2017 Last year for gas smart car in USA and Canada.

[John___Angela]

For those of you toading smart cars, 2017 is the last year for the gas version in the US and Canada. Mercedes will concentrate all their efforts on the Electric and expand its role as a gateway for the upcoming line of Mercedes electrics. It will continue to be promoted as an urban tranporter and will remain available in both the coupe and cabriolet. For at least the next couple years the gasser will be available in europe but the writing is on the wall there as well as gas units continue to drop in sales. Soooooo, if a smart gas toad is in your future there will probably be some good deals in the works.

The new 453 Electric coupe and Cabriolet smart car should be widely available throughout the USA and Canada by early summer BUT...you need to dolly it or trailer it as a toad...kinda like we do.

Cheers.

[John___Angela]

Canadian Rainbirds wrote:
J&A Why fool with a dolly or trailer? That thing is probably short enough that you could hang a couple of davits off the back of the rig. :B

Maybe even good quality Bungy cords.

[Canadian_Rainbi]

J&A Why fool with a dolly or trailer? That thing is probably short enough that you could hang a couple of davits off the back of the rig. :B

[dubdub07]

We could just burn all the oil first then move to electric......

I feel I am doing my part.

[John___Angela]

Bumpyroad wrote:
I "guess" the point is to at some time in the future have workable electric vehicles and lessen the need for mid-east oil. but I think with shale and adequate pipelines to move it around, we really don't need the mideast oil at this time.
if somebody wants to make a "statement" go ahead if it gives them a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. of course if you have an electric car in Ohio, it is in effect coal powered anyway. 🙂
bumpy

It's true bumpy re the "where you drive it depends on emmisions". But overall coal only provides a third of the power in the US and that number decreases every year.

Re the "statement". I would say we are fairly in touch with the EV community and I think it is rare to find someone with that mindset. Really I think the majority of us drive EV's because of the much better driving experience. EV's tend to sell themselves because most who drive them can't look back. Worth taking one for a test drive. Like I say, not for everyone but worth the try.

Cheers.

[Bumpyroad]

I "guess" the point is to at some time in the future have workable electric vehicles and lessen the need for mid-east oil. but I think with shale and adequate pipelines to move it around, we really don't need the mideast oil at this time.
if somebody wants to make a "statement" go ahead if it gives them a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. of course if you have an electric car in Ohio, it is in effect coal powered anyway. 🙂
bumpy

[down_home]

I have considered the Smart car. Could have gotten a gas model for 11,000.00, in 2010.
The electric does not have the range nor capacity we really want/need nor the others in capacity.
Sometimes when we park the Mh we may range several hundred miles driving antiquing, sing relatives,fishing and seeing sites. We have even left the RV and returned home to take care of something.
The diesel version, I didn't try. They are good very small cars but don't relish the idea of driving in traffic with semi's all around.
The cost of the all electric is prohibitive unless you are making a electric enviro statement.
If I could afford a Prevosts I might have a compartment constructed to carry and charge one with lift.
What's the point?

[John___Angela]

Howdy Gotsmart.

I don't know much about the US grid but you can do some interesting reading on the BC Hydro website. In brief, if every private vehicle in BC were to magically switch to electric tomorrow the grid demand would go up 19 percent. The extra capacity of the grid is currently 30 percent and growing. The average house hold with an electric vehicle uses extra power equivalent of an electric water heater in an annualized sceenario.

On a personal note, when bought our first EV a couple years ago we got serious about analyzing our house for power use. We changed all the lights to LED, different thermostat, upgraded the fridge etc. End result was our power bill is lower now than before our EV purchase. We are now an all EV family. It will be interesting to see the power bill in a year.

Cheers.

[gotsmart]

The entirety of the national electricity grid in the USA needs to be upgraded to cope with the possibility of every ICE vehicle being replaced with an electric vehicle.

The U.S. can't even get the utility companies to upgrade their system software applications to increase security against hacking. If they can't be bothered to upgrade 40+ year old software systems I don't see them increasing their generation capacity to handle 500,000 to 20,000,000 electric vehicles per utility. Not without an act of Congress.

IMO change-resistant companies like electric utilities will do "the path of least resistance" route and resort to "Supply and Demand" pricing. As more electric vehicles come online, charging station costs will increase exponentially as grid load reaches capacity.

I believe the electric vehicles in the USA will remain a niche market until the electricity industry is forced to change. I don't see that happening for decades.

[John___Angela]

You never know. But i'm not sure gas will ever make a come back. As fast as OPEC cuts the everybody else increases output. It will be an interesting decade.

[gotsmart]

Bumpyroad wrote:

gotsmart wrote:
MB will just shelve the ICE smart car designs until fuel prices rise high enough again to make them worthwhile to sell.

at what price point do electric vehicles pay off? assuming an average guess on electricity costs vs. a 25mpg car at $2.50?

bumpy

I'm not talking: price point. I'm talking economic cycles and human nature. Japan and south east Asia perfected the business model in the years after the fuel crisis of the 1970s.

As fuel prices increase, cars get smaller. As fuel prices decrease, cars get larger. Car buyers' purchase preferences also follow the same model.

Since there can be a significant difference in profit margin between an ICE car and its electric version, and
- the fact that state and federal tax credits for electric vehicles will someday go away, and
- as states and fed govt figure out how to collect road usage taxes in lieu of taxes at the gas pump
that ICE cars will never fully disappear, but will wax and wane along with the economy.
I contend that the ICE smart could very possibly reappear in the future.

[John___Angela]

Virginia area plug share screen shot. Orange sites are Fast charge, the rest are level 2 chargers.

[John___Angela]

Bumpyroad wrote:

gotsmart wrote:
MB will just shelve the ICE smart car designs until fuel prices rise high enough again to make them worthwhile to sell.

at what price point do electric vehicles pay off? assuming an average guess on electricity costs vs. a 25mpg car at $2.50?

bumpy

Good morning Bumpy. That is a very good question and I think a lot depends on what you buy, and what kind of deal you get. The best I can do is relate our experience and numbers and go from there. So although we have been driving an EV for a couple years it is a two seater and not practical for everybody so we'll use the Nissan Leaf we recently bought as it is more practical for more folks. A Nissan leaf starts around low 20 thousand dollar point and gets fancier from there depending on where you live (incentives) etc. (US Dollars) A nicely equipped one with Nav and extra goodies will be a little more. Really for the kind of vehicle it is there were no gas vehicles that we would have considered and we checked them out...including hybrids. So for us, there was no "pay out" period. However for something a little more expensive like the Bolt with longer range you would need to figure out how much you spend on fuel per year, how much the power is where you charge, how much you save on maintenance every year, (not much to do on EV's.). Now a Tesla S model is a different story. Keep in mind that people who buy Tesla model S's are buying them in lieu of high end BMW's, Audis, Mercedes etc. They don't buy them just because they are electric, they buy them because they are faster, accelerate faster, more luxurious, better built, handle better, have a better warranty etc etc. Those guys don't care about "electric pay out". Nissan is coming out with new Leaf in the next year. 220 plus miles etc. They will be a little more expensive then the existing leafs which have less range. There are also a couple other companies coming out with 200 mile EV's this year, Hyundai etc. And of course the model 3 Tesla for around 40,000 that has a 250 mile range. Although they will be in production at the end of this year they are pre sold out for the next two years so if you want of those you'll need to put your name on a list with a 1000 dollar deposit.

Before buying an electric analyse your driving habits and your routes and needs and see if it works for you. They are not for everyone. But a test drive might be fun.

I'll post a map of the existing infrastructure in your area but his is probably a little out of date and it changes almost weekly now.

[Bumpyroad]

gotsmart wrote:
MB will just shelve the ICE smart car designs until fuel prices rise high enough again to make them worthwhile to sell.

at what price point do electric vehicles pay off? assuming an average guess on electricity costs vs. a 25mpg car at $2.50?

bumpy

[gotsmart]

MB will just shelve the ICE smart car designs until fuel prices rise high enough again to make them worthwhile to sell.