So since we're back to BEVs...
The Rivien plant is right up (25 mi.) the road on the west side of Normal, IL The local job market has been really, really strong since Rivien bought and began retrofitting the plant from the Mitsubishi days. Once they began hiring, everybody without a toehold on the economic ladder had no excuse - $30/hr and benefits just to walk in the door and sign up. I'm in hot and heavy love with Rivien and what they've done for the local economy.
Accordingly, we're littered with them on the roads. My buddy Bob Garrett texted me one day at about noon that he'd seen his first one in the Panhandle of Florida. I'd seen at least 4 on the drive between Morton and Normal where I was working.
We've got a lot of Teslas as well - Model 3s mostly, but plenty of Ss (as status symbols), so I'd say that even though we're in Flyover, USA - we've got a pretty fair representation of BEVs.
I've got zero beef with people commuting with them and liking them as a machine. It works for some people (mostly those who work from home or have a fixed commute and are using the vehicle as a second or third car). It would work fabulously if I were Mike Pickett on Maui and I had an ICE Speedster for fun.
My beef is that I use more than half the vehicles I own and feed as mules. I own, maintain, and operate 3 work trucks currently (although we're looking for number 4). I moved from full-sized Ram Promasters to much smaller Ford Transit Connects last year. We're driving these trucks between 100 and 300 miles on an average day, but we're always on call. One day two weeks ago, I drove about 250 miles, went home, went to bed, and had an emergency call that took me 50 miles away. I returned home at 5:00 AM, got a couple of hours of sleep and was back in the truck at 9. The next day was another 200 mi. That's 550 mi. pretty much all strung together, without sufficient time to recharge anything at home between the beginning of day 1 and the end of day 2.
It just won't work for me, which is no problem.
... except that Ford will no longer make the Transit Connect after the ‘23 model year, and Ford shut off ordering in March of this year. No problem, we'll buy a Mercedes Metris. Ditto that. Ram Promaster City? Also dead after '23. Nissan NV200? NLA.
I can buy a F150 Lightning for $100k, but it won't do the job I have for it. My '18 F150 Ecoboost is the tow vehicle, and both the Rivien and the Lightning have a less than 100 mi real-world tow range. Nobody tows for less than 50 miles out and 50 miles back.
I was promised (by the usual apologists) that I'd be able to buy an ICE for as long as I wanted. I still want to but I can't. I've been reduced to trolling FB Marketplace looking at 8 year old Transit Connects with 100 k mi. to buy for about what I paid for a new one in '15. They know what they have and what I can't get.
As far as a sportscar? Maybe the future Porsches will change my mind, but C&D didn't include any BEVs in their Lightning Lap annual lap-time shootout again this year because no BEV could do a whole lap at Virginia International Raceway without cutting power. Street stuff? I'll have to see somebody flinging their BEV through the twisities all day at the TdS before I'll believe. Travel? In '19 Joe Fortino and I did the run from the west Suburbs in Chicago to Carlisle in one shot. That's about 10-1/2 hrs and 700 mi +/-. I'm not seeing that being an option with the MG e-car.
I just can't get all hot and bothered about the latest BEV supercar or minicar or what have you. Other people can - and that's cool for them. They're free to do whatever they want.
We're leaving for a family reunion in Branson, MO in the morning. It's going to be hot (as it is in July in the Midwest), which would reduce the range of a BEV to well under the total one-way for the trip. We're hauling food and fun for 4 days, as well as a couple of grandsons in the limo (to keep miles off the minivan I won't be able to replace after a couple of years from now). I'd welcome a chance to drive a more economical ICE car, but everybody (besides Toyota) stopped putting any effort at all into developing anything further and their plants are being dedicated for the BEVs that aren't exactly flying out the front door.
BEVs are fine. They're not for me.
