate changeā, why in the Haiti subsidies for $80,000 EVās!
The subsidy should be for low cost EVās the masses can afford. A $10,000 subsidy on a $25K EV and there would be a 5 year waiting listā¦lol!
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There is a subsidy for lower cost EV cars that tops out at $55,000. For instance, all Model 3 Teslas qualify as long as the options list doesnāt have the MSRP too high. For the M3 performance and long range models, you could only change colors or wheels and could not get self-driving without exceeding $55,000. The higher limit is for SUVs and light trucks that typically have significantly higher starting MSRPs, even for ICE versions. The limit for trucks and SUVs had been much lower but there were so many complaints that it was increased. And just to get more excited, a married couple qualifies up to a combined income of $300,000. I posted a link on 6/11 in this thread that explains it fully.
Thatās truly absurd!
Haiti has so many problemsāincluding one of the worst levels of poverty in the entire worldāthat such an impoverished nation shouldnāt be enacting policies such as that.
Why in Hades would a nation like Haiti have such a policy?
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