All-electric households?

[Cobra427]

The other day, my wife mentioned that she was glad we bought a 2021 F-150 PowerBoost instead of trying to get a Lightning, because when we get our MME, having a Lightning would make us all-electric, which she considers risky. We are Midwest dwellers, in a rural area, with scarce charging available. Now we plan to charge exclusively at home, but not having an ICE vehicle would make her uneasy. Hmmm.

So are there any all-electric households out there in the rural midwest? Not counting you coastal people who have chargers on every corner. Personally, I would be OK with it, despite being a lifelong gearhead and mechanical engineer. Not worried about electrical service and rates, because ours is cheap and reliable. How about you?

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[RickMachE]

We adopted being more ecologically friendly long ago. My wife's undergraduate degree is in natural resources, and she's always been focused on it. When we were first married, recycling didn't exist, but we found a program where you drove to a mall parking lot and recycled until the dumpster was full.

We bought a hybrid in 2009, a PHEV in 2018, and the Mach-E this year. We have a reservation on a Lightning. When we discussed POSSIBLY going all EV, my wife came out strongly against it. So happened we had a several day power outage recently, and she said she never wanted to be all EV. She's fine going EV and PHEV, but points out that in a long term power outage, you can't charge. My rebuttal was that you also can't get gas, because gas stations need electricity to pump gas.

Given that I didn't reserve the Lightning until 11 1/2 hours in, I suspect I'm in the 2023 pool, so we won't have to discuss this again for a while. And, if we successfully relocate to retire, I hope to have adequate garage space for 3 vehicles, and keeping our 2013 F-150 is likely, along with 2 other vehicles.

But I was surprised that she pushed back so strongly. I think part of that is the realization that a long trip with an EV requires planning, and that it adds 30% time to the trip. We have an upcoming trip where we'll have a 600 mile leg, followed a few days later with a 650 mile leg, and then a week later with a two day 1,200 mile leg. Combined with local driving, it will total probably close to 3,000 miles. When you add in cold weather dropping range and requiring more stops, taking the F-150 with its 36 gallon tank is much more sensible.

So I don't expect we will be all electric until range increases along with charging infrastructure, and that's years away.

 

[generaltso]

I love driving electric, but my wife has no interest in the planning required for road trips in an EV. I think we've found a good compromise with my MME and her RAV4 Prime. We've had the RAV4 for 3 months and 2000 miles (including a 350 mile road trip) and still have never put gas in it, so it's working out pretty well so far.

 

[Bill S]

We are not yet an all-electric household but will be with delivery of our 2022 MME. We have had our Tesla M3 for 3 years without any issues and have thoroughly enjoyed it since we charge primarily at home level 2. So, my concerns arise when I consider what happens when we arrive at vacation destinations. I realize that I must rely on reasonable access to DCFC points and thus, the location of our vacation stays will be driven by that. Or I'll rent an ICE.

 

[Davedough]

My wife is all excited for me to go electric but she hasn’t bought in to it fully yet. The infrastructure is not yet mature enough for her to adopt it. She also doesn’t see the value in the seemingly inflated costs of buying an EV since all the “good” ones start near 50k (don’t remind her she drives a 65k Explorer ST)

 

[TheVirtualTim]

My '09 Escape Hybrid is starting to show it's age and I'd like to replace it with a PHEV. I wish the Maverick were available in PHEV ... or even a Transit Connect. We need something to haul my telescopes (big crates) and bikes. Part of the desire for a PHEV over a full EV is that astronomy destinations (dark sky areas) are rural and wont have 240v power available for Level 2 charging. So we'd be stuck with Level 1 at best. But with a PHEV that wouldn't matter.

 

[Carsinmyblood]

Our house is all electric. Both of our MMEs are electric.

My old British roadsters appropriately run on old fossils.

 

[alexgorod]

We are not all-electric, but at least have a battery-powered lawn mower, so MME has a little friend in the garage

 

[Stang68]

We have my Mach E and a Palisade for the actual family hauling and even when that lease is up in 2 years I don't know if we'll go full electric yet. A Rivian R1S or Hyundai EV would be nice but I just don't think things will be that much better by then.
Sure, there's a good number of chargers here on the east coast, but it's still the speed at which we can charge that bothers me (and the unreliability). We took a road trip this summer and if we took the Mustang it would have been an extra four hours. With kids, waiting around that long isn't a great option.
Maybe we'll be a full electric family in 5 years time.

 

[Maquis]

We need a 7 seat SUV, so currently we are looking at PHEV. XC90 Recharge is about the only option right now.

That will fit nicely in between the MME and future Lightning.

A PHEV may be your best option tight now. By the time it needs to be replaced, things should look drastically different, infrastructure-wise.

 

[dtbaker61]

The other day, my wife mentioned that she was glad we bought a 2021 F-150 PowerBoost instead of trying to get a Lightning, because when we get our MME, having a Lightning would make us all-electric, which she considers risky. We are Midwest dwellers, in a rural area, with scarce charging available. Now we plan to charge exclusively at home, but not having an ICE vehicle would make her uneasy. Hmmm.

So are there any all-electric households out there in the rural midwest? Not counting you coastal people who have chargers on every corner. Personally, I would be OK with it, despite being a lifelong gearhead and mechanical engineer. Not worried about electrical service and rates, because ours is cheap and reliable. How about you?

You might point out that having the Lightning would provide HOUSE backup in case of outage.

You might also get on Plugshare.com and look to see what the availability of charging infrastructure is along your 'usual' travel routes. It might add to the time of a road trip, but there are probably more stations out there already than you may think.

 

[pt19713]

We're a two BEV household. Wife wasn't keen on the idea of not having a gas car, but that concern has been eliminated now that we've done multiple drives and I do all the planning. Her bladder can't outlast the battery any way, so we're stopping more frequently any way lol.

When I worked from home last winter, she drove my car and that changed her mind. Being able to warm the vehicle remotely and getting in a car that's already 70F, along with not having the go get gas during cold winter months, is what changed her mind into wanting her own BEV.

 

[dtbaker61]

We are not yet an all-electric household but will be with delivery of our 2022 MME. We have had our Tesla M3 for 3 years without any issues and have thoroughly enjoyed it since we charge primarily at home level 2. So, my concerns arise when I consider what happens when we arrive at vacation destinations. I realize that I must rely on reasonable access to DCFC points and thus, the location of our vacation stays will be driven by that. Or I'll rent an ICE.

more and more vacation rentals, B&Bs, and certainly Hotels... have lvl2 chargers available for overnight guests. I've installed a bunch of NEMA 14-50 outlets over the last year or two as people with investment properties to rent are advertising 'amenities' in their air B&B listings

 

[RickMachE]

You might point out that having the Lightning would provide HOUSE backup in case of outage.

You might also get on Plugshare.com and look to see what the availability of charging infrastructure is along your 'usual' travel routes. It might add to the time of a road trip, but there are probably more stations out there already than you may think.

The house backup is going to cost a pretty penny with modifications to the house.

As to the charging infrastructure, yes, there's that. However, charging on a long trip adds about 30% time based on my experience, when you include getting on and off the highway.

 

[bellyer]

Have to admit that I thought you meant "all-electric households" like completely electric house and car (no natural gas/propane for the house). That is actually a goal of mine that will be achieved whenever our 35-year-old boiler calls it quits. I know that you asked about rural households, but want to offer some perspective. We do live in the city of Chicago, where there is ample charging at home and out and about. Our house is nearly completely electric here in the city of Chicago, aside from our boiler, and have rooftop solar providing for about 20% of our electricity now, but should be close to 100% after we put panels on our garage after rebuilding it this coming summer. We are a single car household and have been for over 10 years and our only car happens to be our Mach-E. My wife does take public transportation to work (city bus and the L-train), which alleviates our need for a second car. But, I know you were not asking about the house itself, so, here is where I can offer the rural POV...

We also own a vacation house in rural Door County, Wisconsin, which is a completely electric house with a L2 charger installed there. I will admit that the range in the winter has us a little concerned for getting to/from our vacation home because once we are north of Milwaukee, there are no more DC Fast Chargers and the distance between Milwaukee and our vacation house is 179 miles, which may prove iffy with heat running in the car. There are some L2 chargers scattered around up there, but at times when we drive to the house and are "running on fumes" charge-wise, if we need to run back out to a store or restaurant shortly after getting there, waiting on the L2 charger at the house for a couple of hours to get us the range we need to get to the store can be a bit annoying, but we have gotten used to planning ahead for the most part. Making sure to plan your trips to incorporate charging when possible has been key to making sure that we don't end up stranded somewhere and also making sure to keep some food in the car and other necessities when out and about is important to give you some peace of mind. The planning can be annoying, but it isn't too bad and actually opens my eyes to some parts of towns and restaurants and such that I might not otherwise find my way to, if not for needing to go out of my way to get a charge sometimes.

I think the real test of my (and my wife's) patience with only having the MME is going to be the planned trips for my son's travel baseball schedule starting in March. The team will be driving all over the midwest for games, including a couple at very rural locations and the lodging and tournament venues do not have charging immediately accessible, so planning for charging stops between games. I've already started my planning for his first trip in March. Definitely much more work than with an ICE vehicle, but so far, I can't complain too much.

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