edatoakrun said:
GRA said:
... AWD is nice, and on a BEV more rather than less efficient, but if I didn't travel to the mountains in winter regularly I sure as hell wouldn't have it...
Which
might reflect a rational decision-making process,
for an ICEV driver, like you...
But as a BEV driver, AWD makes a lot more sense to me, as the costs are so much lower, and the benefits so much higher, than was the case when I regularly drove 2WD ICEVs.
There is also that pesky reality that a large fraction of the ICEV drivers today
irrationally choose to buy AWD ICEVs, even though they benefit only slightly or not at all, never driving them off-pavement or within sight of snow, though they suffer as you do from the much higher costs and lower efficiency.
Sure, people who have no need of AWD/4WD or high clearance SUVs buy them - I have a friend with a 4Runner who's gone into 4WD precisely once in the 16 years he's owned it, to get out of a muddy parking lot. He's also got steel brushgards front and rear, adding all their extra weight and inertia, despite the fact that the only time he's ever driven it on a wide, graded dirt road (not a jeep road) is on a trip with me. He thinks they look cool. I'm trying to convince him/his wife that a (big battery) Model 3 would be an excellent replacement for her 2003 330i when the time comes, as she often makes the 190 mile drive from the Bay Area to Lemoore via I-580/5 to visit relatives (enroute SCs currently in Dublin, Santa Nella and Harris Ranch), and they take relatively few other long road trips.
Getting him to give up something like a 4Runner may be a lot harder, but I'm working on him :lol: Pointing out that he'd probably spent about $42k on gas for his 4Runner since he's owned it helped, and he does seem fairly receptive to adding solar. Note that neither of them are green, so economic, energy security or emotional reasons have to be convincing to get them to change.
Still, he can afford to waste that kind of cash if it makes him happy, but a large portion of the population will always have to make decisions based on value for the money, and given the choice between AWD and say (an effective and reasonably safe) A/P, many people will opt for the latter. Or do without both, because they don't meet the value equation for them, or they simply can't afford it. Given the choice between AWD & A/P or the bigger battery, I know which option provides the greater value for me, if I were willing and able to afford either. Maybe I'm unusually rational in my car buying, but somehow I doubt that.
Now, if you offer me AWD for say $1,500 to $2k, which IIRR was the price difference between the 2WD and 4WD versions of my '88 Subaru, the calculation may well change. That extra cost plus the slightly higher fuel costs (IIRR 4WD instead of 2WD reduced the mpg by two) and insurance costs were worth it to me for the convenience, and certainly would be given the additional efficiency advantages for a BEV, if I didn't have to do without some other desirable option in exchange. I also saved a little money through not wrecking chains and tires while driving around on dry pavement when chain controls were up. For example, there's a dip on I-80 somewhere between Yuba Gap and Norden/Donner Summit, where under the wrong conditions there's snow at each end but it's dry for 5-10 miles or so in between, giving you the choice of installing and removing your chains twice in each direction, or just leaving them on with the inevitable excessive wear on them and your tires. In Yosemite Valley, they'll sometimes have controls up for the entire Valley loop road, even when there are only two small (ca. 100 yd. each) patches of snow in the entire 14 miles, both easily negotiable without chains by any sentient driver. Sadly, the Park Service apparently believes (probably on good evidence) that there are more than a few non-sentient drivers out there, so the rest of us get penalized. Having 4WD/AWD has also probably saved me a fair amount of money for dental work, through not grinding my teeth while I destroy my chains and tires driving around there
