As everyone knows for my repeating it too often, I'm 77+ years old, and I worry when I discover I can't remember something -- like the name of the local restaurant (Chipotle), or Eric Hoffer's name -- the self-educated Longshoreman who wrote "True Believer."
23 years ago, there was something like a four-page op-ed in LA Times reporting and discussing the melting of the Arctic ice-cap, and a new interest in finding a "Northwest Passage" for easy travel between China and Europe. This was just about two years after Al Gore first sounded the alarm, prompting all the deniers to dismiss him.
And also 23 years ago, I purchased my 2nd Isuzu Trooper -- a 1995 LS model with 95,000 on the odometer. I very quickly came to the conclusion that we had to stop pumping CO2 into the atmosphere. But there weren't any cars propelled by means other than fossil fuel.
I had retired completely 25 years ago, with a fixed income annuity that limited my choices to a degree which I could master and manage. The Trooper, by the way, was the first and only luxury vehicle I ever owned. I was very quickly spoiled by it. Today I always feel grateful for the comfort of the bucket seats.
So I treated the vehicle issue as a simple business capital budgeting exercise, attempting to maximize the use-value return on the vehicle at minimum expense, but also with an eye toward breaking away from fossil fuels.
For this, I patiently maintained, repaired, replaced parts or subsystems and restored the Trooper, all the time waiting for a break-away technology free of fossil fuels. But that moment hasn't come. As to the matter of affordability, I finally just came to the conclusion that with two family members recently deceased and with my surviving brother in the queue to inherit my house and investment nest-egg, with no children or grandchildren -- there was no need for a life insurance policy for which I'd been paying premiums since 1990. The cash-out on this policy will afford me about 60% of a new or recent-model pre-owned vehicle -- like a PHEV RAV4 Prime or a PHEV Prius.
But it just doesn't seem like enough. As for the EVs, a Ford Mustang Mach-E will go 250 miles on a charge -- initially -- but this range deteriorates and the batteries age. It may be that there's some EV that will give you 350 miles on a charge, but they won't get me from here to Reno without stopping to recharge the vehicle and wait for some unfortunate length of time. Maybe, with the proper infrastructure and charging stations along the highway, one might feel more confident buying an EV. I'll look into that further.
But I've almost concluded that it's not worth it until they can give you 750 miles on a charge, without risk of the battery catching fire, and with battery replacement needed only after about ten years.
Has that time come? Any intelligence you care to offer on that? I see Consumer Reports or AARP is still pushing gas-powered vehicles that don't strain the senior citizen budget.
But -- senior citizen budget notwithstanding -- you can see by my story that I've been waiting a long, long time. With the decision about the insurance policy, I might spring for a PHEV even if it just represents a transient technological phase that isn't quite such bargain as opposed to waiting longer.
23 years ago, there was something like a four-page op-ed in LA Times reporting and discussing the melting of the Arctic ice-cap, and a new interest in finding a "Northwest Passage" for easy travel between China and Europe. This was just about two years after Al Gore first sounded the alarm, prompting all the deniers to dismiss him.
And also 23 years ago, I purchased my 2nd Isuzu Trooper -- a 1995 LS model with 95,000 on the odometer. I very quickly came to the conclusion that we had to stop pumping CO2 into the atmosphere. But there weren't any cars propelled by means other than fossil fuel.
I had retired completely 25 years ago, with a fixed income annuity that limited my choices to a degree which I could master and manage. The Trooper, by the way, was the first and only luxury vehicle I ever owned. I was very quickly spoiled by it. Today I always feel grateful for the comfort of the bucket seats.
So I treated the vehicle issue as a simple business capital budgeting exercise, attempting to maximize the use-value return on the vehicle at minimum expense, but also with an eye toward breaking away from fossil fuels.
For this, I patiently maintained, repaired, replaced parts or subsystems and restored the Trooper, all the time waiting for a break-away technology free of fossil fuels. But that moment hasn't come. As to the matter of affordability, I finally just came to the conclusion that with two family members recently deceased and with my surviving brother in the queue to inherit my house and investment nest-egg, with no children or grandchildren -- there was no need for a life insurance policy for which I'd been paying premiums since 1990. The cash-out on this policy will afford me about 60% of a new or recent-model pre-owned vehicle -- like a PHEV RAV4 Prime or a PHEV Prius.
But it just doesn't seem like enough. As for the EVs, a Ford Mustang Mach-E will go 250 miles on a charge -- initially -- but this range deteriorates and the batteries age. It may be that there's some EV that will give you 350 miles on a charge, but they won't get me from here to Reno without stopping to recharge the vehicle and wait for some unfortunate length of time. Maybe, with the proper infrastructure and charging stations along the highway, one might feel more confident buying an EV. I'll look into that further.
But I've almost concluded that it's not worth it until they can give you 750 miles on a charge, without risk of the battery catching fire, and with battery replacement needed only after about ten years.
Has that time come? Any intelligence you care to offer on that? I see Consumer Reports or AARP is still pushing gas-powered vehicles that don't strain the senior citizen budget.
But -- senior citizen budget notwithstanding -- you can see by my story that I've been waiting a long, long time. With the decision about the insurance policy, I might spring for a PHEV even if it just represents a transient technological phase that isn't quite such bargain as opposed to waiting longer.