Portland EV market

Investment Analysis Clubs Macro Economic Trends and Risks
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I just walked back and forth to the mailbox and noticed that one neighbor has a brand new Tesla Model Y Dual Motor and other traded in a 3 or 4 year old Toyota RAV4 hybrid for a new RAV4 PRIME plug-in hybrid. I suspect the Toyota is the more expensive of the two.

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Model Y long range RWD $44,990

RAV4 Prime $43,690

The Toy is before any options, so it won’t take much to go over the Tesla’s price. Then again, you can add some options to the Tesla, too.

So bottom line, they’re very close in price.

On the other hand, as soon as you need some parts to fix a fender bender, the Toy will probably be back in the road before Tesla can supply the necessary parts. That turns into a significant savings in rental car costs should you ever have that need.

—Peter

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I was looking into getting an RAV4 PRIME during COVID, but I refused to pay more than MSRP and abandoned the idea. At the time it was very hard to find a base model without options. Everything had at least $2,000 to $3000 of Factory installed options along with the bogus stuff the dealer adds.

Now I’m hoping to get a 2 or 3 year old Model Y dual motor below the $25,000 limit for the $4,000 tax credit. I’ve got until year end 2025 to do that. Once I turn 70 in 2026 and start taking Social Security I will no longer be able to make my income low enough to qualify for the tax credit.

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I noticed that my neighbor with the new Tesla Model Y is charging it with a 120V power cord. Book says a full charge takes 2 days, 9-1/2 hours to reach 100%.

Maybe she’s waiting on an electrician to upgrade the wiring in the garage?

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How much does she drive?

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I don’t know. But say 12 hours of charging at 120v only adds about 60 miles of range, and 30 minutes at the free 120v charger at Walgreens a few miles away might give you enough juice to make it back home.

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That free charger at Walgreens is almost surely 208 V, the typical commercial voltage in the USA. And the vast majority of those free chargers typically charge at 6-8kW depending on model. There are some very old charger models that split the 6kW two ways when 2 vehicles are charging, so you only get 3kW, but those are quite rare nowadays.

I have heard from some people who charge exclusively at 120V (typical home voltage in USA) and say it is sufficient for their driving habits. Very rarely will your EV have to charge from near zero to 100%. And that’s for a variety of reasons:

  1. It is generally unhealthy for the batteries to remain at/near zero.
  2. It is generally unhealthy for the batteries to remain to 100% for long (except the newer LIPo batteries, those should be charged to 100% once a week).
  3. Driving habits rarely consumes the entire battery for people like this. Usually short distances for errands, etc. So more typically battery is at 75-80% when leaving home, drive 10-30 miles, arrive home at 65%, plug in, leave home again at 70%, pick something up from store, arrive home at 60%, plug in overnight. Even 120V at 12A (max out of a 15A circuit) will give you 15kWh over 10 hours. So you wake up at 75-80% again.

That said, I always recommend putting in a 240V (two phase typical home voltage in USA) outlet (either NEMA 6/50 or NEMA 14/50) or a 240V built-in charger for people with EVs.

Oh, and the deals on a new model Y are crazy good now. I just spoke to a guy I know who bought his third model Y a few days ago … this time he got the cheaper model, a long range RWD model for $42.9k (apparently discounted a bit) minus $7500 tax credit (at point of sale he said) plus tax, and they financed it for 0.99% over 5 years! Even if you normally pay cash, may as well put the cash into a treasury bill at 4.5% and pay the 0.99% interest instead. His main model Y is a performance model, but he doesn’t do any performance driving, so … he admits he doesn’t really need that model. But now his wife and daughter each have one.

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